For vertical fishing with jigging baits, the same is true
whether on open water or the ice: An angler has to read the
fish on electronics and “work” them with the lure. Most bass
anglers call it video game fishing.
“I can drop that bait right in front of his nose and just dart
it around,” says Lawyer, who gets a better view of the situa-
tion with a giant Lowrance HDS-16 Carbon depth finder.
He fishes a jigging bait by snapping it up 12 to 24 inches,
then allowing it to fall on a slack line.
“When the bait doesn’t fall after I’ve hopped it, it’s usually
a fish and I’ll set the hook,” he says.
The technique is designed to get reaction strikes. Bass
often bite on the initial drop or the first two or three snaps.
If he hasn’t gotten a strike after roughly 10 snaps, Lawyer will
reel up and try a different part of the treetop.
“Sometimes, all it takes is that bait hitting a limb and kick-
ing up some algae or something for them to react and hit,”
he adds. “When I can watch on my screen and see bass
streak up to my bait, I know they’re in the right mood to bite.”
It’s also important not to cling to just one presentation.
The snap method that Lawyer uses works when bass seem
to be feeding actively, or when they are competing for food
with several other fish in the same area. But he also has days
when it takes a series of subtle twitches to get neutral bass
to bite.
Making Them Bite
Brad Leifermann
IN THE SUMMER, TOO
The sloping line is a Jigging Rap sinking down to bottom, then lifted just
above a fish.
A Veteran Guide’s Approach
Lawyer learned about jigging baits such as the Jigging Rap
from Pete Wenners, who has guided on the Ozark reservoirs
since 1991. Wenners, who runs Pete’s Professional Guide
Service, has been fishing a Jigging Rap for 20 years, and it
remains one of his favorite cold-water baits.
“At one time, the Jigging Rap was pretty much a secret,”
says Wenners, 62, who lives in Galena, Mo. “The guides down
here and some of the locals knew about, but we kept it quiet.
“The deep structure fish were more abundant then, and
they didn’t get hit that hard because fishermen didn’t have all
the electronics we do today. But these vertical baits will still
work, especially when you can find the isolated, deep trees.”
Wenners prefers to use the 7/8-ounce size because it will
drop more quickly than the lighter sizes, which improves effi-
ciency when targeting bass in deep water. Yet he doesn’t get
too aggressive, especially when fishing cold water. Instead,
he just uses subtle twitches to get the bait to dart.
“You work them differently than a spoon,” he adds. “With
the Jigging Raps, it’s more of a lift than a snap. I want it to fall
on a semi-slack line instead of following the line down.”
NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2017 I FLWFISHING.COM
Wenners uses the Jigging Rap primarily in cold water,
but he catches bass on the bait in the heat of summer,
too.
“When I get on a spoon bite in the summer, I’ll always
change it up and go to a Jigging Rap,” he says.
“Sometimes, that’s all it takes to trigger them.”
T-H Marine FLW Bass Fishing League angler Brad
Leifermann can vouch for the Jigging Rap as a summer-
time lure, too.
The Minnesota angler has fished through the ice with
the lure with great success, particularly for walleyes.
Now, the Jigging Rap is an all-seasons bait for him. Back
in June, at the BFL All-American on Pickwick, Leifermann
uncovered a strong, though temporary, Jigging Rap pat-
tern on the Tennessee River reservoir.
“I would idle around, looking for schools of white
bass on structure,” he says. “Bass are like coyotes. They
will let the white bass do all the work; then they come in
under them and clean up.”
Unfortunately, conditions changed during the actual
tournament, and Leifermann had to go to other tech-
niques. It