rigging for doggies

[Steve Carruthers]

Hello guys, I'm gearing up for a jigging and popping trip to Taveuni Fiji on the new moon in july and hope to tangle with a few doggies. What would be your ideal leader, assist and jig type be for the doggies?
I jig for kings around the home waters and have some nagamasas, R2Seas, sacrific sticks, zests etc and tie my own assists with 500lb kevlar. It seems most guys use the kevlar and hope that it lasts for one fish??
 

[Brandon Khoo]

Neil, if the doggies are on, they will eat anything but in my experience (please note I do not claim to be an expert on doggies) I have found that small fast jigs seem to turn them on and I have also seen big slow jigs (like big sliders) work well too. Seem almost counter intuitive but...... 

If you are concerned about the doggies biting through your assist, use Zylon. The other alternative which is what I tend to do is to use split rings and swivels. Not even a wahoo is going to bite through this!

[MikeOsborn]

try some lumo tubing over the assist cord.

[Jon Jarvis]

Not tried on doggies but I have been trialling single strand assists. Then heat shrink over the top. Doesnt seem to affect hit rate. Only tried on Bottom fish and macks so far though.

[Steve Carruthers]

Thanks guys, anybody tried the shout metal assists?

[Brandon Khoo]

I've used them but not yet on doggies. They really do look and feel quite flimsy though. Not sure I'd want to use them on really big fish

[Ash Neale]

Used the shout assists and they are ok, only concern is the wire kinking, and the swivel attachment.
 
But yesterday we had the R2Sea rep in and they are toying with an idea but did not get enough positive feed back so they may shelve the idea but we put our 2 cents worth in and asked them to do some.
49 strand wire crimped assist's. Sounds over kill but same thing with toothies of minimal bite off's. I managed to comondeer one to scan and put up for some feed back. They are using 7/0, 8/0 and 10/0 decoy cuttlass hooks and shogun wire and crimps, the only other mod other than a shorter version was a solid ring on the end of the attachment loop. Comments??
Ash.

[Luke Wyrsta]

I have just returned from a trip where we did some small sessions of jigging for dogs. Boy did we find some big ones - only pulling heads in. What I have found is that where Dogs are, there are usually sharks not far away - the amount of dyneema assists that came back up minus a hook was ridiculous. So from now on, only split ring > swivel > split ring for me.

[Neil Griffiths]

I have just returned from a trip where we did some small sessions of jigging for dogs. Boy did we find some big ones - only pulling heads in. What I have found is that where Dogs are, there are usually sharks not far away - the amount of dyneema assists that came back up minus a hook was ridiculous. So from now on, only split ring > swivel > split ring for me.

The only prob here is that you're hooked up to the bloody shark until you land it or you break it off, there goes a hour of fishing time.
I reckon most dogs are landed on dyneema assists ok, they don't have cutting teeth. My own assists have two chords of either 500 or 1000 dyneema, sort of like having a back up system. The sharks are welcome to the hooks!!

[Brandon Khoo]

that was exactly what I was about to post!    Luke, if you enjoy a tussle with a shark, then this rig will almost certainly ensure you get one!

Neil I have found that while the doggies won't bite through the dyneema, they do shred it bit by bit and a couple of fish tends to neccesitate a change. I have some zylon cord but I can't seem to catch a fish with it so I can't say whether it works better - but it is supposed to

[Aaron Concord]

Asisst hooks rigged on 250lb 7 stand wire with crimps....if there is no shark problem!!
Assist hook on MEGA dyneema if the sharks are a pain in the arse....as Neil said, the sharks can have the hooks!!!!!!
Out at the Coral Sea Territories, I watched, on jigs, mutli-strand wire up to 175lb in 7 & 49 strand wear through.
At the front of the popper, jig, stick bait....single strand wire...120-150...cheap, easy to use and just flosses their gums 
Also it's much finer in diameter than most heavy mono bite leaders..

[Steve Carruthers]

Thanks for the tips guys, I'll stick with my 500lb kevlar assists. Definitely don't want to waste time with sharks, very good point that!