Jigging is a great method to employ in spring and into summer with many benefits over the old school bait and berley approach.
Many older kiwi fishos will remember the Grim Reaper and Lethal Lure NZ made jigs that
were popular in tackle stores from the 80’s. These basic jigs were pretty simple, often just
silver with a single or treble hooks and they worked fine on snapper and other popular fish
species.
Jumping forward in time over forty years later and walking into your local fishing store the
walls are packed with shiny lures of all kinds and colours. If you were new to fishing and
didn’t know any better, you would think fish must be very cunning as the sheer number of
jigs for sale is because they are so hard to catch.
Well, the good news is that fish haven’t evolved much in the past forty years and jigs are so
good at hooking fish, that all the tackle brands are fighting for wall space and offering the
next best lure on the market. In my opinion, after years of testing jigs for the fishing media
landscape, I can say that they all work fine, especially in a work-up situation but on some
days when the fishing can be slow, some jigs will out fish others.
JIGS OVER BAIT
Kiwis still love bait fishing, and most tackle shops sell a lot of pillies, tuna, mullet, and squid
every month which helps keep the tills ringing. However, the cost for bait has gone through
the roof and if you bought a bag of berley, pilchards, tuna, and salt ice for a day trip then
you wouldn’t have much change from $100.
For the same amount spent on buying a few jigs of different weights/and or colours, if you
look after them and don’t lose them on fish, they will produce fish over multiple trips and
can be used to catch your own fresh bait! I personally have jigs that are over 6-7 years old
that have caught dozens of fish in this time and have been refreshed with new assist hooks
along the way.
Jigs are simply just painted metal and function as the sinker to reach the bottom, often the
assist hooks with rubber/plastic skirts or tinsel are what will need replacing after several
trips and fish with teeth like snapper doing the damage. But the point is jigs can serve you
well over a longer period and turn out to be a more affordable option over bait.
I always use lures to catch fresh bait or live baits when out in the boat and if you come
across a kahawai or trevally school, it is fun catching your bait that can also be filleted and
vacuum sealed for the freezer for later trips when needed.
SPRING JIGGING
During springtime there is a lot of larger baitfish schools gathering in force, with anchovies
and pilchards that also attract dolphins and gannets which turn into a work-up. The
common dolphins are key for rounding up the baitfish to drive them up to the surface,
where they hold the baitfish so the gannets can dive down from above.
The resulting work-up then attracts the larger fish that feast on the wounded or fleeing
baitfish with snapper the main target for anglers. In this situation, any jig will be smashed as
you send it down near the work-up action.
Often kahawai are also in attendance and trying to get through them near the surface and
to the bottom to hook snapper can be the problem. So, it pays to look at using the slim,
faster dropping jigs to get down quickly and away from the kahawai.
Using a round slider type jig with plastic skirt wont sink as fast and so with more “hang
time,” they are easily attacked by faster moving kahawai. A slider type jig or slow jig would
be best used away from the main action, often snapper are slower and following on behind
picking up the scraps, so these jigs fished hard on the bottom can work well.
The slim jigs are designed to either flutter or flash when on the drop and their erratic action
attracts the attention of fish to entice a strike. Once you reach the bottom, lift the jig back
up and create a yo-yo action. This can be done using an overhead or baitcaster combo
and/or spin combo, and the key is to keep an eye on your sounder, to watch for the telltale
fish sign hard on the bottom or use the sounder to pinpoint the depth of the baitfish schools
to target and drop your jigs through to work them for predators.
COLOURS OR WEIGHTS?
Colours aren’t as important as anglers think and I place more importance on the range of
weights available to fish with. This is important as you can jig in shallower water or when
the wind and current drops with small, lighter jigs from 20 – 60gm, while you need to move
up to heavier jigs from 80 – 150gm when the wind and drift out in deeper water increases.
Jigs are more effective when fished vertically and so if slow fishing, you need to change and
try things to make the jig look more natural but also stay connected with your lure and
strike on fish that become interested.
Trying different colours on slow days can help but I have found that the jigs with the small
tinsel around the assist hooks seem to work a lot better than jigs without. These little shiny
pieces must look like tiny fish or are shrimp-like and bigger fish are attracted to them
moving in the current. We have hooked fish many times by simply leaving the jig still and
the slow-moving assist hooks have attracted snapper to strike.
Make sure you take a selection of jigs with different weights and get your crew to all fish
with assorted colours and weights to determine which lure is working on the day. Also
ensure you take a pair of pliers on the boat, as these are invaluable when removing the
assist hooks from struggling fish. You can also replace hooks that are damaged using split
ring pliers, so they are handy to have onboard.
Lighter jigs under 40gm are also quite effective to cast like a softbait and work back to the
boat, just ensure that this is for areas of seabed with a sandy or muddy bottom. You will
lose jigs in reefy country, and this will become an expensive exercise.
Jigging is a viable method all anglers should adopt through springtime and into early
summer being one of the best periods for success.
