NE Canyon Tuna Jigging weights??

[Taz575]

What are the commonly used jigs for tuna jigging in the NE Canyons for weights?? I'm getting ready to start up the Calstar and am wondering if I have to trim the tip down at all? Some guys are using them stock. I am now considering leaving it as is to be more of an all around stick. I was going to cut around 4" to get a 10 tip top.

[paul708]

6oz is common
150 to 400g were working well this year
mostly on the smaller size

probably no need to cut the tip.

[Tunaman40]

Most of the jigs I use for tuna are 5oz thru 9oz depending on conditions.

[Taz575]

Sounds good to me! I figured that way it would be more of a universal rod with the factory tip than trimming it for jigging. Gonna have fun with this sucker!

[kilsong]

Sounds good to me! I figured that way it would be more of a universal rod with the factory tip than trimming it for jigging. Gonna have fun with this sucker!

I don't like the idea of trimming tips, especially for fast action blanks.

You'll see lots of jigging rods/reels/jigs for tuna at Canyon Runner seminars.

[Caveman Sportfishing]

As you well know there are more and more anglers now jigging for tuna every summer? I now get many customers now bringing their own equipment on board but often the gear they buy is not quite up to handling the bluefin we usually see down our way each summer. With the limits of one Bluefin per boat in 2009 what might be a quality set-up to catch the bigger bluefin on jigs that will help when doing catch and release? Many of our customers are new to jigging and considering buying their first rod and reel or upgrading to more dedicated jigging equipment as they now have gear that I would classify as all round equipment that serves them both for chunking and jigging. As you know this gear will take its toll on anglers with the excessive weight and leads to fatigue. Most of the anglers I talk to would like to move up to the top of the line jigging equipment but there are financial limitations also especially in today bleak economy.
Some I have talked to just want to upgrade to gear that they can put a hurting on 100 lb-150 lb bluefins and be able to get them to the boat and released as quickly as possible. It's that time of year with the fishing seminars and tackle shows coming up shortly that possibly there is some new equipment on the market that might lend itself to jigging bluefins without a long drawn out fight. Generally what I am trying to explain is there is a big difference in jigging 40-60 lb Yellowfin at night in the canyons versus 125-150 lb Bluefin at the Hambone or other 20 fathom lumps. Way too many of our customers show up with gear they bought that works great on the smaller tuna but need better equipment to jig up those bigger bluefins. Any thoughts would be appreciated and Happy New Year to all the jigging and popping anglers. One thing I plan to do in 2009 is jig even more than last year as we had no problem catching tuna on 60-80 lb leader but often had to go way down to light leaders to get bites in the daytime when chunking which resulted in many lost fish plus long drawn out battle due to light drag settings. This was not true when we jigged and but having the right gear is very important for our customers to have on board. One other thing I am asked about and I know it has been mentioned in the past but what is the best belt for jigging larger tuna. Many of our customers prefer some sort of belt.
Regards and Happy New Year to everyone
John
PS: I have heard from some of our summer charter customers that are new to jigging feel somewhat intimated to post any questions on the jigging and popping board. For those that feel this way please fire away as there are no stupid questions and I am sure everyone on this board is more than willing to answer or help out in any way they can. There is the Private Message site available and I have personally used this many times in the past when I had specific questions. Learning about new equipment, locations and techniques used for jigging for so many different species of fish is what this is all about.

[Taz575]

I agree Kil. I had a GF 800H I trimmed 9" from the tip to get a 14 tip top for cod fishing. Action is pretty much dead until you get some serious weight on it! But it will lob 16oz jigs very nicely, which is what it was designed for! It has a pretty slow action, but a ton of lifting power!

The Calstar jigging is the one on the top, the bottom one is my new flukin rod!


I left the tip the same on this one. It started as a 800H grafighter than Fed Ex crushed 10" of the butt. I trimmed it to 6'6" from the butt. When I taped the guides and reel seat on, it had a very nice bend on it with the Saltist reel, I will have to measure the drag a little later. I went with a 14" EVA rear grip with a Ball Gimbal, Fuji PSS reel seat and a 10" EVA foregrip. Fuji LRSG 25mm, the rest MNSG guides and a SiN2 tiptop (supposed to be a bit more forgiving in terms of shock and breakage).

[shoefish]

Caveman-
Very good question, and I'm looking forward to hearing what the real pros like Kil and Gman have to say. I'll put in my two cents as I've been bit by the tuna jigging bug myself, and will share my opinions. As with anything fishing related, it really comes down to what the angler's budget is. High quality rods and reels are expensive, so for me I had to make a decision on where to put my money. I opted to start with a great reel.

Here is my first jigging set up- Saltiga 40 with a Trevalla MH on a 100ish pound fish. It worked, but as you can see I was pushing the limits of what this rod can realistically do. I will need to upgrade this rod as the reel can definitely handle more.


Here is my favorite set up to date- Stella 8k on a Van Staal rod. This was on a 140ish pound fish, and while the rod is working hard, I never felt like it was "bottomed out" like the Trevalla. For the money, I think that this rod is hard to beat.


In this video you can see the action of the Trevalla XXH- this was on a 125ish pound fish (the one you see at the end) and I think performed very well.

Video Player

So my two cents on a good set up to beat 125-150 pound fish that won't completely break the bank, would be to put my money into a good reel that can handle the pressure (stella, saltiga), and go with a "basic" rod like the Trevalla XXH or a Van Staal. Like I said, I'm certainly no expert though, and I'm sure that there are many other options out there.

Shoe

BTW, Like Caveman said, I hope that if there are folks out there who have questions, that they aren't afraid to post them up- not matter how simple they think they might be. If you are wondering something, I guarantee that there are others who are wondering about it too.

[striper101]

Depending on the the current we usually use between 6 & 10 oz's with 8oz. being the most popular.

[Jesse Lockowitz]

shoe, thats some nice video on the one hitting on top...very nice



Jesse