What is vertical jigging?
Vertical jigging means fishing with the lure straight below the boat, usually with the boat on a slow drift or held still, using the sounder to find the fish. You see them as arches or lines on the screen, drop the lure to their depth and present it to the centimetre.
A sounder is in practice compulsory. Without one it is not vertical jigging but blind drifting — you are presenting a lure with no idea where the fish are. Modern vertical jigging is closely tied to the arrival of live sonar (Garmin LiveScope, Lowrance ActiveTarget and others), which lets the angler follow both the fish and their own lure in real time.
The main target is zander. Also perch (especially over shoals in deep water) and, to a degree, pike and burbot in winter. Vertical jigging is a relative of casting a jig, but a discipline of its own with its own tackle and its own way of thinking.
Tackle
The vertical rod is short — 6–7 ft (1.8–2.1 m) — with a short handle, a very sensitive tip and a solid backbone. The short rod is what lets you fish tight to the boat without the line running off at an angle; the sensitive tip registers a creeping bite, and the backbone is what sets the hook in a deep fish.
Reel: both multiplier and fixed-spool are used. The multiplier is commonest among dedicated vertical-jigging anglers, for better line contact and quicker depth changes with a thumb on the spool; a fixed-spool works perfectly well for a beginner and is often the choice on lighter rigs.
Line: braid for feel, with a short fluorocarbon leader at the end. Heavier jigheads than when casting — typically 14–25 g on the bottom, 25–35 g in open water or a strong wind.
Lures
A soft plastic on a jighead is by far the commonest choice today. 9–15 cm is the standard size for zander; 18–20 cm is used for big open-water fish. Colour follows water clarity and light: chartreuse and bright tones in coloured or dark water, natural shades (sand, brown, pearl) in clear water.
The balanced jig and the vertical jigging spoon are the classic alternative, especially in winter and when fishing for perch over a shoal. Their advantage is that they hang horizontally or in balance under the boat and move authentically on the smallest rod movement.
To be clear: a jigging spoon is a metal lure, a jig is a soft plastic one. Vertical jigging uses both, but they are different lure types with different actions. In Swedish the balanced ice lure is a “balanspirk”, which is worth knowing when you read a Swedish tackle shop's catalogue.
Water and season
The classic vertical-jigging waters in Sweden are Mälaren, Hjälmaren and Vänern. Hjälmaren is shallow and highly productive, giving big numbers of zander over long, gently shelving edges. Vänern is deep and holds the biggest zander — many Swedish trophy fish come from there. Mälaren is the varied one, with both shallow margins and deeper basins.
Vättern is not a classic zander water for this method — char, trout and burbot dominate there; zander exist but are not the main species. Smaller deep lakes with a good zander stock work very well too.
Season: all year apart from the spawning period. It is especially effective in late autumn and winter, when the fish gather in open water over depth, and again on open water through summer and early autumn. Once the ice comes, vertical jigging turns naturally into classic ice fishing with a jigging spoon.
The difference from casting a jig, in short: vertical jigging is stationary or slowly drifting, short rod, straight under the boat, sounder required. Casting a jig means long casts along edges and structure, a longer rod, and searching for the fish geographically rather than vertically.
