coming to reefs for first time.

As the title of my post reads I'm coming to fish the reefs for the first time. I have been reading this forum for a couple of years and the reports are way better than where I'm from. I have bought a selection of hair jigs and just about every other lure. I just hope I have everything I need. Should I tip my jigs with a minnow? Do you guys use Berkley alive? I'm a Detroit river guy so I'm not sure how to fish the reefs yet. Any advice will help me. Is it vertical jigging like river jigging? I need help I guess.. thanks to anyone that replies.

you have a PM

I hope you do well you will be hooked on jig fishing in the early spring on the reefs or up tight in the shallows tip with a minnow or not depends on what the fish are prefering some use blade baits I like a 3/4 ounce purple hair jig tipped with as big a shiner as can be had vertical jig just nicking the bottom and bring back up medium slow keep your boat super slow with a wind sock if the wind is there you dont have to go out real far to find fish either. let us know how you do

I'll be watching this thread closely. My first year attempting to hit the jig bite alone. I've only done it on a charter. Ought to be interesting.

I LOVE jig fishing i am by far not the most experienced fisherman on this site i am just learning myself but what i like to do is fish 50 50 half the guys use tipped and the others dont maybe this is due to my lack of experience but i find it works quicker to find what they want. I always tipped my jig with a minnow because thats what i thought you had to do untill i was on the water getting skunked while the guy next to me had them jumping into the boat asked him the question and we took the minnows of the hook, couldnt keep em out the boat.I have a lot to learn on lake erie thats why i love this site so much everyone is willing to help. Good luck

Ha ha ha. It's easier than that. Pick your jacks then go deep from there. Jig for jacks, then run out to 29-30
And troll for sows. Gotta run a smorgasbord to start. Harnesses, spoons, body baits till ya get a pattern. Speed, type of bait, etc. fish all columns of water over deeper water. Good Luck

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Originally Posted by Hoss928

I'll be watching this thread closely. My first year attempting to hit the jig bite alone. I've only done it on a charter. Ought to be interesting.

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if you,ve done it on a good charter your already a step up on alot of guys. you can learn more on one charter than you can learn in years on your own. just repeat what you did on the charter but dont be afraid to try anything.

me and my crew made it up one time for the jig bite. then we didnt have a clue what we were doing. we ended up just drifting the holes between the reefs. we caught fish but just never went back up that early. that was back in the early 80,s. this year i have plans to go back up with some friends that fish the jig bite every year. so maby i,ll learn something about jig fishing the reefs.

when i moved from the western basin to the central basin i was lost. i had used downriggers and planer boards on the western basin and on lake michigan. so i could run them but i only had 2 riggers. and i really didnt know how to get down to the fish using the big boards. i had never even seen a dipsy used. so we went out on a charter. i learned how to run 3 divers on each side but thats all i really knew. so we planned a trip with my boat. we chartered the guy out again on our 1st day up then was on our own. that has been 15 to 20 yrs ago and i still have so much more to learn. i didnt even know about using inline weights untill last year. we took another charter out on our first day. he used inline boards with inline weights. i did learn alot but im not ready to give up my lite bite slide divers which i use now. but i think i could run the inline weights over the top of my lite bite slide divers if i ever need to.

i would highly recommend anyone going to a new type of fishing to take out a good charter atleast once. or find some open seats with someone who knows what there doing and go to school. and tell the caption youre going to school. he will or should spend more time teaching than just catching fish.
sherman