Deep Water Jigging

[BretABaker]

We do quite a bit of deep jigging here in NZ when targetting Hapuku, bass and bluenose.

Typical depths are from 150m-300m but have gone as deep as 405m and caught a couple of bass to 22kg at that depth.

Suprisingly when we target bluenose at a couple of spots at around 260m we have also caught yellowtail kingfish from the same spot and reasonable sized ones too of around 25kg.

The reels we generally use for the deep stuff are Shimano Ocea Jiggers in the 5000P size and spooled with PE6. jig weights generally around the 400-500gm range.

thats over 1300 feet. good god.

[Sea Draggin]

Jim, I'll have to remember that next time we aren't fishing the same boat together. I think hearing "I'm at the 34.05 line in 75 meters" would make a lot of people laugh. I know I would if I heard it on the radio.

I think the only folks that will get that will have to have piloted a vessel somewhere between Morehead and OI. It probably went right by everyone else. Catch me if you can.

Right now I'm on 36.03 in negative 270 meters.

[Accident Prone]

thats over 1300 feet. good god.

Yeah mate, its quite funny taking newbie jiggers out to the deep spots

It does take quite some time for the jig to touch down yes, we generally set up the drift and drop just before the target zone then intermitantly back up to stay over the top of the line.

The big Shimano OJ (5000P) has plenty of line capacity when spooled up with PE6 (around 600m). this coming season i beleive we will be trying some spots between 400-500m so it will be quite interesting

There is one particular skipper here in NZ that is so good at drifting a boat its just crazy, he can keep you on the spot in 300m of water and while its blowing 25knts of wind. Very talented man!.

[BretABaker]

thats awesome man! im saving some miles to head down there at some point. not sure is 2010 will work but i definitely want to come in the next couple years. hopefully it won't require too many miles

[Accident Prone]

Bret,

Let me know roughly when you are thinking of coming down mate and let me know what you are interested in chasing and I will point you in the right direction and quite possibly join you. I often deck on the boat I mentioned above as the owner is a mate of mine and he operates out of Whakatane and fishes White Island a lot targetting big kingfish and big bottom fish so yeah I can definitely help you out with fishing and accomodation.

I have just had another mate of mine design his new website, check it out if you like... http://www.memorymakers.co.nz

Cheers,
Josh

[BretABaker]

Hey Josh will do. If I can scrape some funds together I'd love to. Especially some super deep jigging. I love pulling stuff up from the deep. something about not knowing what you're pulling up is fun .

not to mention the kingfish and hapuka....

[paul708]

Yeah mate, its quite funny taking newbie jiggers out to the deep spots

It does take quite some time for the jig to touch down yes, we generally set up the drift and drop just before the target zone then intermitantly back up to stay over the top of the line.

The big Shimano OJ (5000P) has plenty of line capacity when spooled up with PE6 (around 600m). this coming season i beleive we will be trying some spots between 400-500m so it will be quite interesting

There is one particular skipper here in NZ that is so good at drifting a boat its just crazy, he can keep you on the spot in 300m of water and while its blowing 25knts of wind. Very talented man!.

sounds like a quite a captain.
what size fish you catching?

[Accident Prone]

sounds like a quite a captain.
what size fish you catching?

Yellowtail kingfish in the area can range from little rats to over 45kg but I would say that commonly you would catch fish of around 15kg-25kg. We have seen some pretty special days out there though with several over 30kg landed and a lot more that didn't get seen.

White Island can be hot and cold but when its hot its HOT!

Deep water species like Hapuka commonly range in size from 12-18kg but some really nice fish of around 35kg+ have also been caught on the odd day. Chris Wong actually landed his personal best Hapuka out with Lionel from Memory Maker Charters last year which I think was in the high 30kgs from memory.

Bass again can really vary and are generally of around 15-25kg at White Island but they have also hit the deck at around 65kg too.

Bluenose which are my favourite deep water fish as they are such great fighters and fight a lot longer than the other species + they are absolutely stunning to eat are commonly around the 15kg mark but again there have been days when they have been caught to 42kg. Lionel is an absolute gun at jigging bluenose and he has caught many over 30kg. I myself am stuck at 27kg which I hope to beat this season. A firend of mine and his wife were out a couple of weeks ago and they landed one at 32kg and his wife landed one at 38-40kg.

[plamen]

Hi Josh

It seems, You are the man with deepest jigging experience here…
I wonder would I be able to jigg on regular basis in depths of 400-500 (600?) meter?
Electrically of course, Miya Epoch CX-20 with jigging function.
Current no big issue I think, but rather wind drift.
Jigg weights – do I need to go significant over 500 gram?
Do you practice to connect two jigs together (for higher weight)?

I am fishing the Mediterranean, Greece West Coast, easy to get deep there.
12-16 nm off beach and you are at 1000 meter depth.
I would like to try any depth capable to my Furuno FCV 585.
I have 1000 meter of 0.7mm braid 107kg on the Miya.

Targeting sword, AJ, thuna, etc.

Any advise highly appreciated.

Kind regards,
Plamen