Jigging / Plastics Attempt
Took the (future) brother in law out for a run with a view to having our first real crack at jigging and using soft plastics. Found some good looking ground with a few fish on the sounder and had a couple of drifts. I started with a jig and he had some plastics. On the second drift I hooked up to a dhu, albeit a baby one. A few drifts later Dave got a good sized blackarse on the plastic. Went a bit quiet for me in particular, and in the next hour and a half (or so) we only had one more touch that resulted in a baldy on the plastic.
My first fish on jig:
We decided to have a look around the place and came across this likely looking area:
Didn't matter what we did we couldn't get a hook up. I made the call to change to my secret (plan B) supply of bait and put a plastic out on the other rod. Dave kept persisting with plastic. First drift a couple of good touches and lost bait. Nothing on the plastics.
Went back for another drift and got a dhu that was just size, but probably would have gone under by the time he was iced up so I let him go. Dave then chucked a bait rig over and hooked his first dhu at 67cm.
With the new found increase in catch rate we pretty much gave up on the plastics and stuck with bait. Next drift got another 65cm dhu and one in the mid 50's somewhere so we let the smaller go and packed up. Ended up with the bag below between the two of us.
So the bait smashed the artificials. The jigging was also alot more labour intensive than the normal bottom fishing, but the plastics weren''t too bad. My arms and back are bit sore today from the new technique but I dont think that would be a drama once I was used to it. Given the slight encouragement we got with the first couple of fish I will give it a crack some other time, but can't see my boat becoming bait free any time soon.
You'll also notice one of them had a tag in it. Turns out he was caught about two years earlier by Paul G in exactly the same spot that we got him, and he had grown from 54 to either 65 or 67 (can't remember which one he was).
Cruise Control
Posts: 970
Date Joined: 03/11/10
Nice work Jarrid. My young
Nice work Jarrid.
My young bloke has a mate that we take out and he's a mad keen jigger. Fair wears me out just watching him. But to be fair he catches his share and they are a wide variety of species but no bigguns yet ! The big ones still seem to come in on the bait.
One Day !
Bodie
Posts: 3758
Date Joined: 05/11/07
Nice fish Some days are just
Nice fish
Some days are just like that with bait, plastics and jigs. However as they seem to be schooling dhus, next time try a real erratic jigging style, but slow retrieve if that makes sense. Only want to work bottom 2-3m but erratically, to fire them up.
Leemo
Posts: 3712
Date Joined: 22/02/07
find a steady wind with
find a steady wind with little hops of the rod usually gets em fired up in that situation ;)
bludgin' since 94'
jarrid
Posts: 363
Date Joined: 20/08/10
i think i was doing a bit of
i think i was doing a bit of that - slow, fast, erratic, smooth, medium etc. tried heaps of different actions but wasn't getting a lot of action. like i said, will give it another crack some day, and might do a bit more youtubing in the meantime.
Matt T
Posts: 875
Date Joined: 19/11/07
Caught by Paul G?
You'll find that most of the Dhu's have been caught at some point in their life by Paul G....ha ha
jarrid
Posts: 363
Date Joined: 20/08/10
yeah i know, went out with
yeah i know, went out with him once on his boat. got in touch with him yesterday and he confirmed it was one of his.
beau
Posts: 4104
Date Joined: 24/01/10
What setup you using for your
What setup you using for your artificials? And how heavy artificials did you use? Some people make it look way more complicated than it should be, ive found the "less is more" technique works best for me.
jarrid
Posts: 363
Date Joined: 20/08/10
plastics were all around the
plastics were all around the 2 oz mark i think, with a few different coloured placcies at about 7 inch (white/pink/orange). The jig was i think around the 130gm mark (was Daves so can't be sure) with a little squid on the assist.
reels were dave with a talica 10, and a stradic 5000 matched up to about the right sized rods (can't be sure). i was trying with a borrowed stella 4k on a jigging master PE1-3 rod.
when you say "less is more" do you mean with the technique? that would ring true as the two on plastics were pretty much unattended in rod holder.
