Vertical or Horizontal?

When you step foot on a lake for the first time and you reach into your rod box what do you have tied on for your first drop? Do you go horizontal or vertical most of the time?

I would have to say for me 9 times out of 10 I’m dropping a Tungsten Tubby Jig right off the bat. The exception for me on a new lake would be if I’m not marking a lot of fish and I’m really covering a lot of water I will start out with a Flash Champ or a Tingler spoon.

I like a slender spoon, tingler spoon to start. I think/hope to attract any fish in the area with some hard jiging.

For me a lot depends on the time of year.. Early and late ice my first go to baits will be Vertical like the Flash Champ, Tumbler or Lil Cecil .. But when it comes to the mid winter blues I will start out horizontal. I will drop down the 1/64 oz Tubby Tungsten or Pug Bug tipped with meat or plastic..

For panfish, always horizontal! I very occasionally use spoons for crappies, but maybe only once a year on average.

For walleyes, I still usually start horizontal with a Jigging Rap or some kind of darter, but do use vertical spoons more often than for panfish.

Under the ice I always started out vertical and fairly large and looked in water where the most active fish generally could be found. One thing I found towards the end of my ice fishing was that if the crappies were going to hit hard on a vertical bait, I could use a plain old jighead of about 1/32 and a plastic generally associated with open water up to a couple inches and do just as well as any vertical jig/plastic would.

A lot of the water I fished in the winter was in the 30 foot range. I generally started fishing very high in the water column and worked my way down. I normally would not have to drop any deeper than the middle portion of the water column to find active fish….those that show on a flasher for five seconds or so.

If fish were present but would not hit the larger more aggressive baits I’d down-size the plastic, not the jig. If I had to fish any closer than 4 feet to the pile of neutral fish in the bottom I changed locations and started over.

I think if more people learned to target active fish and stay away from the bottom they’d do better in the quality of fish they caught. Find where the sweet spot is that feeding fish are patrolling and much larger and more aggressive baits will reward them with much larger fish and horizontal or vertical becomes less of an issue.

For pan fish, Genz aka Lindy worm. Drops fast and has been a very good producer for me.

I always start horizontal but I’m old, the old rockers & purists were designed for that type of presentation, it took a of time for lots of people to figure it out especially when the bite is tough

Tom Sawvell often gives good advice, so reread his last paragraph again. Then, think about shallow water and how small the cone angle is on your flasher. I have seen many anglers fixate on those inactive fish hugging the bottom because they are visible on the sonar. The bigger, more active “high flyers” are fewer in number no doubt, but what do you want to catch?

It’s been a weird cycle for me, been a tear drop or plain hook guy for years since that was what me and my step dad used when I was a kid. Last few years I went horizontal. This year I have gone back to about 90 percent vertical. My first lure all season has been a 1/16 pink glow VMC tingler spoon tipped with a single waxie. It has been so unreal that rarely have I switched, even bluegills have been pounding it. When it has slowed I have gone to the vertical demon jigs tipped with a waxie or mustache worm with one leg pinched off. I have used a VMC tungsten tubby a little bit this year tipped with plastic but it hasn’t been often. I am sure it would catch fish but you know what they say, if it aint broke dont fix it.