I often fished with my old Uncle Guy when I was a youngster, and I remember how he skittered for largemouths in the oxbow lakes we visited. He would first catch a sunfish and cut a piece of flesh from its belly. This was affixed to a stout hook tied to several feet of Dacron line on a long, sturdy cane pole. While I sculled him about, he skittered that piece of fish-flesh across openings in weed patches and caught dozens of bass. In later years, he sometimes used a weedless Johnson Silver Minnow spoon with a pork frog or eel trailer, a technique still employed by most "skitterers."

JIGGERPOLING
Uncle Guy also taught me jiggerpoling. This was a fairly common bassing method in the mid-1960s, at least in the backcountry waters we fished. While crappie fishing, we'd watch many anglers working shallow shoreline cover with their jiggerpoles. And if the crappie weren't biting, we'd join them.

For jiggerpoling, we employed the same cane poles we used for crappie. The light line was replaced by heavy Dacron run along the pole, from butt to tip, and secured at regular intervals with strips of electrical tape. A 12- to 24-inch piece extended beyond the tip. To this was attached a topwater lure, usually a Heddon Dowagiac or Creek Chub Pikie.

"You want to make it look like a little fish is chasing an even littler fish on the surface," Uncle Guy explained. "You do this by tapping your rod tip on the water ahead of the lure as you pull it around. This makes it look like the lure is chasing a minnow, and when a big bass sees this, he'll rush in and grab it."

Back and forth went Guy's rod tip. He held the jiggerpole in his left hand, and balanced it across his right knee. He would gently shake the pole with his right hand, flipping the water with the pole's tip. Then, without warning, the water would boil as if someone had flushed a toilet: Bass on! Uncle Guy would back the pole in and hoist another largemouth into the boat.

We worked all cover near the banks thoroughly. This provided a sure advantage. Anglers who cast and retrieve may miss fish lying between targets, but with a jiggerpole, you can cover an entire shoreline. And because the pole is so long, you can lift your lure and put it in pockets that might otherwise be missed. You can fish in the center of logjams, under low-hanging boat docks and behind stumps and bushes. Few places exist where a jiggerpole won't swim a topwater.

Reason two for jiggerpoling's effectiveness: The lure remains longer in the fish's strike zone than does a lure being cast and retrieved. Bass see and hear the lure coming down the bank and wait in ambush. When fish aren't feeding aggressively, an angler can slow the pole's rhythm, making the lure look so tempting a bass will strike even if it's not hungry.

When jiggerpoling was at the peak of its popularity, cane poles were used, but modern practitioners prefer 12- to 16-foot fiberglass or graphite/composite jigging poles. Dacron was the line of choice for old-timers, but folks now use braided lines. The line should be stout, 30-pound-test minimum. To avoid losing fish if the pole's tip breaks, run line along the whole length, and tape it at several points. Leave only a foot or two beyond the tip, and place a snap swivel at line's end to lessen line twist.