Jigging is a time-tested tactic that produces across all fishing styles. Moving the fly, lure or bait up before allowing it to fall has fooled fish from the beginning, everywhere they swim. In fact, jigging might very well be the most primeval presentation. Dunk the bait, lift it and drop. Fish on.

Jigging our flies should not be missed. And this rudimentary skill is a building block for many advanced presentations. However, the characteristic idiosyncrasies of fly tackle do make successful jigging a bit more nuanced.

Lift it and drop it, right? Mmmm. It’s not quite that simple.

Streamer Presentations

With over a dozen installments in this Streamer Presentations series on Troutbitten, I’ve focused mostly on the unconventional. I’ve covered many of my favorite ways to move a streamer that are a little different than the standard fare. Techniques like the Speed Lead and the Slow Slide are novel spins on old methods, combining the motions and retrieve styles that take the fly down a familiar path but introducing a twist. It’s these motions and manipulations that give life to our furry, feathered creations. Moving the fly is fun. Doing it with intention and fooling a trout is our addictive reward.

We move the long flies with the rod and the line hand, with jerks, jigs, twitches and strips, fast or slow and everything in between, and all of the presentations that I’ve written about incorporate these means of motion. The Tight Line Dance needs all of the above. Likewise, what I call a Crossover Technique encompasses a host of diverse tactics that are rooted in the basics — jigs, jerks and strips.

READ: Troutbitten | Series | Streamer Presentations

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Fly anglers with an internet connection and their ear to the ground know that George Daniel has recently circulated some thoughtful info on the methods of jigging a streamer.

What George calls Euro Jigging is performed best with a long leader. It’s a tight line system most commonly used for contact nymphing. The term euro nymphing really means tight lining without the influence of traditional fly line, and with nothing attached to the leader but the flies themselves. So, no split shot, no indicator, etc. The weight is in the flies, and the leader is long enough that the sag of a traditional fly line is gone. This is what George describes in his articles and videos on euro jigging streamers.

Troutbitten readers know that I recommend George’s work regularly. I’ve learned a lot from George, because he’s a unique thinker and a good communicator of ideas. This time is no different.

Streamers on a Tight Line

Perhaps the best thing about George’s feature article in Fly Fisherman magazine and his accompanying videos is the introduction of streamers on a tight line rig to a wide audience.

In truth, we can perform any style of streamer presentation with these rigs, and jigging is a great place to start. We learn the manipulations of contact and slack. We learn the combination of rod tip motion and line hand recovery by jigging.

I’ve written extensively about fishing streamers on the Mono Rig, and I’ve published two videos on the Troutbitten YouTube channel about these tactics. It’s my favorite rig for fishing streamers, because a tight line system works wonders for controlling the movements of flies with precision. And, just like the control and contact that we have to a nymph, being in touch with our streamer, without the mass of a thick fly line in between our rod tip and the fly provides significant advantages and precise control over every aspect of how that streamer dances.

Jigging can be executed with a floating fly line or a sinking line as well, but there are some key differences to understand. And your fly may not be lifting and dropping just because that’s what you’re doing with the rod tip.

Let’s get to all of that . . .

So, what about jigging?

Up and down. That’s the heart of jigging. It’s a presentation that focuses on changing the position of the fly in the column vertically. And in that way, it’s pretty unique among streamer presentations, where we usually focus on crossing currents or holding one seam. Sure, we note the position of the fly near the bottom or top during all streamer styles. But with jigging, that change through the water column is the heart of the tactic itself.

This need not be complicated, but there are two things to consider while jigging streamers: How wide is the range of travel? And how well can you stay in contact during the drop?

Travel

I daresay most anglers move the fly too far while jigging — myself included. Recommendations to move the fly three to six inches are common. But it takes deliberate control and some subtlety to achieve it. What you do with your rod hand is amplified by the long lever of the fly rod. Move your hand up an inch, and the rod moves a lot more than that. So does the fly. So careful attention to the fly, the sighter or your fly line — whatever you’re watching — is necessary to see how much the fly is traveling up and down.

What works best?

For me, jigging starts by finding the bottom. More accurately, I want my fly in the strike zone before I begin the animations.

READ: Troutbitten | The Water Column — And the All-Important Strike Zone

READ: Troutbitten | Forget the Bottom — Glide Through the Strike Zone

With the fly near the bottom, I aim for a six-inch lift as a starting point. And then I deviate from that. With active trout, it’s fair to expect fish to move and eat a streamer that is jigging a foot or even two feet up and down. I do big jigging motions occasionally. But if the trout are that active, then I usually turn to stripping retrieves or a variety of tactics that move the fly across currents, usually in sight — because I find those visual tactics more fun to fish over active fish anyway.

So I use jigging when the trout are less willing to move, when they are holding tight to their lies. And jigs from three to twelve inches are my most common.

Cold float. Photo by Bill Dell

Stay Connected

Jigging is one of the easier streamer presentations to learn. But if performed poorly and without attention to detail, it is ineffective. A lot of strikes will be missed if the angler is too far out of touch.

