I Suck! I Can't Fish! Heeeeelllllpppp!!!

[Hunt4Ever]

OK,

I fished the Trenton Channel again this morning starting just south of the stacks, drifting downstream, vertical jigging.

People were catching fish. Sometimes, lots of fish. I saw boats all around me (at times you could have walked 50 yards and not got your feet wet), catching fish and I was catching NOTHING! There was one boat with 4 guys in it that had 20! Watching them drift through a hole, have two guys hook up, then I drift through 5 minutes later and get nothing. This is mentally devistating.

This is really starting to irritate me. My boat control is not the greatest but I'm getting there. I used 3/8 - 1/2 oz jigs, chartreuse with and without a tail, same with white, and a 3-4 inch walleye minnow from Bottom Line. I use 6 lf fireline with a 2-3 foot Berkley Vanish 6lb leader.

What the Beavus am I doing wrong? Are my jigs to heavy? Not heavy enough? Do I need lighter line? I'm even open to someone givving me trolling motor lessons if that's what it takes.

Can anyone help me? I have lots of room in the boat for a teacher.


I'm considering taking up lawn darts, I think I can do that.

[WALLEYE MIKE]

Brian, I had 3 in my boat yesterday. Two of us caught fish . The third guy didn't even get a hit. Matter of fact, he didn't even get his first snag until noon. I have taken him 4 times in the last two springs and he has yet to get one. Go figure.

My setup is basically the same as yours. I lift the jig about 6-9" with a slow lift and drop. I don't bang it off the bottom.

Only differance I see is that I got my minnows at Trenton Lighthouse. LOL Just hang in there, you'll get some.

[Thunderhead]

LOL I know how ya feel...........The only suggestion I can give is to start talking to the guys catching fish. I've found that most are willing to help out a fellow angler. That's how I started on Steelies. Watching and asked questions. I also carried a bag of fresh salmon spawn to give 'em for a little incentive.

Good Luck.

[Jimbos]

It's a rough place to fish, especially in the wind. Really concentrate on staying verticle, if you not verticle your wasting your time pretty much.
If your having a tough time and the boats a kind of thin. Put on a small black and gold wallydiver, pinch a LARGE splitshot a few feet up the line, and start trolling up river SLOWLY along the 11-12-14 foot depths of the Grosse Ile side shoreline. Run it back 75 or so feet, and kind up slip up stream back and forth.

Also if your jigging....line up the center span of the bridge with the stacks of Great Lakes Steel a few miles up river, now look at your graph, there's a hump that runs right down the center of the channel. Jig that spot as you drift down, working the top of the hump or the sides, depending on the day.
Try right at the warmwater discharge of the Edison plant. The water temp has to be 10 degrees warmer then the rest of the river, and drift down along that side of the channel.

[ESOX]

My biggest problem on a beautiful day like this after a long rough winter, is simply keeping my concentration. I always find myself watching the birds, and other "wildlife" you encounter on the river.
Fast taper rods with superline is a definite help. The braids will also help you keeping the bait vertical, because the thinner diameter will be less influenced by the current, much less being far more sensitive.

[fatboy]

hunt4ever- splitshot pretty much nailed it. If I could add that I used to have the wrong rod and could not feel the bites very well. You should have a fast action rod or even a very fast action rod. These fish hit about like a nibbling perch.You almost have to rub that minnow right across there nose to get them to hit. Keep in mind that those fish are in there with there belly touching the bottom.That puts there mouth about2-3 inches off the bottom.You only touch the bottom to make sure that you are only a few inches off the bottom. I could feel the fish and caught alot more once I switched to the fast action rod.Good Luck !

[Gone Fishing]

Looks like you have gotten some very good advise already. I've been on both sides of the fence. One time I got 12 to my buddies 0 (didn't say I kept 12) and another time I couldn't buy a fish when my buddy was wacking them. It turned out that he was digging through the minnows to find the smaller ones while I was digging looking for the big Emeralds. For some reason, that day they just didn't seem to want the larger minnows or at least that was my excuse. Line vertical and always feel the jig. You won't get as many hits with the larger jigs but try them if your not feeling the bottom consistantly. I sometimes use 1/4 - 3/8 oz in 20 -25 fow and I get burned out trying to concentrate on feeling the bottom and controlling the boat. Good luck! You'll get em.

[Hunt4Ever]

OK,

You guys are really running to the resuce and I greatly appreciate it.

