So have y’all heard about jigger-poling for bass?

Seems it’s a new thing now for some. IDK.

But, back in the late 60’s, when I was in my mid teens, we used to jigger-pole for bass out in the Everglades at night.

Run a big, long Calcutta cane pole, about 1-2’ 130# Dacron line and either the biggest devils horse you could get at the time or a musky jitterbug and go along the edge of the canals back in the glades at night. Blacker than black, nothing but red eyes as far as you could see out there. We caught some big bass back then. But it’s all fun and games until that gator hits, then the real fun begins 🤣🤣

I've stumbled upon gator hooks while browsing before. I think they were 28/0. When you're not gator fishing, you can climb castle walls.

Not sure what you’re referring to Montana.

This is what I’m talking about:

Outdoor Life

This Forgotten Bass Fishing Tactic Required 18-Foot Poles...

Jiggerpoling was an old-school technique for landing lots of summer bass. Here’s how it worked.

That technique goes back centuries to the 14th century. Southerners used it to put food on the table. It worked very well here in Florida.

Jigger pole fishing runs deep in Florida...

The following Pepsi Tribute film was filmed in August and September of 1977. Seen here are Ronnie Van Zant and Gary Rossington fishing in Doctor's Lake, Orange Park, Florida just off shore from Ronnie's then house.

In the opening few seconds of this video from 09 seconds to 23 seconds in, Ronnie Van Zant for some unknown reason is seen jigger pole fishing. Its as though he were using jigger pole fishing to send a message. A message that the roots of the music came from Nature itself. Man in Nature surviving from the land and water. Ronnie showing his family's roots in Florida by way of a rare fishing technique used for food, not sport fishing. This was a food technique before sport fishing.

In a way, Ronnie was connecting his music back to old Florida through jigger pole fishing. On October 20, 1977 just weeks after this film, he would die in a plane crash. This is the last known video of him fishing and he chose to include jigger pole fishing. We will never know why for sure.

"It was largely outlawed in bass tournaments due to its high effectiveness, which many anglers felt gave jiggerpolers an unfair advantage over conventional casting methods."

Hmmmm... so Southerners had an advantage that was taken away from them in tournament rules.

Maybe we need some jigger pole tournaments!

And to the OP, a gator on the end of an 18 foot pole way out there is better than a gator following a bass back to my hand!