beau
Posts: 4104
Date Joined: 24/01/10
Yeah Jarrid, i often just do
Yeah Jarrid, i often just do slow lifts about a meter high, then slow back down again and not even touch the handle of the reel, often pause for up to 10 seconds and thats the same with plastics and jigs. I just let line out every now and then to keep in touch with the bottom. Some guys like to wind and jerk simultaneously, add that to the speed of your drift plus surface chop and thats quite a bit of movement happening down at the end of your line. Each to their own though, i found what works for me so im running with it :P
Deleted
Posts: 6265
Date Joined: 26/04/14
this is pretty much my
this is pretty much my technique, i prefer to drift my ground with sea anchor
Rocktron
Posts: 66
Date Joined: 08/02/13
your an amateur - stick to bait
your obviously no good at it so stick to bait!
otherwise you should have used the huge plastic occy that i used up in exy to catch Lenny with - dhu's would have smashed them! but what would i know, i havnt caught a sized dhu metro in over 15 years :)
jarrid
Posts: 363
Date Joined: 20/08/10
thanks again for the
thanks again for the support. you're rihg though, what would you know?
Bodie
Posts: 3758
Date Joined: 05/11/07
its interesting listening to
its interesting listening to others style of jigging.
I agree less is more with plastics in deeper water, but shallower seems more action the better.
As for jigs, I've always had much more success with a faster twitch but small 1/4 winds, always works for me, and generally i seem to have more hits and hookups than other who come out with me, i can only put it down to the action.
The other thing is the style of jig your using, different jigs flutter differently, slower, faster, more leaf, less leaf etc. Maybe pick up a couple different ones in different weights and see how that goes. the lighter the jig you can use the easier / better it usually is.
Oceanside sell the Dhu drops which are by far my most favourite jig. See Pic below
130gm orange dhu drop in 32m of water
beau
Posts: 4104
Date Joined: 24/01/10
Al Bevan tells his customers
Al Bevan tells his customers less is more for the snapper and thats usually 10-20m of water. The next charter i went out on was on saltwater and there was a guy who looked like an absolute jigging jedi from asia, full kit, all the gear and more with the whole OTT jigging technique and he caught the least amount of fish all day haha. I did have a bit of a giggle
Swompa
Posts: 3781
Date Joined: 14/10/12
Was it your uncle?
Was it your uncle?
Bodie
Posts: 3758
Date Joined: 05/11/07
Everyone has their own
Everyone has their own techniques... im no asian jigging master, but what works for me works for me, and i catch plenty of fish so i stick with it.
beau
Posts: 4104
Date Joined: 24/01/10
Im not saying i catch a lot
Im not saying i catch a lot of fish but if you're catching fish and im catching fish then it mustn't really matter how you do it!
Paj man
Posts: 359
Date Joined: 16/09/12
feel the jig
I find on slower drift days I can feel the jig 'flick' better with a faster jerk of the rod which I follow with a long pause for the flutter. I work it slower on larger drift days but I've only been properly jigging for 6 months.
Good work on the fish Jarrid - certainly a heap better coming home at the end of the day not stinking of bait!!
aka Nick
jarrid
Posts: 363
Date Joined: 20/08/10
if it all goes to plan you
if it all goes to plan you stink of fish anyway, so not alot of difference...
Paj man
Posts: 359
Date Joined: 16/09/12
Haha true but I'd take
Haha true but I'd take smelling like dhuie over smelling like squid/mulie.
aka Nick
jarrid
Posts: 363
Date Joined: 20/08/10
thanks for all the comments.
thanks for all the comments. will try a few more techniques the next time i get a chance to get out.
one more question - does anyone think they catch more on the jigs? or is it a case of some days jigs win, some days baits win? or is it generally baits win but you prefer the experience of using jigs?
GGs
Posts: 330
Date Joined: 06/09/14
Jigs
I havent fished baits in nearly 3 years now and dont feel like ive caught any less than the others on the boat fishing baits.
All my PBs have come in the past 2 years while fishing jigs/plastics though.