We lift the fly by raising the rod tip. And to let the fly fall, we lower the rod tip to its original height. But try to match the speed of the rod drop to the speed of the fly drop. This is the secret sauce of good jigging. Drop the rod too fast, and slack builds up, putting you out of touch when the trout usually eats — on the fall. But drop the rod too slow, and there’s too much tension on the flies. That tension does not allow the streamer head to tilt back down and complete that rocking motion of jigging (head up on the lift — head down on the fall) which is a key trigger to the tactic.

So too, jigging is often best performed with two hands. The rod tip lifts, and as the rod tip returns back to original height, the line hand strips in excess slack.

Upstream Again

It’s worth noting that jigging can be done at any presentation angle. I strongly prefer working with casts upstream or up and across, because I find the options and variations for how to move the fly more open.

But you can jig with a downstream approach. Imagine hanging the flies downstream with a high rod tip. Now quickly drop the rod. What does the streamer do? Given enough weight, the fly drops with the release of tension and drifts downstream a bit. Pick the rod up, and the fly travels up and back to its original position. Repeat this until you piss off the fish. While it’s not my favorite method for jigging, this one to keep in your back pocket.

But What About the Flies?

As in every other method of fly fishing, I believe far too much attention is given to the flies themselves. I’ve jigged with literally every fly in my streamer box. Big, small, heavy or light — any fly can be jigged up and down.

But George Daniel makes an excellent point. If we want the fly to return to the bottom quickly, if we want it to achieve depth efficiently in the first place, then using streamlined flies without bulk and combining that with heavy head-weight is a clean way to fish. (And truthfully, these are my favorite choices for the method.)

Certain streamers lend themselves to certain presentations. And the ball jigs that I wrote about a few years ago are perfect for the tactic of jigging streamers. I choose these flies most often because they cut through the water, touch and roll the bottom without hanging up, and drop quickly after each jig.

READ: Troutbitten | Troutbitten Fly Box — The Jiggy Streamers

However, you do not need jig hooks to jig streamers. I regularly mix in jig retrieves as I fish my favorite Bunny Bullet Sculpin, and I do it with a sizeable split shot in front of the streamer. With the shot either snugged against the eye of the hook, or placed six inches up, it’s easy to work jig motions into the presentation of any fly without built-in head weight.

The Bunny Bullet Scuplin

In fact, with the shot before the fly, six to ten inches up the line, I’m jigging the split shot and the fly follows along. This gives a much more subtle lift and fall. It evens out the dramatic shift between climbing and dropping. There are problems with this rig too (such as hanging bottom more often) but the unique look to the streamer is one that entices trout.

Can you jig a big articulated Galloup’s Boogie Man? Absolutely. And while the up and down motion may not be as pronounced as what you’ll get with something like George’s ball jig version of the Kreelex Minnow, jigging works with big and bulky flies too.

Kreelex Minnow Jigs. That’s some crazy flash.

Bottom line: Try jigging with all of your favorite fly patterns, and you’ll find the advantages or disadvantages of each.

But What About the Leaders?

If you really want to impart vertical, up and down motion to the fly, then a tight line system like the Mono Rig is your perfect setup. With direct contact available at any time, and with no line on the water’s surface, lifting the rod tip results in the fly rising in the water column. But the same cannot be said for a standard fly line setup. Imagine this . . .

With a nine foot leader to a Craft Fur Jiggy, you make a cast of thirty-five feet, upstream and a little across. Given a ten foot rod and the leader attached to a standard five weight floating fly line, that cast of thirty-five feet absolutely requires that a good deal of line and leader must lay on the water — about fifteen feet to start. Now, when the fly reaches bottom, go ahead and lift the rod.

What happens? Does the fly lift in the current?

Not much. Because lifting the rod does nothing more than pull the fly line across the water’s surface. Lifting the rod, in this case, isn’t much different than stripping line. The action of both results in the same motion to the fly — the streamer moves forward more than up. This is the case with medium to long presentations involving a fly line and a standard leader. So once again (just as in nymphing) the fly line limits our presentation options to underwater flies.

On the same rig, if presentations are kept at about twenty-five feet or less, then the fly line can be held off the water, and motions of the rod up and down will have more of the expected up and down jigging effect on the streamer.

Jigging with both sinking and floating lines can work, but they are inherently more limited in range, and the mechanics of getting the fly to rise and fall significantly are more work while less effective.

Simply put, jigging is easier to control, with more deliberate action, on a tight line rig. The two are a perfect match.

One Golden Tip

By mixing jigging into our streamer presentations, we add a new dynamic. We no longer just slide and glide, cross currents and hover. Now we dip and rise, dive and climb through the column. It’s another dimension to be explored. Offer it to the trout, and let them decide.

I’ll leave you here with one favorite tip for jigging streamers.

Jigging is mostly a bottom affair. And in average conditions, I cannot see the streamer that I’m moving, especially when using some of my favorite olive shaded patterns.

Yes, I watch the sighter built into the tight line rig. But for even more visibility and a closer reference to my streamer, I add a simple Backing Barrel (with or without the tag) on the tippet leading to the fly. The bright orange barrel adds no weight or influence over the drift, while it provides an excellent reference for exactly where my streamer is and how much I’m moving it up and down. The Backing Barrel is slidable. So I can reposition it to put the reference wherever I like.

Fish hard, friends.

READ MORE : Troutbitten | Category | Streamers

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Enjoy the day.
Domenick Swentosky
T R O U T B I T T E N
domenick@troutbitten.com