It looks like it’s starting to be a solid winter for slinging cod up north. When the bite is hot, jigging takes the cake as the main game in town to load a cooler full of cod.

This week there’s been solid reports of cod biting off the Montauk/Rhode Island/Block Island area. The key to jigging is to be as lined vertical as possible with minimum angle in the line. When the current is running a little bit, its best to use thicker bullet type jigs that get down to the bottom quickly and hold in the current such as blocky 12 to 24-ounce hammered Diamond jigs or Williamson Gomame jigs. When current is at a minimum, look to drop jigs that reflect plenty of sunlight and have a planed side so they flutter on the drop, like Vike jigs with orange tubes or Crippled Herring jigs, once again in the 12 to 24-ounce range. Jigs are fixed with size 6/0 to 8/0 siwash hooks and tube can be in mackerel colors, fluorescent green/silver or bright orange/silver.

A general jigging rig consists of a 200-pound Spro barrel swivel tied to the first tag end of a section of 48-inch, 50-pound Yo-Zuri TopKnot fluorocarbon leader. A dropper loop is tied 20 inches down from the swivel. On the dropper, an 8 inch red twister tail, 6-inch Berkley Gulp grub or pink squid skirt is fixed on a size 6/0 Baitholder hook. On the tag end, the jig is tied on directly via improved clinch knot. There are also tube jig rigs that consists of three droppers, each affixed with 5-inch rubber tubing in red, green or orange with a jig on the end.

Jigging is accomplished by dropping down to the bottom, then cranking the reel slowly about 10 times before letting the bail open, dropping back down and repeating the process. Another productive method when cod are hanging tight on the bottom is to raise and lower the rod tip at a steady pace in a two to three foot swing. Rods should be beefy medium to heavy, moderate action 7 to 8-foot, such as the Lamiglas 8050C and reels should be high-speed retrieve to fill with 50-pound Power Pro braided line like the Shimano Torium 20 or Avet MXL. Who knows how long this bite will last, but if you get out there, try dropping the metal on ‘em for some quick action.