Wrightsville beach jigging 3/23

[Anders]

great report, nice pics and it looked like a beautiful day

[TBaker]

BTW, just a note on gear used. Both I and my friend, Howard, tried out the Penn 113HN Baja Special reels for jigging. I was very curious how they would do. While we didn't get into any monsters, overall I was very impressed. Had determined that they could go to about 28 lbs. of drag, but set them @ 20 (on a scale) with the thought that we could adjust, if needed. Turned out we didn't need to touch them. Reels were smooth with a surprising amount of cranking power (4.25:1 ratio). Also very smooth drags (I greased mine with Cal's). HT-100 drag washers are carbon fiber on the outside with another material sandwiched in the middle (not sure its make-up). Basically a 4/0, like the Shimano Trini 40N, with more line capacity. It also has double anti-reverse dogs, so thats not going to be an issue. The one complaint, albeit small for me, is its a bit heavy. For the money, I was very pleased. For you high-end guys, you might think of this as a back-up to your Trini 40N or Saltiga. Relatively cheap insurance.

Also, Paul, from JPR, let us use a rod he built on, I believe, a prototype 300g OTI 2-piece blank at about 5'6". He built it conventional and spiral-wrapped. Really, really nice! Rod was very strong for a 300g. And the ability of the spiral-wrap to eliminate any rod twising was very noticeable with the higher profile of a narrow 4/0 reel on it. Made for a superb combo!