# jiggerpoling Easter morning



## Brett (Jul 16, 2008)

Went out for a sunrise canoe ride this morning and a small boat
went by. A one man plastic skiff with an electric trolling motor.










A neighbor was bass fishing using an old method called jiggerpoling. A long
fiberglass pole with about 24 inches of line from a weedless lure to
the rodtip. With the pole resting across his knees the rod tip just
touches the water, and the lure was dragged along and over the vegetation
in the water along the edges of the waterway. The rod is jiggled
as the boat travels and the tip dances in and out of the water making
a small commotion on the surface just ahead of the lure. Looks like
a small fish chasing another smaller fish. Worked well. While I watched
he had 3 blowups during about a hundred feet of travel, and finally
hooked one bass, about a 1-1/2 lb'er. The fish was pulled to boat side by
simply sliding the rod across the boat until the rod tip was next to the boat.
I haven't seen that done since the 60's when I was fishing along Tamiami Trail.
Extremely effective technique that covers a lot of water very quickly.
Fun way to fish on an Easter morning. Here's some more on other
old style fishing methods:

http://sports.espn.go.com/outdoors/fishing/columns/story?columnist=sutton_keith&page=g_col_Sutton_old_fashioned_bass_tactics

Another good read...

http://www.nighthawkpublications.com/journal/journal154-1.htm


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## tojo (Dec 12, 2006)

Good post! Dynamite is my favorite old fashioned fishing method


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## B.Lee (Apr 29, 2008)

When I first read jiggerpoling, I thought, well, that's not a very nice name for cane pole fishing. I know, not nice to think like that either, but Brett cleared it up for me.

The micro canoe set up is exactly what I have in mind for one of my half-scale models. Small box for a seat, small box fwd for storage, and a kayak paddle. How would that look in this 8' hull?


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## Brett (Jul 16, 2008)

The little one man skiff was set up for fishing.
Battery in the box forward. Foot pedal steering.
Push down with the left foot the boat turns left,
down with the right foot, turns right. Motor speed
control on gunnel at left hand. Pole held and jiggled
with right hand, pole tip to left of hull as he traveled.
Simple effective way to catch bass. I wonder how it
would work along the mangrove moats out front Flamingo.
Think about going hand to hand with a 15 lb snook.
Make an interesting video...


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## deerfly (Mar 10, 2007)

I did a bit of that at night out off the tamiami trail and L-28 many moons ago. Lure of choice was a black arbogast jitterbug. We did it mostly as a way to pass time while working along the bank between gigging frogs. Real easy to drop the lure into them little holes back in the lilly pads, swish it around a time or two and pick it back up again without getting all fouled up. Most nights we couldn't buy a strike, but a few times we got into a few nice nice fish. 

Brett, I imagine you could do the same thing with snook in those island moats. Two things come to mind tho, first is the skeeters when you get close enough to reach under the roots with 12-14' pole.   The other thing is those fish are usually pretty spooky once you get that close too. Maybe a canoe or kayak would work better. Not quite the same as the old-timers calcutta pole fishing the bridge shadow line from above. Would be hoot if you hook one though.


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## Brett (Jul 16, 2008)

> Not quite the same as the old-timers calcutta pole fishing the bridge shadow line from above.


I resemble that remark...
I used to use the heavy duty canepoles, along with a couple other guys,
in the 70's on the Keys bridges. Heavy dacron fishing line attached from
butt to tip and tied to a canepole length of monel wire. Live mullet on
a big hook allowed to thrash at the surface along the pilings on the
down current side, kinda like kite fishing, only no kite. Snook would
hook themselves and you'd hand over hand them up. Only problem,
sometimes the fish wasn't a snook, big tarpon would hit also. Lost
a few poles that way. That's why we didn't tie the pole to our wrists.


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