Page 1 of 1

Hand Jigging for Lake Trout

Posted: Sun Jun 03, 2012 8:42 pm
by Nasty Bass
I use downriggers for lakers but I heard and seen many boats hand jigging and doing extremely well. Can anyone tell me how they do this? Are they dragging spoons on bottom or using some sort of other lure? I've heard of some boats jigging over 50 lakers in 1 day. Anyone willing to give up their secret?

Re: Hand Jigging for Lake Trout

Posted: Sun Jun 03, 2012 9:28 pm
by VTgooseman
Aww you must be talking about "Yankers" or thats what I have heard them called. From what Ive seen guys use big spoons, tube jigs or bucktails and yank the bottom.

Re: Hand Jigging for Lake Trout

Posted: Mon Jun 04, 2012 8:05 am
by drachma
My family use to do this when I was a kid. Had a stout rod and a Penn 114 loaded with 100 yds of leadcore and then momo leader. Spoon was a Pfleuger Record Spoon. (Marshall Faye over in Nebraska Valley in Stowe bought the patent and made them for a while. D.K. if he still does.) Use to troll just fast enough to give the spoon a good wobble (didn't have depth finder or speed indicator back then) and sometimes tipped them with a piece of smelt fillet or sucker. Let out line until it "ticked" the bottom and then just toojk the line in hand and jerked as you slow trolled. If we lost contact with the bottom, we just let out more line. It was quite the chore to reel inall that leadcore before the advent of downriggers.

Hoped that helped.

Michael

Re: Hand Jigging for Lake Trout

Posted: Tue Jun 05, 2012 6:18 am
by SoggyBottomBoy
If the boat is not moving at all then they are just plain jigging. I have a friend that catches 50 fish a day over in Lake Seneca jigging up lake trout, browns and even the occassional salmon. He usually uses a large silver spoon and drops in to the bottom and then starts reeling it up while watching the fishfinder. If he get a fish to chase the lure then he changes speed until he entices the fish to bite.
Here is a video of guys jigging browns

http://www.lakeontariounited.com/fishin ... 35&t=26898

Re: Hand Jigging for Lake Trout

Posted: Tue Jun 05, 2012 11:44 am
by Gecha (Gerry)
That's an interesting video.
I have not seen many people jigging for lake trout in Champlain.

Re: Hand Jigging for Lake Trout

Posted: Tue Jun 05, 2012 5:40 pm
by JabberJaws
drachma wrote:My family use to do this when I was a kid. Had a stout rod and a Penn 114 loaded with 100 yds of leadcore and then momo leader. Spoon was a Pfleuger Record Spoon. (Marshall Faye over in Nebraska Valley in Stowe bought the patent and made them for a while. D.K. if he still does.) Use to troll just fast enough to give the spoon a good wobble (didn't have depth finder or speed indicator back then) and sometimes tipped them with a piece of smelt fillet or sucker. Let out line until it "ticked" the bottom and then just toojk the line in hand and jerked as you slow trolled. If we lost contact with the bottom, we just let out more line. It was quite the chore to reel inall that leadcore before the advent of downriggers.

Hoped that helped.

Michael

I used to work at Traps with Marshall Faye he has caught some monsters on those spoons. He isn't currently making them but I talked him into parting with some of what he had left a few years ago and still have some of each on the shelf. Ramel

Re: Hand Jigging for Lake Trout

Posted: Tue Jun 05, 2012 5:55 pm
by raz
Great video Soggy. I could get into that.

Re: Hand Jigging for Lake Trout

Posted: Thu Jun 07, 2012 8:36 pm
by Dipsey
Large Swedish Pimples should do the trick. We ice fish them on Lake George in 100 ft of water with good results. You will have to control your speed somehow if there is a breeze.

Re: Hand Jigging for Lake Trout

Posted: Fri Jun 08, 2012 4:58 am
by jusgrinnin
We use a Real Image jig on Winni sit on top of em in the fall and whack em what a blast!!!
BARRY