Strange shapes tend to fall erratically, the Apex Mini-Jig-A-Low, for example. A long flattened lip extends from the head, but it remains balanced (meaning it holds horizontally at rest). The lip causes the Jig-A-Low to fall in a spiral and wobble side to side as it drops. The addition of a small tube or paddletail grub can accentuate and slow the spiral. It’s a dynamite jig for big bluegills and crappies.
Ice fishermen who’ve been around the block a few times know that a tear-drop-shaped jig nodded in place can dance in a circle up to a foot in diameter, depending on the jig. It requires a certain balance between line and jig weight, and the jig needs to be flat, not rounded. Balance requires the right bait, too. One small meal worm or waxworm, or about four maggots are most conducive to making a teardrop circle. The best circling teardrops also have a little flicker blade near the eye, like Arnold’s Fairy Jig.
A tube, a puddle jumper, or a tiny paddletail plastic like those among the new ISG Plankton series of panfish baits, can make a plain ballhead jig dance in a circle, too. It requires a light head, usually less than 1/64 ounce, depending on the line being used. It requires a light touch with the rod tip, similar to the nodding rod action that makes Arnold’s Fairy Jig flutter in a 12-inch circle. Hold the rod in a horizontal position and quiver it deliberately, nodding the tip up and down no more than an inch or two. The plastic tail or tentacles, in the case of a tube, literally come alive, adding another trigger to the effect.
Spoons, often used for vertical techniques, leave the vertical as well, especially in certain shapes. Slab-sided lead spoons are the most popular among anglers who fish vertically for white bass and perch, because they drop straight and true—perfect for a hot bite. Get down quick, catch another. But when the bite’s less hot, a spoon with a cup shape like the smaller 1/6-ounce Acme Little Cleo provides a different trigger. The Cleo or similar spoons will take off at adjacent angles to vertical when dropped just right. Snap it up sharply a few inches, and the spoon will turn up on its side; let go and it’s off, sailing 2 feet or more to the side.
A variety of products, methods, and techniques can be combined to inject brief interludes of the horizontal into a vertical presentation. But, since the simplest technique is sometimes best, why bother? On a hot bite for hot, unpressured fish, a plain ballhead one size too big with a minnow, a grub, or a piece of plastic fished straight up and down, up and down with a little tantalizing pause and jiggle gets ripped all day. Why complicate things? Because hot bites for hot fish are increasingly rare. The potential for conditioning pressured fish to such mind-numbing sameness is beyond question.
Around here, we’re always looking for an edge, and as Johnny Cochrane would say, “If they won’t bite, your bait must take flight.” Something to think about next time your pet fish get bored with the same ol’ up-and-down technique.
