Does anyone in Malta jig / pop for game fish? From what I can determine they are both very much Japanese techniques that have become very popular in the USA where they target large game fish like Tuna etc.
I read up about it with great interest and am curious to try both jigging and popping for Tuna based on our experiences so far where we regularily see lots of tuna around the boat when we've cleared the lines and are bringing a fish in.
Jigging from a boat seems to be done with a Jigging rod, typcially 40-60lbs line rated and around 6 foot, or for seriously big fish 5ft6 80-100lbs. OTI tackle make some beautiful rods for this, they have Silicone Carbine guides, aluminium gimble, fuji reel seat. In terms of reels you can use a conventional reel with a high gear ratio 5:1+ there are specific reels from various manufacturers or you can use a big spinning reel like the Shimano Spheros 14000FA or if you have lots of money the Stella 10000.
Jigs are typically 200-300g lead weighted depending on the action of the rod you buy. Check out these to get an idea.
(http://www.360tackle.com/image.php?id=2&type=P)
With these Assist hooks
(http://www.360tackle.com/image.php?id=107&type=D)
In Japan and the USA they catch some seriously big fish, Tuna, Giant Trevelly etc.
The other technique is called Popping, as you use surface popping lures with a spinning technique to get your lures out 80m or so and pop them along the surface. These rods tend to be longer at around 7foot6 in order to get the casting distance but are still rated at 40-60lbs (lure weight 200g) or even 60-80lbs (lure weight 300g) for the real big stuff. You can use a conventional reel but you have to have amazing thumb control to cast a conventional reel so nearly everyone opts for the big type of spinning reels mentioned above.
Lots more choice with popping lures, here are some from OTI
(http://www.360tackle.com/image.php?type=P&id=23)
(http://www.360tackle.com/image.php?id=57&type=D)
(http://www.360tackle.com/image.php?id=68&type=D)
(http://www.360tackle.com/image.php?id=68&type=D)
For both applications these reels are typically spooled with braid (65lbs etc) and then a mono topshot. OTI have come out with some clever braid that they call Depthfinder line which has four bright high contrast colors of red, yellow, green, and blue alternate every 25 feet to help you easily measure and find the most optimal depth.
Locally I found a 50lbs jigging rod from Grauvell called a Jig Fun 650 but havent found a proper popping rod yet. Anyone doing this type of fishing here, or interested. I am planning to get geared up with my priority being on jigging first and then popping.
Skip
I tried jigging last year during Lampuki season but no luck. I will try next season for Alungi (Fuel cost has gone up a tiny winzy bit). I also tried live bait for Alungi again it didnt seem to work (mind u i didnt try hard enough, trolling is my game.
Jigging is hard work as you have to continuously drop and jig up your lure reapeating the process till u catch fish. Skip I suggest you use a line counter rather than the coloured line. Easier to read and it gets u back to the right spot.
shanook some electric reels have a function for jigging. some have many jiging functons
Quote from: shanook on February 20, 2008, 22:34:24 CET
I tried jigging last year during Lampuki season but no luck. I will try next season for Alungi (Fuel cost has gone up a tiny winzy bit). I also tried live bait for Alungi again it didnt seem to work (mind u i didnt try hard enough, trolling is my game.
Jigging is hard work as you have to continuously drop and jig up your lure reapeating the process till u catch fish. Skip I suggest you use a line counter rather than the coloured line. Easier to read and it gets u back to the right spot.
Were you just jigging blindly or had you just caught a fish whilst trolling? I don't think I would just go to an area and jig but we have lost out on the opportunity many times to catch more fish as we were reeling in. When they are a few meters down I think a jig/pop might well help.
We dont carry live bait, so dropping live bait out isnt an option and not had any success with chunking though if I put some more effort it could work.
I was trying to find a rod that hopefully can be used for both jigging and popping, as I would ideally like to just keep one spinning rod on board for this purpose. I too prefer trolling but as you rightly point out fuel keeps going up and will go up again this season.
Interesting subject Nick, I had also been doing some research into this technique. Doesn't seem to be popular in Malta but in other parts of the Med. it seems to be a killer method for catching sizeable amberjack and dentici. I've got a couple of jiggs last year but never used them, tempted to try it out though.
I think it's a case of finding the right location with a shelved rocky bottom. Speed of retrieval seems to be the key to getting it right... though it looks like hard work to fish for any length of time. Link below gives some pointers:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wct7pzq7O-s
Yep, busumark The Daiwa electric has a jigging function but its less powerful than the Miya, so for this year I am opting for the power will look into daiwa next year. Yes skip I had lampuki jumping behind lures but not biting, so I stopped and jigged for a while, I even made a few casts with a spinner but nothing. This does not mean it wont work its just that in my case it didnt. But i will try for Alungi as when I troll I see fish in depths of 400/500 feet and those wont come up easily with trolling, i will try to do like mawmettu said.............
its amazing when you catch alungi, tuna even lampuki they come close to the boat with the hooked fish but they dont bite, only tunnagg does it but u have to keep them occupied either with chumming, shower of water or keeping the boat on the move at least in my experience.
