cape jigging
The weather looked good and after the last few weekends of storms we decided to hit the cape on a jigging sorte. Two boats went out, mine with Ian7739 and myself and Bluetonic's (BJ) with Garbo and couldntcatchacold (Chris). This was a serious jigging (and Soft Plastic) trip and no bait. Had to christen the new jigging gear and it was time to introduce Ian to the excitment and action of jigging. We had a PE 2-3 and 6 outfit and were ready to hit the fish. BJ and I have been talking for a while now on jigging techniques and we decided to try a new technique looking for dimersal species and then continue our search for Kingfish.
Arrived early at the ramp and the wind picked up. BJ and crew were already anchored just of the ramp catching some livies.
Decided to launch the boat when Ian turned up. Slowly headed out and was a slow trip as the ocean was really lumpy. About half way was going to turn around but a solitory dolphin turned up and decided to swin with us for a while. We took this as an omen of good luck and continued to head out. About an hour of steaming saw us round the cape and find markedly calmer water. Sounded around using the new colour sounder and found a good patch of ground with fish on the sounder. Dropped the jigs and instantly jigged some shallowtail. Ian hooked something solid that was either a snapper or dhiue judging by the power surges but alas half way up it spat the hook. My next drop scored me my first dhuie but at 20cms long I'm not bragging...ha ha. Got to start somewhere. Not sure if the bugger was greedy or just ambitious as the 90g jig was just as big as him.......fantastic colours though. More dropps resulted in monster St Bakers and plenty more shallowtail and some sea sweep and pike. Ian unfortunatley dropped another fish before the area shut down. Decided to sound around looking for more ground.
Finally found some ground with skippy on the sounder and the sambo's usually aren't far away.......... down go the jiggs and Ian is hooked. After a tough battle on the PE 2-3 he finally got his first Sambo on a jig.
Plenty around and at one point when Ian bought another one up all we could see under the boat was sambo's. Lost count of how many we caught but had a ball.
Moved closer to the cape itself as the wind dropped and jigged some good boundies.......hooked something solid but a couple of headstakes and was smoked and qiuckly reefed on the PE6 so thinking a kingie as they tend to hang closer to the cape rocks/wash.
Great day on the water but as I dont have a dig camera only got these couple of photo's off my phone. Ian reckons he's hooked on jigging......can understand why...ha ha
Nealez
Posts: 1220
Date Joined: 08/05/06
sweet damo, good to see you
sweet damo, good to see you took advantage of the good weather!
damo6230
Posts: 2029
Date Joined: 07/06/08
yeh turned out well
pretty much as predicted. Plenty of fish on the sounder and some bigger sambo's turned up. Finally got myself a dig camera today after everyone giving me curry for no photo's.
Where you been hiding lately?
jay_burgess
Posts: 4648
Date Joined: 18/08/05
Nice report mate where is
Nice report mate where is this?
carnarvonite
Posts: 8627
Date Joined: 24/07/07
South
Taking a look at the pic from straight off the cape maybe if you went a little bit wider and straight out from Sugarloaf there is a patch of very heay bottom that always used to produce sambos and yellowtail kings.
What wind direction did you have?Sometimes when you have a reasonable easterly it drops off to nothing when you get about 4-5 mile out.Have had discussions with the duty forecaster at BOM and he reckons the cape should have its own forecast.
damo6230
Posts: 2029
Date Joined: 07/06/08
Yeh mate it's close to sugarloaf
SW really and anywhere from 26-45 meters of water. the wind was forcast NW at 13knots in the morning dropping to about 4 by the afternoon. Once we rounded the cape the southern swell hit the NW swell and both counteracted themselves....BJ went wide but returned soon as the water was evidently rougher out further. Good thing about the cape is you can stay close and find good ground.
agree the cape should have its own weather.......
no fish on the sounder straight out mate. most fish from 30m on Saturday whatever side we jigged.
damo6230
Posts: 2029
Date Joined: 07/06/08
Jay, it's Cape Naturaliste
Been hitting it lately with jiggs as there is good ground in close that seems to be ignored by most as they head wider.
barneyboy
Posts: 1392
Date Joined: 08/01/09
hey,
good on ya mate!! sounds like a top morning.. Those dolphins make everything okay sometimes hey..
FEEEISH ONNN!!!
damo6230
Posts: 2029
Date Joined: 07/06/08
when you are free Mark we can head out
got plenty of marks on the GPS mate.
on the way home we had another pod of dolphins join us.........
7739ian
Posts: 948
Date Joined: 25/06/08
Ok - i'm a convert
as far as i can see jigging is just as productive as baits out further but a lot more satisfying as it's technique versus a hungry fish. Damo was kind enough not to mention that i lost fish through crappy rod use rather than bad luck. Buttttt! I learnt a heap - still amazed at how a Jigmaster with 10kg braid can handle a solid sambo - needless to say my Abu pickhandle with the 330GTI sat in the rocket launcher - partially because i mounted the reel backwards and did not have a screwdriver to reverse it but also partially it would have been like fishing with a telephone pole and a Dawn winch in comparison. A great day courtesy of Damo again and my commiserations to BJ - another 6 pack poorer mate.
damo6230
Posts: 2029
Date Joined: 07/06/08
forgot about that..ha ha
Garbo was all smiles back at the ramp..ha ha
I think he's 4-3 up on BJ in their comp.........
was a good day Ian, cheers for the company
7739ian
Posts: 948
Date Joined: 25/06/08
And..........
I will now be looking for a jigging rod and pushing the old tub out into deeper water.
