We’re about to drop the jig and here’s the play-by-play: It’s down five, it’s down ten, it dances to the side, it rolls out, shimmies, loops, glides, and spikes itself in the strike zone. Then it scores. Translation: Another swimming jig defied verticality and finally hit bottom. Then caught another fish.

Some panfish jigs and lures are designed to plane and glide off to the side when dropped straight down. We call ‘em swimmin’ jigs. Something that flirts with the horizontal when fished vertically. The most famous example would be the Jigging Rapala, which falls in a spiral that extends well past vertical—when balanced with the right line.

The Northland Air-Plane Jig, another famous example, lives up to its name, with wings that allow it to circle horizontally on the drop. The Lindy-Little Joe Flyer is a leadhead built around a spinnerblade, creating a cupped surface underneath that causes it to glide out when lifted off bottom or dropped. Aside from the obvious examples, a variety of jigheads today have swimming attributes, broadening the presentation horizon for panfishermen on ice.

Flat-sided jigs like the Comet Shiner spiral on the drop when matched with the right line—adding flash and slowing the presentation while mimicking one of nature’s most effective triggers—the fluttering spiral of a stunned or dying minnow. Adding the right plastics to plain jigs with an eye for detail can create the same critical effect. A light jighead inserted just so far into a tube is the most popular example, but few seem aware that a plain jig with a long, quivering plastic tail or a teardrop with a flicker blade can be made to dance in a circle almost 12 inches in diameter with the right rod movement. Spoons with a cupped shape take off at right angles when jigged and then let go, and the list goes on.

Losing Vertical Hold

One of the most innovative lures in this genre is the Salmo Mini Chubby Darter, a molded plastic European lure (not a jig). Lift the Chubby Darter, the way it’s balanced, and it swims forward, so it goes up and away. The tail vibrates like a bladebait when raised. On the drop, it glides off to the side in true baitfish fashion, producing lots of flash. On the lift it really beats its tail, and on the drop it falls in a horizontal position but glides away.

As with all swimming lures, it’s critical to use the right line. The Chubby Darter works best on a normal 4-pound line or a thinner 6-pound line. The thicker the line, the more resistance it creates against the water. A line too thick won’t allow these lures to get far enough from vertical to make much of a difference. But with heavier swimming jigs, like the Jigging Rapala, the resistance of thicker line keeps the bait from falling straight down, actually allowing it to circle on the drop. Line choice is a critical element in striking the perfect balance that will create the desired effect.

The Mini Chubby Darter opens up lots of room for developing triggers, because it does so many things. It extends the triggering range dramatically, from an area only inches in diameter to an area up to 6 feet in diameter. Extending an imaginary plumb bob to bottom from your rod tip, the Mini Chubby Darter will shoot 3 feet out from that line in free fall.

The #2 Jigging Rapala is a tremendous tool for big crappies for many of the same reasons. It won’t glide 3 feet from vertical, but it can be made to circle within an area at least 2 feet in diameter, if allowed to fall on a slack line. With a maggot or two or just a small chunk of minnow on the dangling treble, the #2 Jigging Rapala still circles on the drop on 4-pound line.

As always, the lift-drop portion of the presentation is for attraction. Bigger fish like walleyes and bass often hit these baits on the drop, but what really gets panfish to bite lures like the Chubby Darter and the Jigging Rapala is the pause, or the jiggle-pause. It’s difficult to hold these center-balanced baits still. The Chubby Darter almost never stops moving. The tapered tail keeps bobbing and twitching long after you place the rod in a rod holder on a dead calm day. The Jigging Rapala keeps sidling around like a compass needle trying to find true north, long after the last jigging motion. Most days, the bait is doing all the “jiggling” required to trigger panfish all by itself.

In some waters, the visual aspects of attraction are less important than the thump and vibration. Or the visual aspect needs to be bolder. In muddy, stained, or cloudy water, a bladebait is overlooked as the natural replacement for jigging spoons and other leadheads. A Reef Runner Cicada or Heddon Sonar not only gets away from vertical on the drop, but also creates such dynamic vibration on the lift that fish can’t help but know it’s there, no matter how opaque the water.

Most ice fishermen think that when fish approach but won’t bite it’s time to finesse with light line and tiny jigs, which is often true. But not always. The opposite approach is to attack their lateral lines—the sensory organs fish use to detect vibration in the water. Fish that won’t move for conventional jig-minnow presentations sometimes ram a bladebait.

Use swivels with swimming baits, bladebaits, and swimming jigs to eliminate line twist. A tiny #14 or #12 barrel swivel tied in about 3 feet up the line from the bait is sufficient to keep line twist from ruining the day.

Swimmin’ Jigs

A true swimming jig is one designed to fly to the sides on a dead drop. Few true leadheads really swim much without the addition of metal wings or plastic tails. Some jigs, like the Lindy-Little Joe Flyer, glide really well, having a spinner blade molded into the head. On the subtle end of the spectrum, most crappie anglers know that if they insert a light jighead inside a small plastic tube and don’t push the head all the way to the tip, the combo will spiral on the drop.

The 1/16-ounce Micro Air-Plane Jig drops straight down without help. On 4- or 6-pound line, it doesn’t do what larger Air-Planes do, which is to circle on the drop. But with the addition of the right plastic tail, it does get away from the vertical quite a bit. In the In-Fisherman tank room, I was able to achieve a glide of about 20 inches out from plumb-line vertical with the right rod action and the addition of a Tad’s Lures Puddle Jumper—a plastic tail with wings that really takes crappies through the ice.

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.