I try and keep as vertical as possible. I know I'm doing it right sometimes because I can see my jig as well as my swivel on my fish finder.

My current technique is to just bump the bottom to make sure my depth is correct, then I pick it up a few inches and let'er drift.

I think hooking up may teach me a lot about the bite. I am be missing fish, I just can't tell.

I'm going to try lighter jigs next time, something in the 1/4 - 3/8 range in an effort to help with the fish grab. Maybe they will hold on longer if they can't feel the jig.

Also, maybe some fishing in lower winds would help.

[Jimbos]

Swivel???? for what?

Remember the bite not a bite but an inhale. A flair out of the gills, sucking water a lure through.

[Hunt4Ever]

Jimbos,

I have a 2 footish leader of mono attached to fireline.

The fireline is green. Should I tie my jig right to the fireline?

[Jimbos]

Ahhhh, gotcha....I don't know about the fireline and having to tie on a leader, never use the stuff, I hated tying the knots with it.

All I ever go by is the smallest is the bestest, and the less hardware in the way the better.:)

[ESOX]

Like Splitshot said, use stingers, they really will help in a light bite.

[sdjrobs]

We also went out Monday and jigged til about 2 pm and got two bites between two of us. We tried trolling the warmer water area south of the edison plant and got 7. One 10lbs and one 9lbs the rest in the 3 to 5 lb range. I personally can't stand jigging in the river...too much work and not very relaxing. I'd rather long line a few rapalas and sit back...but thats just me.

[Can't Touch This]

Maybe you can go like us and just concentrate on pike and perch, We only fish a little bit in the morning for eyes. We have no boat control, whichi may be the reseason we don't get too many fish in spring. One day, we had on a few 10 lbers, and we still caught alot. We will have to buy something to help slip the current and the wind.

[Jimbos]

Sometimes longlining is the way to go. Biggest thing there is, is knowing how deep your lure is running.

Just depends on boat traffic. Nothing worse then having 75 feet out, and having a handliner cut across the back.

[Canadian Hunter]

Originally posted by Hunt4Ever
I know I'm doing it right sometimes because I can see my jig as well as my swivel on my fish finder.

My current technique is to just bump the bottom to make sure my depth is correct, then I pick it up a few inches and let'er drift.
[/B]

Get rid of the swivel and join a 3' section of mono (6 or 8#) to the fireline using back to back "uni-knot's". Its a pain when you break off at these knots but the feel is incredible and worth the hassle!

Get rid of your current "technique",, you need to bounce that jig on bottom, you must get that "fall" into your routine. 90% of the eyes hit on the drop, and the only way you know you have a hit is when bottom isnt where it is supposed to be! SET THE HOOK!

Stay with the heavier jigs,, and stinger hooks are always a good idea!

[sdjrobs]

No problems with handliners it's jiggers with no boat control! Also guys moving around because someone caught a fish 30 foot over! One guy fired up his motor and cut across the back of us maybe 20 feet out! Aparently he didn't notice our lines at first but he did when he wrapped me up in his prop! Last year we had a guy cut in back of us and his planner board cleared us by 5 feet. He wrapped all 6 of our lines up. The funny part was everyone was trolling the same direction except this dope! Certain people on the water can ruin a whole day! Sorry to go on like that but anyway...we were longlining any color/make/size of a shadrap type crank and caught all fish in 9 to 12 feet of water. We just let enough line out to tap the bottom once in awhile. You get snagged once in awhile but usually get it out by backtracking. All fish hooked were landed....they really inhaled it most of the time.

[Ed Michrina]

I'm not the greatest jigger in the world but If I were you I would stop tying the line to the hook, that little round thing at the top of the jig is where the line go's .
Kidding. But what I have done that helps this lousy jigger, is When using a stinger hook I dont put a barb into the minnow or plastic. It just hangs there with hopes when the fish sucks in my too heavy jig he gets the stinger. got a few this year like this.. Or possibly that is how everyone uses a stinger?

[WALLEYE MIKE]

Yesterday my buddy did not use a stinger hook. I do. We both caught two. We used two different color jigs. I used 1/2oz he used 1oz. We tipped with different colors of plastic..... get the point. YOU JUST DIDN'T HOLD YOUR TONGUE RIGHT LOL

Personally I don't pay alot of attention to color. My two yesterday was on two different colors. Just keep at it---it will come.

