I learned something that might benefit other anglers. While fishing the St. Mary’s River with the PWT in late summer of 2008, I combined a “super-line” and monofilament for a very effective jigging tactic. It also produced a top 10 for me and helped me cash in on some nice sponsor incentives.

Total Solutions Technique

While fishing the fast current in 19 to 24 feet of water, the end of the line had a ¾ ounce jig tied to an 18 inch leader of 14-pound mono. A barrel swivel connected the mono to the 8-pound test super-line. Since it was so rocky and snaggy, the mono would saw off when the jig dropped between rocks. It made the re-tying job much easier, but in many cases, the heavier mono pulled free, because it was much stronger than the 8-pound line I normally would use.

Vertical jigging was the answer, and the barrel swivel also eliminated line twist. A key for the river was that the jig needed to have some chartreuse (sunny or cloudy conditions) on it to generate strikes. It was tipped with a whole night crawler.

Since there were numerous huge rocks under water, my amateur partner watched the locator on the console, while I watched the locator on my bow. When the bottom started coming up, we lifted our rods to avoid snagging.

Total Solutions Equipment

The lines that served me so well in this situation were Berkley’s Trilene XL (14 pound test in Clear color), and Berkley FireLine (8 pound test in Smoke color). Using a Berkley Ball Bearing Swivel (model P2BB) to connect the two lines did a great job of eliminating any line twist and made re-tying a breeze.

Berkley® Trilene XL®

Berkley® FireLine®

Berkley® Ball Bearing Swivels Pocket Pack