Try getting jiggy

Techniques that will inspire and work

Tim Whybrow

Fast and slow pitch vertical saltwater jigging is a sport across Tasmania that’s gaining traction among many anglers. Although it’s not a new method and has been around for many years, the active nature of the fishing genre keeps many enthusiasts entertained on the water; much like the consistent movement and tactical hunting methods amongst fly fisherman. Not that you can compare the two.

It is stated that you can catch almost EVERY species whilst jigging in Tasmanian waters. Striped Trumpeter, Jackass Morwong, Flathead, Kingfish, Snapper, and Calamari are what most anglers are hoping to land with their jigging combinations. Barracuda, Cod, and Gurnard are the most common bi-catch. There have even been two instances where Southern Rock Lobster (Crayfish) have been caught on slow-pitch jigs over the last year in Tasmanian waters that we know of. Tascast Fishing Adventures recently released a video hooking up to a Crayfish on a slow pitch jig, which is viewable on YouTube. As jigging across Tasmanian anglers picks up, we may find Southern Rock Lobster to be a common catch. Ensure you’re fishing within regulations if you ever catch a southern rock lobster jigging.

Jigging tactics

So what exactly is jigging and why should you try it? Jigging is an exciting type of lure fishing, but instead of spinning or trolling, where you’re retrieving your lure through topwater, or just below the surface, you’re dropping your lure to the bottom of the ocean, fishing vertically, and imitating a fish swimming in that vicinity. As you wind or ‘jig’ your lure up from the sea floor, you usually let it sit between retrieves of 1-4 metre intervals before dropping it back to the bottom and starting over. Quite often fish are caught on the lure dropping from it’s unique butterfly style seesaw movement that grasps lots of attention, or between jigging up and stopping in intervals. It’s uncommon to catch your target species whilst your jig is sitting in one spot without any prior action, although sometimes the topwater swell can even do the jigging for you.

Selecting jigs for Tasmanian waters

There are two types of jigs on the market that we’ve encountered, centre weight, and tail weight. Centre weight is balanced around the centre of the lure, giving it a butterfly seesaw effect when dropping to the ocean floor as it is quite effective in 30-80m of water; the tail weighted jig is designed to reach the ocean floor quicker with less lift and is commonly used for deeper dropping. It’s always recommended to have a variety of jig weights in your tackle box due to variables such as tide, wind, and drift affecting your drop while you’re out on the water. There are many different weighted jigs on the market. So which weight should you be using? As a rule of thumb, most jigging anglers use one gram per metre of water they’re fishing in. This isn’t always the case as wind, tide, and drift affect the jig’s ability, as mentioned above, but when commencing your jigging journey it’s a nice rule to go by. Tascast Fishing Adventures have had a lot of luck recently catching Striped Trumpeter in approximately 80 metres of water on 120(G) gram knife jigs in windy conditions. This is without any fancy spotlock or anchoring when out in that depth. A 60 gram jig on a glass out day in 30-40 metres of water would be perfect too, or even a 30 gram jig for that matter. As an all-rounder, you can pick up a center-weighted 160g jigg at most tackle stores for approximately $17.00. We’ve witnessed crayfish, flathead, calamari, cod, and morwong caught on this weight in depths from 35-80 metres. Like all lures, there are many different colours and accessories to choose from. Pink and green, red and orange, glow in the dark, blue and silver, plus countless other patterns are on the market. Probably a more important priority is combining one or two assist hooks with your jig. 3/0 or 4/0 are quite common. About 70% of jigs purchased at a tackle store will not come with hooks, so purchasing a few different sized assist hooks for your own experimentation is recommended.

Which rods and reels?

There are many combinations that are hitting the market designed specifically for the jigging addicts. You don’t have to spend an exorbitant amount of money to attach a jigging lure to your fishing rod, but most anglers are opting for a combination of 30-60lb braid, 40lb-80lb leader, spinning or overhead reel and 6ft-6.5ft rod PE3-PE5 rods. The main benefit of using an overhead reel and rod combination is control and weight. As Jigging is a very physical journey, lightweight graphite material is easier on your arms after a day on the water, and an overhead reel gives you the benefit of controlling your jig’s dropping speed with quicker accessibility to your tension and simply winding your reel immediately to lock into place and commence your retrieve.

Retrieves that work

Numerous retrieves are said to entice fish to snap at your jig for that exciting hookup. This is going to vary upon your target species and the style of hunting that species pursues. When jigging for Flathead across Tasmania in 30-45m of water, the most common retrieve is allowing your jig to land on the ocean floor, slow jigging/actioning your rod up two or three times in 30cm increments whilst winding, sitting your jig in that position for three to six seconds, before dropping back down to the bottom of the ocean to repeat again. This would have to be the most common jigging action across these lures. Another very common retrieve is an erratic retrieve to imitate a fleeing fish from the ocean floor, which consists of powering quickly up from the bottom with five to six winds and jigging with your rod tip in sync with each wind. This kind of action seems to grab the attention of a feeding frenzy on the ocean floor. A simple slow jig up and down, winding in slow increments is also common when targeting all species.

This article is to act as a basic guide only to get you started with your jigging adventures. Most anglers find it to be a fantastic sport in between bait fishing or trolling whilst out on the water. Let me tell you, it’s quite an addiction! It’s so exciting to play around with different jigs to see which species prefer which jigs and what species you’ll find in different water columns. Remember to always treat your fish, even bi-catch, with the utmost respect ready for a healthy release if you don’t hook up to your target species whilst jigging and be sure to follow all bag and size limits set out by dpipwe.tas.gov.au.

Tascast Fishing Adventures are set to release numerous videos on Youtube sharing their jigging action and success, so be sure to head over to Youtube and indulge in that content. Safe and happy boating everyone! Tight lines.