Help choosing a rod to go with Stella 20K please.

[Sea Draggin]

I just got a 200g custom spiral wrapped today. Because I like conventionals, the lighter rods haven't been great for me, because they twist/roll over under a big load.

I am hoping that this will be awesome for working those little jigs, but being able to handle the big pulls, without having to use a spinner. Once I have tested it, I will put out a review for those interested. Hopefully that will be Saturday the 18th on a yellowfin.

[kilsong]

Wonder why you do not use the JM 500 as much. "I would do custom, or just get a JM 350, but only from jignpop.com, as Kil will take car of you if anything happens with quality. The 350 is a better all around weight. I have a 500 that I almost never use."

I am looking for a rod to handle those 80-150 lb plus lb. BFT that we target every summer. We do not do any other type of jigging except if we get the smaller canyon Yellowfin, possible Wahoo and maybe a some canyon swords. Day in the day out it will be the BFT.
Regards
Capt John

John,
Lure rating is an indicator how heavy lures you can use and indirectly tells what kind of fish you can target.
General rule of thumb is 300g rod is good for PE6 - 7 (60 lbs - 70 lbs), 400g rod is good for PE7 - PE8(70 lbs - 80 lbs) and 500g rod is good for PE8 - 10( 80 lbs - 100 lbs) though JM Power Spell rods can hanle heavier lines for their line ratings.
You are going to see bluefin 100 - 150 lbs and 200 lbs bluefin on jig is a possibility this year. So I recommend heavy rods for tyour charter as your customers punish them.

When you see Heavy Medal DVD in NZ, you know JM 500g rod is not broomstick. They are pretty muchy bent even by 50 lbs AJ.

I am so confident with JM rods/blanks, I give three full year warranty for them and I even give warranty to custom JM rods for heavy models from 300g - 500g I sell for three years which includes workmanship.

Jim,
Many jigfishermen try to long, slim jigs for tuna, but I can tell you get more hit with short jigs in 6 - 8 inchs in 8 - 10 oz jigs.
I know you want to try your jigs, but try with simple, cheap 8 oz hammered diamond jigs for bluefin and compare with your jigs.

[Sea Draggin]

I know you want to try your jigs, but try with simple, cheap 8 oz hammered diamond jigs for bluefin and compare with your jigs.

There is no reason to. The tuna love the small 160g Katanas and 200g flat side. I just need the right rod to work that size jig, but still handle the big tuna.

[jig42na]

Alot of people seem to mind the 500g JM rods, but I don't have any trouble. I built mine and have the blank cut down to 5' 3"/4" don't remember. Its setup for conventional and it loads just fine. I can whip a tuna in minutes and doesn't hurt. Even some smaller size AJs load it fine but not fully. I also fish alot of 160-240g jigs and it works but not like my 350 JM does. I love that rod. I built it super light.

I would love to fish the AMJ52ex but never had the chance yet.

[austin ensor]

wow!!! thats alot of yard mowing for that rod!! hahah

[kilsong]

Alot of people seem to mind the 500g JM rods, but I don't have any trouble. I built mine and have the blank cut down to 5' 3"/4" don't remember. Its setup for conventional and it loads just fine. I can whip a tuna in minutes and doesn't hurt. Even some smaller size AJs load it fine but not fully. I also fish alot of 160-240g jigs and it works but not like my 350 JM does. I love that rod. I built it super light.

I would love to fish the AMJ52ex but never had the chance yet.

There is misconception that they need lighter rods to give all action to jigs. Just think about how you jigs and what kind action you want to give. 500g JM are fine. The tip size is 10. I am surprised if anyone says they get more bites with 300g rod than 500 g rod when they use over 200g jigs. There is no need to use 150g jigs for tuna jigging.

Visit my shop. You can bent AMJ52EX or Nirai rods.

[NoExcuses]

RRTT5840 Tuna Slayer. Building two for 20Ks right now.

[kilsong]

RRTT5840 Tuna Slayer. Building two for 20Ks right now.

Hi Mike, it looks good. I probably go down to NC for grouper jigging and is looking forward to fishing with you again.

[NoExcuses]

Can't wait Kil. Me and Joe are dying. Even without the constant blow they are not quite 'on fire' yet.

