The Big Jig

Out on Monday morning in James T’s beautiful Black Watch 32. Three crew in total with the plan being, hit the 100 metre reefs for some kingfish jigging. With the weekend just past being horrible weather we hoped fish numbers might have built up. First stop FAD 17, off Terrigal:

Water was a beautiful deep blue and just under 20°C. But with zero current - as you can see in the picture - there was nothing there. On to the reef, which is basically a series of bumps and pinnacles, rather than one hard peak. The job is to find which pinnacles are holding the fish:

Conditions were very sloppy, with a localised storm cell making seas steep and bumpy. Finally we found some marks which looked promising. James dropped one of our 250 gram jigs and got a hit but unfortunately the king struck the jig, not the hook. I was using our light Ryobi Bay Jig 15 kg combo. The thought being that the thinner line would reduce current drag and get me deeper, faster. That worked:

This one went 108 cm, my best this year. Check out our Bay Jig combo here? When the kings aren’t thick, and you have to work long and hard for a strike, a light outfit makes jigging so much easier:

LIGHT JIG COMBO

Things were looking promising but we had a problem.

It was very sloppy offshore with a solid broken swell and winds generated by a local storm cell. Excepting one yacht, no other boat was seen. One of the crew was badly seasick although, as usual, after throwing up a few times he felt better, and was able to fish. After 30 minutes or so, worsened – as also usually happens. I kept my eye on him but his colour was still good and he kept saying, ‘I’ll be okay.’ After some violent retching he stood up – and then fainted, falling heavily on the deck. Remembering basic first aid I checked his airway first. His jaws were clenched but opened and slowly he came around. By the time we got back he seemed to be fine and perfectly normal. The lesson I’m taking from this little event is not to put too much stock in facial colour, when trying to judge how seasick someone is. Usually you see the skin go pale and then a bit green, and you know it’s getting pretty bad. In this case the guy is an outdoor type with a good tan - and also a bit of a macho man, who kept saying he was okay. But he wasn’t okay and, when he fell, his head just missed a pointed bit of deck structure. Maybe keep that in mind when you’re dealing with a seasick case out there? Pic was taken when we were nearly back and the seas had settled maybe 70% from early morning:

Really enjoyed the session but it was the right thing to do, to cut it short. When we got back inside one of my lads and his girlfriend stopped by to pick up some fresh kingfish. And, worked their magic with it:

With November being peak time for kingfish we’ll be out there again soon. Thanks for reading
Andrew Hestelow

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