[mrbill1]

I have always used a conventional reel for jigging. This past weekend I used a spinner for a couple of hours while jigging. I did catch a couple of tuna, but I don't want to develop bad habits. I would like to hear about techniques you should use on the drop.

I'm sure there are some tricks. At first, I just opened up the bail and sent the jig screaming down. If it stopped before hitting the bottom, I quickly closed the bail and set the hook. Other times I held the line wearing a glove in my left hand to slow the descend speed of the jig just outside of the spool half way between the first guide. What are the best methods of slowing down the jig on a drop with a spinner?

 

[KILSONG]

mrbill1 wrote:
I have always used a conventional reel for jigging. This past weekend I used a spinner for a couple of hours while jigging. I did catch a couple of tuna, but I don't want to develop bad habits. I would like to hear about techniques you should use on the drop.

I'm sure there are some tricks. At first, I just opened up the bail and sent the jig screaming down. If it stopped before hitting the bottom, I quickly closed the bail and set the hook. Other times I held the line wearing a glove in my left hand to slow the descend speed of the jig just outside of the spool half way between the first guide. What are the best methods of slowing down the jig on a drop with a spinner?
I don't see any difference whether you use spinners or conventional reels. I don't see any reason to slow down the jigs. I somethimes use stop and go technique, which sometimes triggers bites. While dropping jigs by closing the bail manually and opening again.

In any case, I don't drop my jigs deeper than 300' and I prefer jig within 200 ft from the surface. If you jig deeper than 300', it is like you send down your baited hooks deeper than 300' which very few fishermen do.

And, I also like to cast away from the boat with spinners,wait a few second and start jigging.

 

[mrbill1]

On my last trip, the blackfin tuna were hanging between 250 and 300 feet. I was using the dyed colored coded depthfinder line. It really helped. It's hard to tell how deep you are without it. I would hook up every single drop while other anglers were not. I would say I was out catching them 5 to 1 because I found the magic strike zone.

I switched to a spinning outfit that didn't have the depthfinder line on it. I was using the same jig. My hook up ratio greatly decreased as I wasn't sure what depth I was dropping the jig.

Closing the bail at different depths makes sense if you are searching for the magic depth. I would be nicer if someone watch the depth recorder would tell you where he is marking the fish.

Here is a picture of a very used assist hook that caught 22 blackfin tuna from 14 to 25 pounds. I almost switched it out three times, but I just wanted to see how long it would last.

If the fish would have been few and far between, I would have changed it.

 

[KILSONG]

Oh, you were looking for blackfin tuna, then it is different story. Whenever I went down there, I tried to avoid blackfin bites. When I fished on the Gulf Eagle out of Port Aransas, I observerd that guys using Japanese style jerk/crank method definitely had more bites. It seems blackfin love fast moving jigs.

 

[mrbill1]

Yes, we were only in 650 feet of water at the time. Blackfin was the target. There could have been a YF lurking around, but it would have been unlikely. We had moved inshore from 6500 feet to catch the blackfins. If you sent the jig to the bottom big snapper were waiting. Since it is not snapper season in federal waters, the Capt told us not to fish the bottom. Here's a picture of a big red snapper that was released.

 

[mrbill1]

Blackfins fight hard for their size. This one which is very large for a blackfin, went around 30 pounds. They love fast moving jigs. I let a new friend borrow a sevensea's hooker. The darting action of the jig was driving the blackfins nuts. He would get bumped at least 10 times before a hook found their mouth.

It was fun watching him as he is very active himself. He jigs so fast, that it's hard not to just stand there and laugh.If jigging fast was an olympic sport, I would pick him to win the Gold Medal.

 

[bretabaker]

oh hyper-man...the stories never cease to make me laugh. i want to fish with him.

thats an awesome snapper. you should've brought a yellow marker out there and colored him to be a world record beliner.

 

[KILSONG]

I got a Tuna Max 57XXH spinning rod. It is very strong rod and I don't see any problem to land a big tuna with the rod.

 

[chumslk]

What are the advantages to tuna jigging with a spinner as opposed to a conventional ? Personal preference ? I have tried the shorter jigging rods and have caught with them but my go to rod is still a 7' seeker. Just feels better to me.

 

[KILSONG]

chumslk wrote:
What are the advantages to tuna jigging with a spinner as opposed to a conventional ? Personal preference ? I have tried the shorter jigging rods and have caught with them but my go to rod is still a 7' seeker. Just feels better to me.
I am going to use spinning rods to find out why they use spinniers for tuna ?

 

[gmann]

I've fished conventional my whole life until last year when I switched to using the big Stella spinning reels. Honestly I would never go back to jigging conventional. I really enjoy fishing with them if for no other reason, Also with the amount of heavy drag you can apply the fights end up being considerably shorter for me but it is really personal preference.

