I very seldom use anything other than roadrunners (blakemore),in the spring without minnows and in the summer with minnows,I jig mostly brush piles and hang them alot that is why i like the blakemores because you strighen out the hook and rebend it and start fishing agian,this only works if you use a braided line,in my case berkley high vis. powerline,I have used many of them until the paint wore off or the spinner broke off but very seldom lose one,present them like any other jig and once in a while give the line a very light twitch and let it rest,most of the time the bite will come while the lure is still,at least that has been my experence with them.

One thing my nephew Roger does with the blakemore heads is trim the tail hair to about 1/4" from the end of the hook. He was getting short bites that he would feel but the fish would not get hooked. He trimmed the tail and viola...more fish in the bucket.

You might not have to do this everytime, but just a tip from my Nephew Rog....

R

I never buy any of the rigged roadrunners. If you look around on ebay and other places you can get a good deal on some of the heads without bodies. I think I gave 8.00 for 25 of them. Then you can put whatever body you want on it, and you have a rigged jig for about.45-.50 a piece.

Quite often active crappie can be found above and to the sides of brush piles rather than mixed in with the brush. Roadrunners are very effective in catching these fish. I always have a light rod with a roadrunner ready to use. Cast out and count them down till you feel the brush, try to keep the next casts about a foot above the brush. But experiment on depth. I've had better luck by using a steady slow retreive rather than a yo-yo or up and down motion. Get it a try, you have nothing to lose but a few roadrunners.

I have always had luck drifting them but have never really used them much for verticle fishing. I guess the guess above have done great with it and am sure they are spot on.