Had my first experience vertical jigging, I am amazed by the variety of species you can catch with this method, to top it off it is a very exciting method as well. Since the first session I was jigging and fishing non stop in my sleep...
It was not our intention to jig as we were told by the locals the only method is pilchards or lure for the pelagic and squid on the bottom. After waisting some time with bait we decided to give this jigging thing a go, and first cast.. fish on.
The catch above is some of the fish caught in a few hours of fishing on 2 separate days. The family joined the fun on the 2nd day, which made the men tour guides and the wife's realised how much fun it is (not sure how I will get some alone time on the boat now)
Our weapons of choice;
Rod1 : 5'8" Shimano Backbone Elite BBE 24 - 37
Stella 18000 SW
80lb Suffix braid
150lb Rovex Mono leader
Rod2 : 6' Elbe Titan 60 - 80lb
Okuma Salina SA 65S
50lb Suffix braid
80lb Pioneer Mono leader
We fished 55m of water with good signs on the bottom and some fish showing through various levels in the water column. Driving up current and drift over the signs jigging away. The mack tunas and spotties were generally caught mid to top.
I bought five 300g pelagic knifes on ebay (cheap and nasties - but they work) and we had about ten 150g Williamson knife jigs. The 150g's worked fine at the depth but with the fairly fast drift I thought the 300g's were much more effective getting to the bottom at decent speeds. We also had the bigger hookups with the larger jigs.
I learned the hard way how important decent knots are, we also lost a bunch of knifes with bite offs. It appears (by the angle of the cut on the leader) that some of the fish hits the jig from the top.
Do you guys use wire leader on the jigs?
We lost a lot of knifes but I decided to retire the beast below after I realised the hook was missing (not sure how many times it got drowned without the hook attached)
We also tried the octo head jigs with amazing results, also retired the one below (60g version), but lost the bigger ones very quickly.
A virgin version, a 200g unit.
Most of these octo jigs were smashed on the way down, I just love them. Unfortunately it feels like we are feeding bread to birds, loose one every other cast.
Anyway, I have learned a lot in two sessions and look forward to the next session....