 

[mrbill1]

I almost have to agree with gmann. My left arm was very tired from jigging for almost two straight days . So, since I took a spinning outfit, and I am right handed, I wanted to give my left arm a break.

Lifting the rod with my right arm and cranking with my left hand was relaxing. It was a pleasure to use my right arm to lift the tuna. Another reason I wanted to us a spinning outfit for jigging is the fact that I own about six spinning/jigging rods.

This post edited by mrbill1 06:31 PM 03/02/2008

 

[bretabaker]

Maybe it's just me, but i think without a harness - I can hold more drag with a spinning rod than with a conventional. Perhaps it's because I'm right handed, but I also think its more stable.

 

[reelfisher]

bretabaker wrote:
Maybe it's just me, but i think without a harness - I can hold more drag with a spinning rod than with a conventional. Perhaps it's because I'm right handed, but I also think its more stable.


Now that is interesting and somethnig I had never thought about. I havent tried a heavy spinning outfit yet. Do you think part of the increased stability is due to there being less torque on the rod due to the guides being underneath the blank. If so I wonder how it would compare to a cnoventinal rod with a roberts wrap...

 

[bretabaker]

reelfisher wrote:
bretabaker wrote:
Maybe it's just me, but i think without a harness - I can hold more drag with a spinning rod than with a conventional. Perhaps it's because I'm right handed, but I also think its more stable.


Now that is interesting and somethnig I had never thought about. I havent tried a heavy spinning outfit yet. Do you think part of the increased stability is due to there being less torque on the rod due to the guides being underneath the blank. If so I wonder how it would compare to a cnoventinal rod with a roberts wrap...

I'm not sure....it could also be that there is a 'handle' if you will for your non-cranking hand with a spinning reel, whereas on a conventional, you're just holding the grip.

The torque on a conventional rod is probably a lot of it though, i agree.

 

[chumslk]

Thanks for the interesting comments, trying to convince myself I need one ? I agree with the theory of max-press. on a fish. Its important to have that capability when a fish takes you into the screws or under the boat as happens with larger fish on hbs sometimes. On the other hand have seen fish lost due to too much press. pulled hooks, tackle failure in a hb situation while being on the hook. For the no. of limited trips I 'm able to do I will stick with 20-25 lbs. of drag as its worked for me over the yrs. Probably have to pass the rod off after 15 mins. with 40 lbs. of drag or have a coronary !

 

[655226]

reelfisher wrote:
bretabaker wrote:
Maybe it's just me, but i think without a harness - I can hold more drag with a spinning rod than with a conventional. Perhaps it's because I'm right handed, but I also think its more stable.


Now that is interesting and somethnig I had never thought about. I havent tried a heavy spinning outfit yet. Do you think part of the increased stability is due to there being less torque on the rod due to the guides being underneath the blank. If so I wonder how it would compare to a cnoventinal rod with a roberts wrap...

Absolutely this is the major cause for the stability of a spinner.
Also the further the guides are away from the blank the more dramatic effect this has.
The taller the guides on a conventional the more more twisting effect the guides will have, and also the more stablizing effect a spinner or spiral will have.
From what I have found two other factors that play a minor role in stability as well.
2)The Handle being more inline with the blank, example, a wider reel will have more wobble.
3)Reel weight and gravity also play a role in twisting but to a much lesser degree then the first two.

I have a test for you guys to prove this. It only takes a second to set up as well. It may be hard to follow so look at the image I have attached.

Take your biggest, heaviest reel and put it on any rod. String the line through the guides and tie it to a fix spot about 5' off the ground. If you can't find anything else, tie it to an upper door hindge.
Now lean the rod at 45 degrees away from the hindge and let gravity swing the reel below the rod as shown in the diagram. Take a slick cloth and loop it around the rod blank right above the foregrip. You want the blank to be able to spin with little resistance from the cloth. Now pull the cloth down toward the floor and put a good bend in the rod. You will find it does not take that much bend to flip that big heavey reel up on top of the rod against the force of gravity.

The same principal will make a spiral wrap much more stable under load, and it has a dramatic effect.

Pulling UP on a fish, the guides of a rod want to be below the blank like a spinner or flyrod. I think almost every conventional should be spiral wrapped. Esp any rods that do not have or use a gimbal. Light tackle the twisting doesn't make that huge of a deal, but for any grouper/amberjack rod it makes a massive difference. Test it out yourself!

This post edited by Rottweiler 11:04 AM 03/05/2008

 

[KILSONG]

Thanks Rotweiler for informative information.
I have been experimenting acid wrapped jigging rods for tuna for years and I made a conclusion that acid wrapped rods definitely a big help to reduce wabbling movement of reels when fighting.
I even asked Rodwinder to build a 5' short Japanese style jigging rod with acid wrapping.