As I shuffled through a stack of photos while looking for last month's article, I noticed something. A staggering number of the fish I have caught over the years have been caught in the same simple manner. It doesn't matter what type of fish they are and I've even won a large regional tournament where the majority of the fish weighed, including four of the biggest seven, were caught in the same manner. Sure, I use this method as a go-to type presentation when things get tough, but there are many times during the spring, summer and fall that I'll actually start out with this simple method based on experience and knowledge that all fish are suckers for this presentation. I'm talking about a jig tipped with 1/2 crawler or a lively minnow and nothing else. Simple, effective and anyone can do it. The neat thing about this presentation is any fish can and will hit a jig with a little meat on it. All bass, walleye, musky, northern, trout, panfish and rough fish will hit a jig and bait. Sure, I know that at any time with any lure you can probably make the same claim, but it is even more so with crawlers and minnows. I write this to you on the heels of finishing a tournament where the majority of our keeper walleye were caught on a jig and crawler or a floating jig and crawler. I include a slip sinker and floating jig head here only as that is what we were doing and a floating jig head is still a jig except that it floats. For the most part I'll use this presentation as a live bait rig rather than a jig. My only angle to this type of fishing that differs from most other anglers is that I use much lighter line than most and to me a 1/4 oz. Jig in most case is considered to be a cannon ball. Sure there are times in swift current or deep water or with larger bait that a larger jig is the only way to go, but day in and day out a light jig is the right jig for me. There are many instances where I will be literally smoking the guy at the opposite end of my boat. For the most part, where my buddies would by tying on a 1/8 oz. or even a 1/4 oz. jig, I'll be using a 1/16 oz. Now, granted my line choices allow me to get a 1/16 oz. jig much deeper than sane people, there is a great deal of technique in working a light leadhead in most situations. As an example, many times, I cannot feel the bottom or may not contact the bottom during the whole retrieve other than to just occasionally brush it as the jig swims along. I'm going on feel to be sure, but a lot of it is being able to read the bottom and just keep my jig swimming along. If a fish even so much as swims up and breaths on the jig, I feel it. The mistakes many anglers make is to pound the devil out of a jig on the bottom. Sure, there are times when the fish will want a jig bounced or dragged along the bottom, but there are many more times where they don't. As an example, take the trip on the Wolf River while pre-fishing for the Masters Walleye Tournament last year on the Winnebago system. I had found a spot that from the water looked featureless and barren. It is also in a fly-by section of the river (a fly-by is so named as most anglers never stop to look, they stay on plan and "fly-by"). I've not seen another boat fish it yet. We had been floating along down the river with the current vertical jigging and to a lesser extent pitching at the bank when I noticed the bottom come up, forming an abrupt rise and then drop off almost as abruptly 10 feet later. I also caught a small walleye as we crossed the face of the rise, a point, underwater along a featureless bank. What I have since come to learn is this is and old rip-rapped point in the river from years back before the dames in Neena-Menasha had formed the present day 'Bago system. Under normal water levels you have to watch out as you can ground out the boat if you are right along the bank where moments before you had five feet of water. Upon figuring out what I had found, I slid the boat out off the tip at the 12 foot mark and began casting back in at the bank and upstream of the point face. The walleyes were stacked up on the upriver face of this point anywhere from five feet to seven or eight feet deep, near the inside corner at the bank. It is a wordy description, but I hope you can picture it. The fish absolutely would not hit anything that was dragged along the bottom or that was not moving along with the current. This was all found out by trial and error and my catching seven fish to my buddies none. It was not that I am a better fisherman than my buddy, it's just that he stuck with a vertical jigging presentation and when I held the boat in place, he cast downstream, away from the point and hopped his jig back up current. What these walleye wanted that day is something that walleyes will respond to frequently and that is a jig just swimming along hovering just off bottom, with the current flow. This is actually what you should be doing while vertical jigging and slipping with the current. When you move the boat down river your goal is to keep the line absolutely vertical from the tip of the rod to the jig. If this is not done, you'll lose your feel and the ability to properly present your jig. You'll also snag up with the bottom more often as you'll most likely end up dragging the jig more often, especially with a light weight jig. When I am vertical jigging, 90% of the time within six inches of the bottom and I only contact bottom occasionally to make sure I'm within six inches of the bottom. Also, my eyes are glued to my locator so I can better anticipate depth changes. Frequently I'll hop the jig up and down or wiggle it a little, but I still rarely hit the bottom. When the fish do react bumping the bottom, then I'll go with the flow and rap the bottom frequently. When you do rap the bottom, it is also a fairly quick process as with moving water and a moving boat, you are just asking for trouble. Before I go any further, I mentioned my equipment earlier, I would like to explain my line choice, rods and things. I now predominately use Fire Line for all my jigging tasks, I have it on three rods, I have two 6-foo medium light graphite rods and one 6'6" medium graphite rod. The two medium-light action rods handle the bulk of my jigging and jigs up to 1/4 oz. The medium rod does 1/4 oz. jigs or when I'm fishing ultra shallow and need the bigger diameter line to slow the descent of my jig. I use Fire Line in the 6 lb. test 2 lb. diameter on the two shorter rods and the 14 lb. Test 6 lb. diameter on the longer rod. I prefer the fused superline over monofilament as the increase in feel is extraordinary and hooksets are solid and sure. When you pull the jig in really fast when using a crawler, you can actually feel the tail of the worm wiggling like a twister tail. And when you use and Orbit tail from Bait Rigs, your jig feels like a small spinnerbait. The one big difference with the super line is you have to learn to wait till you feel the weight of the fish before you sweep the hook home. If you do not wait, you'll pull the fig away from many fish. Also, if you set the hook like a maniac, you'll rip the jig out of the fish's mouth. The use of Fire Line also kept me from getting rid of the two best jigging rods I have ever owned. You see, all of my Bait Rigs jigs use Mustad's Accu-Point hook. This is a very strong, very sharp hook. It is also not a light wire hook by any means. When I first started using the two rods I call twins, with 6 lb. monofilament, I did not always get enough force to drive home in certain situations. These rods are rated as medium light but perform more like light action rods and by going to fused line, I now rarely miss a fish that I set the hook on. And the sooksets hold fast. I also prefer the super small diameter as now in areas where I used to have to use a 1/8 oz. jig, I can use a 1/16 oz. jig and an 1/8 oz. jig feels like a brick. The fine diameter also performs better in the wind and I can make long casts (where needed) without flinging the bait off the hook. I mentioned that I use the heavier line where I want the line to slow the jigs fall, I'll also add plastic tails to a jig to accomplish the same thing, but when fishing a plain jig, the line size is the thing. I'll also use the heavier rod and line around cover such as dense weeds and things. Is my system for everybody? No, not at all. But the general rule off keeping the jig in the fish's face and using the lightest jig possible is. Also, you don't always need a gaudy 1/4 oz. jig and a 4 inch tail and some bait to attract walleyes. Time and time again a small subtle colored plain jig fits the bill for tough fishing in conditions no mater where you fish.