3/10 jigging, popping; 3/11 aching body

[jiggaman]

Randy, owner of Angler's Pro Shop (www.anglers-proshop.com), his cousin, and jigging enthusiast John made 10 hour drive from New York to come jigging and explore our jigging fishery for the first time, with amberjack on the mind. We went on Rick Croson's Onslow Bay, and despite a little morning chop, made 29 kts on a surprisingly smooth and dry ride all the way to 850 feet.
While Randy and his cousin slept, our limit of snowy groupers were caught in the last three of four drifts, John catching three of them and not seeming to care the amount of line to be retrieved each time. Smallest fish was around 20 lbs, biggest weighing 36 lbs.
Next we moved to 300 feet where we've caught the big aj's time and time again. For the next 8 hrs, it was one drop, one fish. Aj's from 5 lbs to over 100, the biggest being 60 inches with a surprising 39 inch girth. During this time, John was not shy to blind cast his popping rod equipped with a rather large stickbait he uses up in Cape Cod for bluefins. First cast we watched two blackfins absolutely go crazy for the thing, and second cast he hooked up and landed one. Also watched a wahoo go all over it but not get hooked. John also caught a very large albie on it.
Randy gave me and John some 280 gr drift tune jig to try, and the flutter it had was amazing. First drop it did not make it past 60 ft, and ended up being about a 15 lb blackfin. Second drop I hooked a fish that ran about 60 yrds away from the boat under 35 lbs of drag, and after a few laps around the boat with a roostertail screaming from the braid, we had a wahoo in the box that ended up weighing 45 lbs. Meanwhile, John boats a 25 lb yellowfin on it. Third drop I hooked a fish that ran straight down 70 yards or so and started yelling "hee haw!" ended up being that slob 60 inch AJ. It was time for a sandwich, 32 oz gatorade and 400 mg of advil.
John was a true fishing machine; a force to be reckoned with. I have never seen such an angling ability as he was truely a glutton for punishment. From start to finish, he jigged 3 snowies, and for 8 hrs straight jigged ajs, never dropping a rod and averaging 5 fish per drift. When he wasnt jigging, he was slinging that 5 oz stickbait as hard as he could go. When resetting he did not rest; he either was re rigging or eating a sandwich. It was truly amazing.
Well enough with the words, here are some pics. Total tally was 50+ AJs, with at least two dozen over 50 inches, limit of snowies, two blackfins, one yft and one wahoo. Not a single bait was trolled, nor was a single piece of bait used; all metal!

Cheers,
Arlen

[jiggaman]

[shore-power]

WOW! Those are some incredible pictures!! Unreal the pressure those rods are taking! Tell us a bit about those rods & lures? Are the jigs & stick baits store bought?? Amazing!!

[jiggaman]

Most of the rods you see in these pictures were the japanese imported jigging rods from Japan, and you can explore many of the models on the aforementioned website. They come with a price tag, but as you can see are very well suited to the high demands asked for a lightweight but powerful rod. At the same time, shimano makes a line of jigging rods called the trevalas, which are hard to beat for the money and are significantly less. It is important however to not shortcut on the reel due to cost. A reel that is relatively small and fast and puts out a lot of drag is what you are looking for, which is a lot to ask for especially in terms of longevity. Some examples include the torsa, trinidad 40n, penn torque, shimano stella, saragosa. We use daiwa braided pe line (dendoh boat braid) for its strength, no stretch and small diameter, and top it with 20-25 feet of flouro. The jigs are either shimano flat sided butterflys from Tex's tackle or a plethera of imported jigs from angler's pro shop. The stickbaits can be found there as well.

Arlen

[shore-power]

Arlen: Do you find you can make shorter work of big fish with the conventional or spinning rod? Seems like the spinning outfits that can handle this type of fishing are way more expensive than comprable conventional reels but I would think the jigging motion is more natural using a spinning outfit. You thoughts??

[tunatamer4]

GREAT JOB GUYS!

[jiggaman]

spinning outfits make the jigging motion much easier for those entering this style of fishing. There is no need to guide the line and the fast pitch short jerk method is easier to get a grasp on. That being said I like a conventional because i feel i have more control on the fish once hooked up. I use narrow reels such as the torsa, trini 40n and penn trq200 because less attention is needed to guiding the line while jigging. Some attention does need to be given however in this deeper water, for if you end up with an aggressive crown and a big fish hits, with that much drag you risk breaking off at the spool. I like a conv for grouper jigging in that 200 ft or less stuff as well, because it is easier to go in and out of gear to maintain contact with the bottom (which is very crucial) rather than flipping a bail and realigning with the roller.

Arlen

[DOGKILLR]

MAN, THAT REEF DONKEY IS A MULE.

[paul708]

nice report,,great pics.. looks like a great jigging day

[WAHOONBOX]

ONE OF THE BEST ACTION REPORTS TO DATE! I LOOK FORWARD TO THE NEXT ADVENTURE FROM TEX'S TACKLE! THE PICS ARE PHENOMINAL AND THE AJ LOOKS LIKE A STATE RECORD TO ME.......


THANKS FOR SHARING YOUR WORLD WITH US!!!