Jigging rod length?

[kilsong]

........

for 150-200# tuna do you think using the 170g jig which we usually use, on a rod rated 500g will have negative impact on working the jig, or will the action jig still be ok using a higher rated rod?
does the rod rating really make that much differance working jigs?

As you know, there is a big difference between Japansese style jigging rods and bait fishing rods though both catch same size of tuna.
Japanese style jigging rods are not broomstick like Calstar Baja Boomer, though they are rated to 500g or 600g.
The tip diameter of JM Power Spell 500g is only 4.5mm and can be bent to give enough action to the jigs when jigging in 100 - 300ft. Try OTI 600g jigging rod and jig in 150 - 200 ft with 8 oz jigs. You can give all actions to the jig you want.
We are not talking about 30 - 80 oz jigs.
When I tell they need 400g - 500g jigging rods when targeting big tuna to the audience of my jigging seminars, the frequent questions are whether 400g -500g rods are too stiff to give some action to jigs. I jokingly ask back what kind of action they want to give to jigs to attract tuna.
It is proven that tuna respond to slow moving jigs as much as fast moving jigs. I usually jig with one hand leasurely and have enough hit by tuna when I am tired.
Even for fast cranking technique for tuna, all you do is jerking/cranking. As 400g or 500g rod with smaller diameter can easily get bent to a certain point, I don't think there is not much difference in action whether you use 300g rod or 500g jigging rods. Remember we used to use heavy 8' cod rods for tuna jigging and have enough hit. Current Japanese style jigging rods in 400g and 500gs are like inshore rods compared to those cod jigging rods.
I never notice guys who use light inshore Trevala rods for tuna jigging get more hit than normal jigging rods.

The other advantage of 400g -500g jigging rods is you can hook up better as rods with lighter tips take split seconds more to respond when get hit. That is one of the reason we don't favor rods with too soft tips when tuna jigging.

[Caveman Sportfishing]

Thank all of you that have contributed so far as I am learning more with each post. I will say we have used stiff traditional chunking rods with e-glass blanks and never had any problem getting tuna bites in the past when the fish were there and hungry. I am trying to figure out the soft tip issue and the action they create when using lighter jigs and how this applies to our average charter. I know I have seen many times charter customers like what we have on board and go out and buy similar tackle after fishing with us. This holds true more for reels than rods in the past but this possibly this will change once they have the oppurtunity to fish with a strong shorter powerful Japenese dedicated jigging rod. This is one of the main reasons I want to pick the correct length for my new rods that will allow my customers a much more positive experience compared to in the past when they jigged with heavier all round chunking rods. As I mentioned they often get tired and give up jigging and go back to chunking when fatigue sets in. Thank you to all that have posted so far and am personally learning a lot about rods for jigging.

[paul708]

You can use it whatever you want. When you get tired while fast jigging, just move your rod up and down and you still get enough bites. I caught many bluefin with short jigging rods while moving up and down with my one hand last year.

Here are pictures of snowy grouper and pargo caught on jigs with short jigging rods by Reggie in Panama in January.

how long is the smith..looks like it works great yo yo..

[WhiteLakeBuc]

6 ft. is the best length to be used for both yoyo and high speed IMHO

[kilsong]

how long is the smith..looks like it works great yo yo..

It is 5'8" Shimano Tevala rod.

[Caveman Sportfishing]

There seems to be interest in rod lengths and how they work for the different jigging styles. Most of our charters seem to favor just dropping a jig down and Yo-Yo it rather than do the Japanese style crank/jerk technique probably because they are not aware of slow jigging vs. fast jigging. I need to do a better job teaching as from what I have seen personally you never know what the tuna will work best to get bites. When our customers have try what I call Japanese style jigging and they do not get a bite within a short period of time they prefer to go back to chunking with bait as fatigue seems to be the major negative that I would like reduce somewhat this upcoming season and hoping the new lightweight tackle I am putting on board our boat will help out quite a bit in this area. What I have ascertained so far about rod choices for our charter customers is a rod around 5 foot 8 inches that is long enough to keep the tuna from getting in the running gear when it is doing the death circle, a tip that will set the hook quickly yet enough backbone to handle the bigger Bluefin we target, a rod that you can slow Yo-Yo style or fast jig Japanese style since you never know what will work at various times. I am hoping our customers will give jigging a fair chance and not get discouraged as quickly as I have seen in the past. I personally have become 100% committed to learning more about jigging and helping our customers any way I can as on our boat we all kind of learn together and in my view one of the best things about fishing. Thank you all for your posts and I read every one multiple times trying to increase my knowledge as at times I still find some of the information a little hard to understand as there are so many good choices on tackle now available and this is especially true on custom jigging rods. We take out hundreds of anglers every summer fishing mostly for tuna and the percent that now wants to try jigging has increased dramatically the last few years mainly due to internet fishing sites like Sportfishermen.com and others.