One of Billy Garner’s favorite ways to catch largemouth bass on the Edisto River is a dying art that many of today’s anglers have never heard of, much less tried. Jiggerpoling, said Garner, is so effective at times that it should probably be illegal. “It isn’t a method that always works,” he said, “but when it’s working, it’s on like gangbusters.”
Jiggerpoling takes specialized equipment, but it’s all pretty simple. Garner gets a long, telescoping fiberglass bream pole, preferably at least 16 feet long, cuts the tip off, and glues on a replacement rod tip.
“I just cut it to the point that the rod eye will fit the diameter of the tip,” said Garner, who runs 50-pound braided line through the eye, wraps the line tightly around the rod, then uses a bow hunter’s knot to secure it.
Garner then ties on a lipped Rapala topwater minnow.
“I tie it so there is 24 to 36 inches of line coming off the tip of the rod,” Garner said.
Anglers can jiggerpole from a small boat or canoe with another person to paddle or operate an electric motor, but Garner opts to fish out of one of his custom-built one-man wooden strip boats. Outfitted with an electric motor and foot-pedal steering, this gives him complete control while leaving his hands free to fish.
Garner glides along the shoreline, keeping close enough that he can reach under overhanging limbs with the long pole. As he pulls the lure along, he rapidly beats the tip of the fishing pole onto the water’s surface, causing a disturbance that Garner said catches the fishes attention.
“The disturbance brings them in, then they see the lure and go after it,” said Garner.
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