Fishing the
Moosehead
and Sebec Lake
Region

By Captain
Steve Lemieux

This Month:
Jigging for Maine's Lake Trout

Some people tell me that ice fishing for lake trout (togue to most Mainers) is a boring game. They get impatient just standing around waiting for a flag to go up. To those people, I would like to suggest that they give jigging a try. Jigging is a more active approach to ice fishing for togue. It’s easy to learn and it doesnt’t require much for equipment. You can probably purchase a jig stick and a couple jigging lures for the price of one good quality ice-fishing trap. Jigging will keep you occupied while you wait for the other lines to produce. Some people say that they don’t want to sacrifice one of their ice traps in order to legally use a jig line. To that I say that I wish I knew of some way to be able to jig with all of my lines. More often than not, I will catch more lake trout on my one jig stick than on all of my other lines combined.

Lets start by figuring out why jigging is a good idea. Besides the fact that it gives you something to do while waiting for flags, it will almost always put more fish on the ice for you. On my last outing for togue, my Dad and I fished Moosehead Lake for about five hours. We set nine ice traps and left one hole for jigging. Besides three brook trout, we caught nine lake trout. Seven of those lake trout were caught on that one jig stick while only two were caught on the traps.

Togue will not often go into large feeding frenzies, especially in the icy cold waters of winter. I’m sure that you’ve noticed that quite often, you will catch a few lake trout in the morning shortly after you put your traps in the water and then things slow down. This is partly due to time of day and partly due to the fact that your live bait is fresh and doing a lot of swimming when you first put it in the water. As the bait swims around, it attracts attention and will be much more likely to trigger the togue’s instinct to attack it. I’m not going to say that a moving bait is always best for lake trout because there are times and places where a dead bait, laying right on bottom, will work well. For the most part, a little movement from your bait will attract more fish.

Very often, a lake trout will swim up to your bait and just lay there and watch it. This is why you will often get flags when you go around and check your baits once in a while. When you are jigging, your bait is always on the move. Another plus is that you can cover more depths of water while jigging by simply reeling up or letting out some line. It’s also very easy to move around and fish different holes with a jig stick. Obviously, the more area you cover, the better your chances are of putting your bait within the fish’s sight.

Here’s what you need to get started jigging. You will need some sort of jigging rod. This can be anything from a short fishing pole to an old piece of a broomstick. You can buy jigging rods at most sporting goods stores or bait shops. Some of them have pegs on the handle to wrap line onto and some are made for a reel, just like a regular fishing rod. You can also make a jigging rod quite easily. If you have an old fishing rod that you don’t use any more, you can cut off about 30 inches of the tip end of the rod. Get a dowel or part of an old broomstick about a foot long and drill a hole in the end of it as deep as you can. The hole should be the same diameter as the end of the piece of fishing rod that you cut off. Fill the hole with glue and insert the piece of rod until it bottoms out in the hole. An easy way to store line on it is to buy a couple small "L" screws and drill holes in the dowel about an inch in from each end screw the "L" screws in, leaving the ends pointing away from each other. Be sure to slant the hole just a little bit so that you don’t drive the screw right through the piece of fishing rod.

Some people like a solid wood jigging stick. They feel that they get a more solid hook set. For this, you can just cut off the dowel or broom sticks about 2 feet long. Put two "L" screws on one end for line storage and an eye screw in the other end for the line to run through. If you put the "L" screws one-foot apart, it will be easy to keep track of how much line you have let out. If you decide to use one of these solid jig sticks, you will want at least 20-pound test line so that you don’t break the line when you set the hook on a strike. If you’re using a flexible jig stick, you can get by with 10 or 15 pound test line, as the bend of the rod will absorb the shock.

Next fill you jig stick with good quality monofilament line. You should try to get at about one hundred feet of line on it if you can. I don’t usually jig in water deeper than 50 feet, but I like to have extra line in case I hook into a monster.

Next, you need a jigging lure. Jigging lures are usually heavier than normal fishing lures so that you can feel the lure when jigging in deep water. Some good lures are the Swedish Pimple, Lead Fish and the Canadian Jig. They come in all sorts of sizes and colors. You will have to experiment with the size and color but silver is usually a good bet and for lake trout, I’d start with a jig about 3 inches long.

I like to attach the lure to the line using a loop. This way there is no swivel attached to the lure to impede it’s action. The loop (about an inch or so) allows the lure to slide around a little which gives in more action. Because the jig will often twist your line, I usually put a swivel in the line about three or four feet above the lure.

Now, you only need one more item to be able to jig for togue. Most people like to put a piece of fish on the hook of the jig as an added attractant. I find that a piece of sucker works best. Suckers have tough skin which helps the bait stay on the hook while jigging.

Now, lets go fishing. We’ve just finished setting our legal number of traps minus one because we’re going to jig. Now cut a hole to jig in. This can be anywhere from 12 or 15 feet of water to 50 feet of water. I usually like to start in about 20 feet. I also use a portable fish house, which I will pull over the hole and get inside of to stay warm. The house has a hole in the floor to jig through.

Next I take the sucker and make a cut right behind the gills and start cutting along the backbone, as if I was going to fillet it. I cut off a piece about an inch and a quarter square and hook it on the jig. If you have trouble loosing your bait off the jig, you can tie it to the hook using strong thread or fishing line. Oops, I almost forgot the most important part. If you’ve read many of my articles, you know how I feel about sharp hooks. Make sure those hooks are razor sharp. New hooks are almost never sharp enough.

Now that we have our bait on the sharp hooks, lower the jig until you feel it hit bottom. Then pick it up about a foot or so and start jigging it up and down. I like to jig it up quickly about a foot and then let it flutter back down, doing this about every couple seconds. Every once in a while I will raise it up quickly about three or four feet and drop it just as an attention getter. Sometimes they will strike it better if every once in a while you just wiggle it a little. Usually, you won’t have any trouble detecting a strike. Sometimes they will strike it when it is dropping down. If you feel a sudden lightness in the line, set the hook. Then you can either bring the fish up "hand over hand" or fight it with the reel. You may find that using a jig stick with a reel on it is easier when trying to bring a big fish in. It makes it easier to manage your line if you fight the fish on the reel instead of bringing it in "hand over hand". I must admit, I usually bring the fish in "hand over hand" even though I do use a jig stick with a reel on it. It’s just habit for me to set the hook with my jigging hand and grab the line with my other hand to start pulling it up. If I get a big fish on, I will then allow him to take the line out until I can get him on the reel.

Don’t be afraid to try different jigging rhythms. Every lake is a little different. As a matter of fact, on some lakes you may want to start jigging only 4 or 5 feet below the ice. Whether you start at the bottom or near the top, after you’ve jigged for about 15 minutes without a strike, try bringing it up or letting it down about five feet and start jigging again. Keep moving up or down until you’ve covered from top to bottom. Then move to a different spot; drill another hole and start over. I find that it is very effective to drill a hole and jig about fifteen feet from one of my togue traps. If a fish is lying there, watching your live bait on the trap, it will often strike the jig as soon as you start jigging.

Give jigging a try this winter when you’re out Lake Trout fishing. I think you will be happy with the results.

To learn more about Mickey Finn Fishing Charters, check out our Web Site at: http://www.mickeyfinncharters.com/ or email us at: steve@mickeyfinncharters.com . Be sure to look at our new page on April Brown Trout fishing at Lake Ontario.

Steve Lemieux steve@mickeyfinncharters.com    Phone : (207) 379-2035
Mickey Finn Fishing Charters: Sport Fishing in the Moosehead Lake Region of Maine and on Lake Ontario  Excellent Fishing at Affordable Prices.

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