[Caveman Sportfishing]

I have seen a whole lot of tuna caught on jigs over the last 15 years with mostly yellowfins up to about 4 years ago then it has been mostly Bluefins. 90% were caught using just plain old diamond jigs and until recently with those low end trebles or J hooks. One thing that I have not seen very often is how important it is making the jig work other than just dropping it down and giving it a little up and down action. Tuna travel in large groups and once you find them it is usually is tuna mayhem. They eat almost everything you drop down to them and most of the time they are in competition to feed and care little about anything else. The secret is finding them and if you don't this first it does not make a difference what type of tackle or technique you use to jig. There are certainly times they might want a particular color, size or action when jigging and on those days when the tuna are fussy it becomes a real challenge on what works to get them to eat a jig. I have seen this happen but did not have the knowledge in past years nor the selection of tackle to change things up to feed the tuna what the wanted. I am trying to gain enough knowledge plus tackle on board this year to be able to do what is necessary to make changes that might just get the bite started. The changes may be using a lighter jig, different color, style of jig or a lighter rod that imparts more action to the jigs. I have the advantage of tuna fishing almost every day from late June until early November and have been doing this for over 20 years now and by far the most important part of tuna fishing is simply finding them. Most of the time this is pretty easy and no more difficult than exploring the lumps and hills along the 20-30 fathom lines. When canyon Yellowfin jigging in the if you find the good water with lots of life the tuna will be close by usually on a temperature break. (Well not that easy in 2008) In prior years night canyon jigging has produced some awesome tuna fishing with Yellowfins up to 100 lbs on a few trips and a whole lot of them in the 50-70 lb range. It is not black magic and this is far more important than the type of rod or weight of the jig you use and the action it imparts. So many times the jig gets eaten just on the drop and never even needs to be worked at all but that only happens when you find the bait and fish. What I have not been able to figure out yet is the times when the tuna only will eat dead or live bait chunking and totally disregard any jigs. This is not a big deal for the average charter customer as they only want to catch fish and I still end up a hero no matter how we catch them but I am trying to figure out what I can do to get the tuna biting on jigs as well as bait on those days or nights they only want bait. This is especially true when we have dedicated jig fishermen on board and nothing they have tried works except bait and these kinds of days can be frustrating. One big reason I want my customers to be able to get bites on jigs is so often when chunking bait we have to drop down to lighter leaders to get a bite and this is something I hate doing. Light leaders mean less drag pressure which results in long fights which is not good for the tuna. When jigging these long drawn out fights can be avoided by using more drag pressure as light leaders are not required to get a bite most times and to me I think this is so important since most of the Bluefin will be released. I have never seen tuna leader shy when jigging and we use at least 80 lb leaders or more 100% of the time. It is far more important to locate the tuna schools then anything else I have ever experienced and I honestly believe you could use a broomstick with almost any size or type of jig and get a bite. What does concern is that the newer more powerful jigging rods might beat up many of our charter customers and this is far more of a concern to me than what action they impart to the jigs. Plenty of our customers that have fought tuna over 100 lbs in the past but they did this using a full harness with traditional 30-50 lb stand-up tackle or more recently the 16 class reels loaded with spectra. When charter fishing we see all different skill levels but do have the advantage of tuna fishing almost every day from late June until early November but again it is charter fishing and it is my job to find ways to make our customers enjoy jigging and give it a fair chance and the more knowledge I have the better I will be prepared to do this. I fully expect to at least a few Bluefins over 200 lbs plus caught on jigs this coming summer off the Mid-Atlantic coast and if we are lucky at least a some Yellowfins over 100 lbs all caught on jigs or maybe even poppers. Having the right rod is going to be critical to handle these size tuna and that is why I appreciate all the various posts concerning the new quality jigging tackle.
A side bar: In the Ocean City White Marlin Tournament out of Ocean City, MD and South Jersey Tuna Tournament out of Cape May all the winning tuna have been caught trolling even though they allow jigging and chunking and it takes tuna between 150-225 lbs to win the big money but no captain I know would ever consider jigging in any of these tournaments. One of the main reasons is because they did not have tackle that could handle the size tuna it takes to place in the money. Other tournaments are troll only but that is another story. I would love to see a jig category where no trolling or bait allowed and this does not have to be all about big money but more about the skill it takes to tame a big tuna when jigging. Crazy idea but overall I think it is at least something to think about in the future. I would be the first one to pay the entry fee if this ever happens. Recently I saw the pictures from down in Panama of a big Blue or Black Marlin caught with jigging tackle so I think we have just started to explore the possibilties on what we can do with the new powerful jigging tackle.