[TBone]

Hunt,
You'd probably be fine tying straight to the jig. I don't use fireline, but I do use solar green trilene. I don't do the most jigging, maybe 3-6 trips a year, but they don't seem to mind. I was down on Sunday and managed a 7.5 lber, and at least one other bite on a pretty slow day.

Do you ever bring your jig up and wonder where the minnow went? If so, you are probably missing those bites.

[Ed Michrina]

Well Mike you had to tell everyone about holding your tongue right! now everyone will limit!! lol ..
Hunt Just watch the other boats (catching fish) If they are snapping the line or giggling the line or just slight lifts. Do what they do Just rember you have to be on the bottom to get fish. If you didn't loos a jig or at least get a few zebra mussels your not doing it right.

[WALLEYE MIKE]

Sorry Ed, I don't know what came over me.

Brian, to make things more confusing, I just rembered that my buddy tied his jig directly to his Spiderwire and I had a 2ft leader of floralcarbon line. Also, I was using rattles on my jigs and he did not.

Bottom line is that we used nothing exactly alike and yet we both caught fish. The other buddy who didn't catch anything was using a 3/8oz jig with a chart. curly tail. Then switched to a minnow and still nothing. But then he didn't get a snag until noon either while I had 4 and the other guy had atleast 3.

Conclusion----don't know what to tell you??????? Just keep trying.
Oh wait--maybe I put my socks on backwards that day.(left sock on the right foot......) Good luck next time out!!!

[Happy Jack]

like some of these guys have already said, when jigging, vertical and bottom is the key. Some days wind direction and speed along with the flow of the river can make staying vertical a real chore. I have sometimes used a drift sock off the boat and have been able to drift a half mile or so just kicked back and relaxing while staying vertical with a 1/2 oz or less. Hang in there and good luck.

[Randy Kidd]

Gotta keep that jig on the bottom, we use 3/4 to 1 oz jigs usually in white or chartreuse with twister tails and a BIG minnow. 10 pound spiderwire with 2 foot leaders of 8 pound mono. easier to break off snags with mono than with a superline. tap the bottom with the bait. lift up a few inches and tap bottom again, Like someone else said " if you ain't losing jigs or getting zebra mussles you ain't doing it right. I remember back in the 60s when my father started his charter service we pretty much had the river to ourselves except for a few handliners. boat control was not an issue because there wasn't anyone to run into. you could just shut off the motor and drift all day. And that stuff about having to keep the line vertical is just not true. It is easier if you can stay stationary in the current or just creep along but I can tell you that back before trolling motors a 25 foot boat could drift with the current and limit out in a few hours. Then some moron invited Babe Winkelman along in the mid seventies and he diid a show, And we have now what is pretty much a zoo out there. Even after it started to get crowded out there nobody used trolling motors you got at the end of the pack of boats shut your motor off, drifted for a mile or two, at the end of your drift you started up your motor ran upstream back to the end of the pack and started again. there were no problems, then people got some bright idea to use a trolling motor to slow down their drift and some even anchored over good holes. what used to be an enjoyable day of drift fishing and catching some BIG walleyes has become a day of hard work for the motorman. Thanks for the vent

[Moonlighting]

I get my *ss handed to me every time I go to the river. I use firewire, on a fenwick one peice graphite rod. Minnow, minnow upside down, grub, no grub, rubber worm, rubber leach, rattles, no rattles, stinger, no stinger, I cannott catch fish in the river. I kick but on Erie, do quite well on the salmon, and I am a pike ledgend in my own mind, but jiggin? I suck.

[Ed Michrina]

Moon you need to go out with hunt4ever. He now has the lucky hand.

[sfw1960]

Many times I don't feel them bite but something just doesen't feel right and I set the hook and surprise, fish on.
There lies the biggest problem in your dilemma (http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=dilemma)
I have caught many a fish that just "magically appeared" , be it Eyes , Bass ,
Bull 'Gills.... Hawg Perch , Dandy Brookies - NorthereenZ..Browns..... WHATEVER.
I usually use Golden Stren or XT Solar MONO - but I live by what Splitshot tried to get across....
If anything feels "different" SET 'DA HOOK!!!!
A lil bit of 'wasted bait' hurts less than a cooler full of 'dry bread'.
And yes , a lot of times the "fluff" comes on the fall...... I used to suck BADLY at vertical jigging - now I suck considerably less ;)
:D Robert :D