What i have found is that i get alot less by-catch ie no wrasse when fishing for pinkies or gurnard when after dhus. Still get a heap of sergeant baker though, they love orange jigs down south!
Some days jigs do better and some days bait gets more fish and i think that will always be the case.
I will stick with jigging because i find it much more enjoyable than dragging baits around but each to their own.
Still havent got that red emp on jig yet... still at the top of my to-do list!
Bodie
Posts: 3758
Date Joined: 05/11/07
Bakers love orange jigs in
Bakers love orange jigs in metro too!!! Most common bicatch.
Yeah id say I catch more on jigs, especially dhus but I'm not convinced jigs catch as bigger fish overall as bait does
crasny1
Posts: 6986
Date Joined: 16/10/08
GGs
The boss and I came by pure onto a patch of reds in only 12-14m of water off Dampier. Was chasing a feed of NW snapper on the tried and trusted mark called "Snapper City"
She fishes bait, I do anything I feel like. At the time the sounder lit up I was using placies, chasing trout.
2 Reds landed on squid stuffed with a mulie by the boss made me envious so changed to a jig. Tried everything!!!
Bagged out about 5 mins latter when the last allowed Red was landed by the Boss. I felt like Freo then - 4 zip!!
Because it was still early, and we had one snapper and 4 reds onboard, persisted hoping for some trout and more snaps, but this day just couldn't get pass the reds.
Wasn't worried about barotrauma or sharks in that depth, ended up boating and releasing 12 more red. Because I had already lost the count persisted with all sorts of jigs. Tried knife, Octo etc etc. NOT one Red on artificial, even though they were there in plague proportions (on that spot in 4 years never happened again - shame).
tried every action I could remember, or Youtubed over and over.
Ended up with a nice trout on placcy, but I seriously think after that day tempting a red on jig is a challenge, and I don't recall anyone managing that, but I am sure it does happen.
I just don't think reds like jigs, unlike other fish obviously.
Anyone on here that can change my view and regularly catch reds on arties please comment.
"I would like to die on Mars. Just not on impact!!" _ Elon Musk
GGs
Posts: 330
Date Joined: 06/09/14
That breaks my heart in 2
That breaks my heart in 2 ways... Reds on jig and the fact im a freo supporter hearing 0-4 again.
Ive seen a few photos of reds with jigs hanging out of their mouth and a few with big plastics but it certianly doesnt seem the norm.
6 weeks to go and ill be having another crack at it so i can only hope.
That sounds like an awesome shallow water session aswell.
crasny1
Posts: 6986
Date Joined: 16/10/08
I didnt give up
because it was known to be a difficult thing to do I wanted one on artificial, but as mentioned despite a bloody good go no doh.
It was a cracker fluke session. 2 of the Iki'd reds was just size, 2 mid range. But some off the happily swimming ones were up there on a brag mat. Have to dig up the photos of the home esky shot because the trout that I landed was a beauty. 7 fish came home - 4 reds, the trout and 2 NW snaps. There was no need to Bag out on the then 7 fish per fisho. But on this day with me sticking with artificials I was the big looser. 2 keepers to the bosses 5 in the Esky, and she probably released another 20 odd odds and sods including the reds mentioned. I only also released one measly snapper so my artificial tally was 3 vs whatever.
But if you are up there chasing reds, Never give up on a nice ~7inch placcy (even if just sitting in the holder) as plastics outfish bait IMO 10/1 for coral trout.
Have to admit if I was now targeting reds I wouldn't use an artificial, but since moving back to the big smoke the chances are fading.
PS: Sorry about the Freo mention. During footy season I'm "2 team", so feel your pain, but it is softened a little when the Eagles do well(No. 1 Team)
"I would like to die on Mars. Just not on impact!!" _ Elon Musk
Auslobster
Posts: 1901
Date Joined: 03/05/08
Jigging all the way for me!
Although I truly believe that to maximise your catch, you have to do both. But like GGs said, I find it more enjoyable, especially when you get hit on the upswing!