7739ian
Posts: 948
Date Joined: 25/06/08
Last comment Damo
mowed the bottom paddock today and while i was standing on the lawn looking at the great job i did the bay was in the background - like glass - i nearly hooked the boat up but my ancient back wasn't up to it.
damo6230
Posts: 2029
Date Joined: 07/06/08
yeh very tempting......
was thinking the same this morning....
7739ian
Posts: 948
Date Joined: 25/06/08
OK - i'm full of it
definitely the last comment - look at where we are - over Damo's left shoulder is the Naturaliste lighthouse.
kaneo
Posts: 340
Date Joined: 09/01/08
loose any jigs ,chunky reef
loose any jigs ,chunky reef round there
damo6230
Posts: 2029
Date Joined: 07/06/08
only one each
and both to fish smashing us. yeh some good ground, not far to move and plenty of good jigging to be had
till
Posts: 9358
Date Joined: 21/02/08
We did some shallow-water
We did some shallow-water jigging off Mandurah today. The baby sea rock was probably nearly as good as the SPs for skippy, pity the sambos didn't show!
damo6230
Posts: 2029
Date Joined: 07/06/08
was moslty using a sea rock 90g myself, green
Ian was moslty using a spaniard raider converted to assit hooks, green again
don't need to use expensive jigs sometimes
Brody
Posts: 1021
Date Joined: 06/02/07
i've found Sea Rock and
i've found Sea Rock and Raiders work well on skips, sambos etc but have caught most of my Dhus on Shout Lighten 70 and 90gm jigs. A good cheap option that is readily available is the Daiwa Sacrifice Leaf, they flutter a lot more on the drop than the Sea Rock.
big john
Posts: 8726
Date Joined: 20/07/06
Good work
Nice effort guys. Have you jigged any salmon yet in that area?
John
WA based manufacturer and supplier of premium leadhead jigs, fligs, bucktail jigs, 'bulletproof' soft plastic jig heads and XOS bullet jig heads.
Jigs available online in my web store!
Faulkner Family
Posts: 17862
Date Joined: 11/03/08
well done guys, any fishing
well done guys, any fishing is good fishing, just got to get out on the water
RUSS and SANDY. A family that fishes together stays together
damo6230
Posts: 2029
Date Joined: 07/06/08
No salmon yet John
missed salmon season due to an injury this year and have not come across any on the cape, not that there aren't any around.
still just exploring the cape and finding ground as I have finally purchased a decent sounder/chartplotter
Brodie, cheers for the advice, got a sacrifice myself and like the action, got the dhuie on the sea rock gota convince Matt to come down again and lend us his bag of jigs as there are not many in Bunno but getting one shop to order some in, alternatively might drop in to oceanside and see the guys
Colin Hay
Posts: 10407
Date Joined: 23/10/07
Great report and pics Damo
Sounds like a bit of fun and a spot worthwhile exploring again.
Moderator. Proud member of the Fishwrecked "Old Farts". Make sure your subscribed to Fishwrecked Reeltime http://fishwrecked-reeltime.com/
Brody
Posts: 1021
Date Joined: 06/02/07
Good fun hey, yeh light
Good fun hey, yeh light demersal jig selection is pretty crap here, should change over the next year or so.
Some great Japanese jigs from various online shops available.
damo6230
Posts: 2029
Date Joined: 07/06/08
Brody, if you have any info send it through mate
always looking but easy if someone can direct you around all the crap...
cheers
mostly looking for 60-100g jigs
cheers Colin, very weather dependant the cape though.
Nealez
Posts: 1220
Date Joined: 08/05/06
Been working heaps damo and
Been working heaps damo and as you know the weathers been pretty average... In the process of building a house too so thats consuming quite a bit of my fishing time.. will have to get out for a fish if we ever get any decent weather again
Took the tiny tanic out on sunday and got a 4kgish pinky at the usual haunt but thats about it
damo6230
Posts: 2029
Date Joined: 07/06/08
no problems neal, but yeh got to wate for another weather window
good luck with the house mate.
there's been a few snapper around lately. spose you just have to find them
couldntcatchacold
Posts: 357
Date Joined: 17/05/09
yeh i had my first go
yeh i had my first go jigging to but all i managed was a sergant baker, had good fun doing it but as i learnt i still have alot to learn about fishing before i worry about artificials but one doy ill give jigging a serious go :)
I wanna get free! im gonna get free! right into the sun!
aquagenes
Posts: 223
Date Joined: 28/10/08
All ways good to Seas the
All ways good to Seas the day..
Take every opp to grab it when you can
mitch101
Posts: 25
Date Joined: 13/06/09
Good job
kool
Born to fish forced to go to school
Bluetonic
Posts: 1146
Date Joined: 09/01/08
Hmmm yes boys, good effort!
Hmmm yes boys, good effort! My day wasn't as successful. I lost some good metal jigs out there to what I can only imagine were YTK's. I also have some good big teeth marks on some 7 inch Berkley Gulp's that has me wondering what kind of fish struct them. This all only has me more excited about jigging so I guess thats a good thing.
Yes Garbo has gone 1 up on me in our personal fishing comp. by catching a Dhuie right in close to the rocks. CANT! HAVE THAT! Ha! Ha! Ha!
Blue Sky, Blue Water, Bluetonic!
dan1
Posts: 379
Date Joined: 11/07/07
great job guys i will make
great job guys i will make it down that way with you boys one day i have been having to much fun up north next time hey !!!!!!!!!!!!