Microjig Mayhem

October 09, 2017

I guess it was maybe four years ago, when I went micro jigging for the first time? Andrew Wily invited me to join him for a session out from Terrigal, in his bass boat:

What a day that was. We were flying blind, without any local marks. No problem. We just ran out to the 30 metre line and pulled up over some rough ground, showing on the sounder. I was using our tippy 702 snapper combo, and tried to copy the jigging action I’d seen on a few YouTube videos. Move the slider to 2:30 and you’ll see a method that works really well:

The big benefit of slow jigging is that you’re keeping the lure close to the reef. Right in the strike zone. Strikes came thick and fast. What surprised me was the range of fish we caught. Maybe seven species, in an hour? I’m someone who loves to be hooked up. And we were hooked up a lot, that day.

A few weeks later, in November, John Verano invited me on a trip to Hervey Bay. The plan being to camp on the inside of Fraser Island, and fly fish for marlin. What a trip that was:

I took our light jigging 702 combo, along with a stack of the 40 gram jigs which had worked so well at Terrigal. I switched the usual single assist hook and cord to a treble, mounted on the tail. The trip was more about castings to surface bust ups, than jigging. That setup worked a treat, on mid size pelagics:

After seeing how well they worked in Hervey Bay, I was hooked. Back in Sydney for the summer of 2016, with our crew using 40 gram jigs for just about everything. Dolphin fish at the FADs:

Bonito:

Check this out, a red hot day jigging and popping kings and bonito at Long Reef. The small jigs particularly deadly:

Even (would you believe) night jigging, for hairtail. On that mission I kept the assist hook, added a stinger treble, and mounted a red party light above the jig to attract these weird predators. Worked like a dream:

And of course, kingfish. Here’s Dan, at Twelve Mile Reef off Sydney:

But it’s in the tropics where these small lures find perhaps the hottest action. Glenn jigs them over wrecks: 

 To deadly effect:

Fast forward to this weekend. Hamish Read is a super keen fisho living in North Queensland. He uses 40 gram jigs to deadly effect in his local waters. His brother Cameron was heading up for a visit and picked up 20 of our 40 gram jigs last week:

Here's his report:

Sent: Saturday, 7 October 2017 6:53 AM
To: sales@stelco.com.au
Subject: Day one
 
"Hi Andy, here are s few of the fish Hamish and I caught day one out off Mission beach. We went 20nm out to the reef and found these and more on some spots just before we got there so we didn't quite make it."

 

"We boated some 40-50 fish. Your 40g jigs got smashed. The other style that did really well were the octo style ones and plastics. The locals only use bait and don't catch anywhere the same quantity or quality it would seem."

 

"We found a school of cobia off one of the wrecks, the Black Pearl, an old trawler. We boated 5, the the two biggest going 1.1 and 1.3m. We couldn't lift our arms by the end of the day and this is day one!!"

 

Fantastic result, Cam! Not just impressed but downright jealous, of how good your fishing has been.

Like to try micro jigging? Our 40 gram jigs have:
 
A bloodshot eye, to represent a wounded bait fish;
Five different colours, to mix things up;
A lumo belly, for fishing in low light;
A Kevlar cord and matched assist hook.
 
If you’ve held off trying them due to the crazy prices, that’s understandable. Jigs around this size can be $14 each, on eBay:

That’s a ripoff. Our deal? Four dollars each. 10 x 40 gram jigs, five different colours, for $48. And that includes delivery to anywhere in Australia. Like to try an order? Click the link below. You won’t regret it:

10 jigs $48 including delivery

Thanks for reading and good luck with your new jigs,

Andrew Hestelow
Managing Director

https://www.downriggershop.com/
http://www.downriggershop.com.au/
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