Tips To Hook More Fish With The Jaw Jacker
1. Make sure your jig is hanging horizontal not vertical.
A horizontal jig in the water is more lifelike and natural than a jig hanging vertically. I believe I get more hits with my jigs horizontal.
2. Sometimes it’s more effective to use 2 jigs on a line instead of 1 where it is allowed.
Several times I’ve caught 2 fish on one line. You can see this happen on the Kokanee salmon video and the Jumbo Perch- 2 over 14 inches video on the JawJacker You Tube channel. The link to the channel is on the home page. When you tie on your first jig, tie it on so that the extra line left over hanging from the knot is about a foot and a half long(this is the line you would normally trim off) . Use this line to tie your second jig to. Be careful if you hook a big fish on this set up so that your second jig doesn’t catch on the edge of the ice and break the fish off.
3. Keep the bait to a minimum on your hook.
Fish under the Ice can be very subtle and just pick at your bait. If you have areas where the fish can nibble without the risk of getting hooked they will do it. When using small ice jigs (# 8 hook and smaller), I use only 1/2 a normal sized meal worm or 1/3 of a jumbo meal worm because that’s all I want on the hook shank. If I leave much at all hanging off the hook, a fish can bite there and I won’t hook it. I also think broken meal worms are better than whole meal worms since it allows their scent to milk out into the water.
4. If you are getting bites on the Jawjacker but not hooking up well, downsize your bait.
I learned this up on Hebgen Lake in Montana. I was using # 8 jigs and 1/16oz paddle bugs to try to catch finicky rainbows. I was getting a lot of bites but my hook up ratio was only about 30% even though the fish were 14 to 20 inches. They weren’t little dinks just playing with my bait, they were large smart fish. I switched to #12 jigs tipped with only 1/2 a meal worm and my hook up ration went up to 80%. My frustrations went away.
