What Does Keeping In Contact With Your Lure Mean?

[GADawgs]

I am reading about jig fishing and senko fishing and lots of the articles say to let it drop on a slack line but keep in contact with the lure. Can someone explain what this means? Thanks in advance!

Chris

[BigMoneyGrip]

"Keeping in contact" is having tension on you line so you feel the lure. "Semi slack" is having slight tension on your line. There will be a little bow in your line this way.

[BigMoneyGrip]

"Keeping in contact" is having tension on you line so you feel the lure. "Semi slack" is having slight tension on your line. There will be a little bow in your line this way.

[GADawgs]

That's where my confusion comes into play. How can you keep in contact with your lure while letting it fall on a slack line?

[zachb34]

The line shouldn't be completely slack if it is then you won't feel a thing. The way I keep in contact is I cast and wait for the bait to sink once the bait hits the water I raise my rod tip up and lower it according to the speed the bait is falling at. That way there's enough slack to fall almost straight down, but there's also not too much so I can feel the bite. Long story short never have a completely slack line

[Brian Needham]

to me it just means, always knowing what your bait is doing.

 

its importance is centered around choosing the right weight for conditions(depth, current, wind, ect)

meaning you don't want to 1/8 ounce drop shot in 30 FOW in a 20 MPH wind.....nor do you "need" to drag a 1ounce football jig on 3FOW gravel bars

[Jrob78]

Keeping in contact with your bait means to keep a controlled amount of slack in your line.  You don't want a tight line but you want to be able to go to a tight line instantly.  You have to be able to detect bites and set the hook while still allowing your bait to fall naturally.  I generally manually feed line out as the bait falls, trying to keep pace with the falling bait.  By watching your line after the cast, you can usually tell how much line to let out.

[WRB]

I am reading about jig fishing and senko fishing and lots of the articles say to let it drop on a slack line but keep in contact with the lure. Can someone explain what this means? Thanks in advance!

Chris

Keeping in contact with your lure means knowing what the lure is doing. This is sometimes called weighing the lure by feeling the line resistance between the rod/reel and the lure. If the lure is a crankbait you can feel the lures vibration, a surface you can visually see the lure. Jigs and other under water lures that don't vibrate or create line resistance from moving through the water column, the only connection you have is the line resistance the weight of the lure applies to the line. If you have a lot of slack line between you and the lure there isn't any feel of lure, you have lost contact, the lure feels weightless.

When you have no feel of the lure you can watch the line for a change of direction, stop sinking or makes a jump in the slack line that indicates a fish may have the lure.

Controlled slack line means managing the amount of slack in the line to a minimum, this helps to keep in contact or feel what the lure is doing.

Type of line, diameter of the line creates more or less line drag going through the water; larger diameter equals more line drag. FC line has less drag going through water than mono. Braids and mono lines float causing a belly of slack line in the water, FC sinks and has less belly. For this reason FC is easier to keep in contact with lures like jigs and worms.

Tom

[Quillback]

Yep, FC is the way to go, with a sensitive rod you can usually feel the fish pickup a jig falling on slack line and with a long rod you can pick up that slack quickly and get a hook set. 

[deep]

That's where my confusion comes into play. How can you keep in contact with your lure while letting it fall on a slack line?

 

You don't want to let it fall on a completely slack line. Follow the bait down with the rod, and have a semi-slack line. This prevents the bait from penduluming back towards you. If the water is tens of feet deep, feed a little line, only as much is required to stop the pendulum effect.

[bigbill]

I keep in contact with my jigs and Carolina rigs. Because the strikes happen as they fall with the Carolina rig, we get the slightest nibble on the Carolina rig in the open water along side the weedlines, if the line isn't taunt we can miss this strike. and when the jig is up off the bottom as we move it up and down. The amount of weight were using determines the line tention.

The main thing is I let the rod tip follow it up and down.I leave the rod tip slightly up as I follow it down on the cast if the water isn't that deep.

When I fish keeping my line taunt I watch the rod tip very closely for the slightest movement. It's the smallest nibble sometimes. It's like in trout fishing.

[GADawgs]

Great, thanks a lot guys!

[OkobojiEagle]

When casting to an "area" rather than a specific piece of structure, I generally don't care if the bait pendulums on a tight line.

oe

[ClackerBuzz]

When casting to an "area" rather than a specific piece of structure, I generally don't care if the bait pendulums on a tight line.

oe

I recommend the pendulum effect for guys that are constantly gut hooking fish...and to complete beginners.  the pendulum won't dramatically effect ur catch ratio. its much better to have tension on ur line when learning how to fish.  you will 'feel' ie hook more fish. hooked fish dramatically help you learn how to detect the many different styles/types of bites.  this will advance you much faster than keeping tons of slack and missing bites.

[JayKumar]

A good rod and braid will help a lot.  Also always watch your line!