Vertical Jigging Line

Hey all, I’m interested in setting up a rod strictly for vertical jigging and have basically only used a braid/fluoro combo on all of my setups. Anyone feel that mono outperforms it for vert jigging? Thanks.

No, stick with what your familiar with. Braid and a medium light fast action rod will be a nice set up. For strictly vertical jigging shorten the rod up to around 6′. Shorter rods get blown around less and make staying vertical much easier.

To me it’s not a black vs white decision. There’s benefits and disadvantages with all lines. After years of braids and superlines I only use mono, but a premium, low-stretch one – being 6# Hi Seas Grand Slam. It comes in hi vis gold when you can find it. I use it because I almost never jig in water deeper than 15′ and usually just 8-12′ so there’s not much stretch anyway. I use Avid ML XF rods. With the XF tip and no stretch in braids and superlines I’ve found that tiny bit of mono stretch is ideal to help keep fish hooked up and also helps with the bite so I feel the fish before they feel me.

Big disadvantages of braids and superline are 1. no forgiveness (I feel with XF rods either the line or the rod needs some play in it, 2. when there’s a bad spot in the line it’s hard to see or feel and most likely it’ll just break – at least with mono nicks are clearly visible and you can feel it so you know when and where to cut off line and retie, 3. adding a fluorocarbon leader is yet another knot to retie and another break point 4. those lines are more expensive than mono, 5. finally when the jigging strokes aren’t getting the job done and you need to quickly switch to dragging mono excels for me so for shallow applications I’d stick to mono.

I like mono better when the line is a little shorter. On the Rainy this spring, for example, we spent a lot of time in 13 and 14′. In water that shallow i think mono out-performs braid; you have that little extra tick of forgiveness. The braid guys in our boat were swinging and missing quite a bit. If you go braid, go extra fast ML. Just my 2 cents.

Ty Kennedy wrote:

Hey all, I’m interested in setting up a rod strictly for vertical jigging and have basically only used a braid/fluoro combo on all of my setups. Anyone feel that mono outperforms it for vert jigging? Thanks.

I use both depending on the temperature. I think there is a distinct advantage for me personally with mono. There is a little stretch that gets me better and more hook sets. Once the temperatures get below 40 is when I do more vertical jigging. In the past I think I have lost fish do to pulling out the hook to fast with fire line. Six pound test with hi vis line seems to do just fine, and catches me more walleyes. Warmer temps has me back to fire line.

Okay cool thank you everyone!!

This is the most pro mono thread I have ever read. I just rigged up a St. Croix Avid 6’6 ML F with Suffix 832. So far I have really enjoyed using it jigging. I do keep a rod with mono on it should i feel the need to go back

I switched to 832 Braid years ago, and haven’t switched back…

I use a lot of Nanofil for my vertical jigging. 3 or 4 pound for crappies/sunfish, 6 for walleyes/sauger. A good mono is hard to beat but for the vertical jigging I think the mono should move over to a quality braid. Not all braids will suit you so be sure to give a few of the more popular brands a decent test run. You’ll know when you find the right one.

Obviously not a right or wrong, but I love fishing braid. I’ve used a bunch of brands but for me the Suffix 832 is my favorite braided line that I’ve tried so far. I do use mono and fluorocarbon at times, but for me, the sensitivity of braid is undeniable. I too was fishing the Rainy this year, and my buddy missed a lot of fish using braided line, but I was also using braided line, with no troubles and a great hook up percentage. Definitely not bragging (skunked both this past Saturday and Sunday) I just wanted to show it may not have been the braid to cause people to miss fish because of the lack of stretch. Also, if your finances allow it, and you feel the need to interchange depending on how you are fishing, buy another spool, or even another reel. Good luck to ya.