Hi Skip,I know a friend who caught a 35 kilo acciola while jigging.It was his first time using this method.I will try and get a pic cause he called me to take some photos.It was bigger then a 9.9 outboard engine.
camkev if u feel like it give us a general indication as to how deep he was jigging and if far off land, as i have some jigging lures and would like to try them out. I will try next to the fish farms as there is more chance of fish.
Someone told me that Joseph (mr fish) cought a nice plamtu while jigging near fish farms on the last program on tv.
He was fishing near fish farms near hofriet.i am sure he is not going to give me more details!!!And he wasn't going to tell me were.But then i convinced him that i am not going to tell anyone!!!!He wasn't that far out and not very deep waters.If anyone wants we can go and give it a try.What do you think?I am sharing this info cause i know you guys always help out other people.If he knows that i told anyone he wil ....... me!
on the last compettion of spearfishing he caught a very nice dentex and another one that had problem to put on the dingy and it went out from the line. All in jigging
Josef will not tell you were he does his fishing. (Trid tkun makakk u taraf il postijiet hux :p )
i don t belive in specific places. As for dentex he was trying everywhere as we do in spearfishing. I think an inportant tool is a fish finder
I think it would be a good idea to experiment with this technique because from videos it seems to be very producitve ...the problem with malta is (i thnik) there isnt much to jig for :p take a look what these guys catch http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DsgTK-fm380&feature=related
watched the video of the guy jigging,never seen it done like that before.i know it as pirking,same hat different style,i drop the pirk to the bottom and reel in a few turns,then lift the rod up and down not letting the pirk hit bottom,and do it slower with less effort.after 4 or 5 up and downs reel in some more turns about 4,and do the same up and down again.keep on repeating this untill the pirk comes to the surface then drop it back down and start again.that guy in the video must be knackered after 10 mins of doing that.i,ve caught pollack and mackerel and the occasional bass using this method.its used a lot for wreck fishing for cod and ling
Just bought my 1st jigging lure...its a 150g sardine colour lure. My intention is to use it along some ridges I know on the east side. My basic setup will look something like this:
20-40lbs rod, 4:1 reel, 40lbs mono line and a 60lbs florocarbon leader. I have done some reading up on how to jig, but my only question is this: where do you place the hook?...at the ring on the head or the ring at the end of the lure?....some people have told me that the hook is best placed at the head, since that is the place fish strike most.
All the sites and articles I've read through have suggested using "assist hooks" on the head of the jig.
The setup I found usefull is as follows: braid in the reel (important to reach deeper with equivalent weight, and to remove the strech factor since this might influence the action of the lure and the hooking of the fish), 5-10m of flourocarbon or mono, swivel and split ring. To the split ring I attach a solid ring with the assist hook, and the jig itself. The split ring is useful to be able to remove the assit and jig should you decide to change them whilst fishing. The assist should lie approx 1/3 to 1/2 of the way down the jig. Also, the size of the hook should be substanial, 8/0 and larger; and you should calculate size according to jig - the space between the barb of the hook and the shank should be about 30% more than the width of the jig.
I have little experience on actual fishing, since my fishing mate prefers trolling (the boat is his!!!), but I did loads of research on the net, magazines and books. If you'd like some literature or a fishing buddy contact me via private mail.
Rob
Also, you need a good fishfinder. Another thing, I think the 4:1 reel is a bit on the slow side, anything between 4.5:1 and 5:1 would be more suitable.
Rob
The Shimano Tyrnos range of reels are great for both trolling and jigging as they're II speed, a 2.0:1 on the low gear and a 5.0:1 on the high gear
As Rob mentioned, owner assist hooks seems to be the way to go, have two jigs that I haven't really tried yet and one has assist hooks.
What about the ring at the tail of the jig, do you fit a hook there too?
From what I read, no you don't. Not sure why it's there I guess there must be a reason.
You do not need a hook on the bottom of the jig unless you are fishing in very deep water and not touching the bottom eg for tuna in mid water. The reason is that if you have a hook at the bottom it is more likely you will get snagged with the seabed.
Another thing, its better if you can use a 40lb rod and not a 20-40lb rod. THe reason is the parabolic action of the 20-40lb rod will not transmit the movements of the rod and reel to the jig. Also, the action will be much more tiring than with a stiffer rod.
Rob
Joe, sounds like Rob is your man to take out jigging :)
Thanks for the tips Rob
As I said before, I did a lot of research, but I have little practical experience. If anyone would like literature (I even have a DVD on jigging - in Italian) please contact me in private mail.
robertob@euroweb.net.mt
Rob