Day Of The Jig

Out on the Black Watch on Friday morning with the plan being, testing our new electric downrigger upgrade:

But it wasn’t to be. The reason being 1. that we had a full crew of five, 2. all of whom wanted to fish, 3. it was really rough out there, and 4. there just wasn’t enough room in the cockpit. Kicked off in the best possible way when new crewmember Mike hooked up on the first jig he dropped. Not big, a 65cm, but a great start to the day:

The kings were holding over the top of small bumps and pinnacles. The trick was to place the boat in the right position to drift over the marks – which wasn’t easy, in the strong wind and chop. But skipper James was up to the challenge:

Yours truly, looking like a homeless wino, opted for our light Ryobi 4000 / Bay Jig combo:

I was a bit concerned it might be too light, considering the size of some arches on the sounder screen. But it worked great on this 80cm:

Check it out here:

Ryobi Light Jig Combo

Fitz’s arm has been giving him some trouble and he wasn’t up to a big jigging session. He opted for our light Tanacom 5000 electric reel, and a live slimy mackerel rigged on a paternoster. Then set the reel to a crawling slow retrieve of maybe two metres per minute. That worked, with this nice 80 the proof:

Matt scored a few on his heavy T Curve /Stella combo. At 690 grams, the reel is twice the weight of the Ryobi I was using:

Skipper James took a break from his helmsman duties and got into the action:

What a magical day. Great boat, great friends and stacks of hungry kingfish – and bonito - keen to smack our jigs. Which were the Downrigger Shop 250 gram size, of course:

Check them out here:

250 gram jig deal

Switched on Mike Fitzgerald took his share of the catch straight home and prepped it for storage the right way:

Had an absolute ball on Friday and can’t wait to get back out there again – when the weather settles down. Thanks for reading
Andrew Hestelow

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