Have you ever been on the water having a good day of fishing and you troll by someone who is doing some fishing method that you are completely puzzled by. Well back some fifteen years ago or so that was me and a good friend. We were trolling beautiful Lake Winnipesaukee in late August, it was a pristine flat calm day and the fishing for two young men was quite fair. We were fishing out of a small aluminum fourteen foot boat with a tiller 9.9 outboard, fish finder and one clamp on Big Jon downrigger. After some time I began to notice that the boat to our left was not moving but appeared to be fishing smack dab in the middle of the lake in well over 100 feet of water, curious we trolled toward the boat. As we approached the small boat we noticed one man with a spinning rod and of course he had a fish on, we circled the man and his boat and watched him catch two more fish before we built up the courage to ask what it was that he was doing out here in the middle of the lake not trolling with one spinning rod and catching fish it would appear one after the other. Well this is a day and a moment I will not soon forget because the older gentleman wearing a light flannel shirt and fisherman cap in a small aluminum boat much like the one were in yelled “jigging for Trout” as he set the hook in yet another. I ’m sure it will not come as a surprise to you that we soon began to take up this very effective technique and now some fifteen years later I use this method in my professional light line sport fishing charter’s with amazing results!

Vertical jigging is a much different method than most of which lure pullers such as myself are used to or are known for. This method really is a simple one that over time angler’s will fine tune there technique and skill to put some quality Lake Trout in their boat. The basic premise behind this is finding suspended Trout in deep water basin’s. The best time for this is during the lat summer months, one of the big reason’s as to why this time of year is best is water temperature. The average depth of the some 45,000 acres of Winnipesaukee is 40 or so feet the average depth that you find Lake Trout during these late summer months is 60’ or deeper usually over 100’ of water. This makes the lake much smaller as there are not a great deal of deep water basin’s. Over time you can find these deep holes and locate stacked pods of Trout. Once you have located the fish you need the correct set up which for me is a 6’6” medium action Eagle Claw Spinning rod and reel spooled up with 20 pound braided line and a 15 pound Seaguar Fluro Carbon leader. You can play around with some different Jigs such as Swedish pimple, cripple hearing, Spro’s. Real Image or what ever you find that seems to be working for you. You will have to pick and choose the days and time that you use this method as calm water is necessary so that you can stay over the fish. Once you have everything in order and have located the fish you simply Jig above the suspended fish and hopefully get them to strike! This method as I have stated is very simple. A big tip is to keep your jig moving and work it away from the fish in a escaping type pattern. With time and practice you will be on your way to boating some nice fish. Keep in mind this method will work on any Lake that has a good population of Lake Trout.

Get out and try some Vertical Jigging we have had some very good days using this method and have boated very high numbers of Trout. Last year while on a charter we boated over sixty Lake Trout in a Morning of Fishing! For more info check us out www.fishlakewinni.com Log On Today Fish On Tomorrow.