Micro-jigging - tips and techniques

“Micro-jigging? What’s the big deal?” the writer hears his mates say. “We were doing this years ago with Eric Morman’s Lethal Lures and having a ball. Back then, we often used 60g lures and smaller, so what’s so different?” Paul Senior explains…

It is hard to get your head around the fact that a lump of metal, left sitting inert on the bottom, can attract a bite, but this regularly happens!

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Small lures offer BIG potential

My advice is, don’t get too hung up on the term ‘micro-jigging’. Rather, look at this form of fishing as a new cycle of jigging – but this time it’s better and more effective due to the advancing technology involving the construction of modern fishing tackle. Compared to how we used to jig for snapper back in the 1980s, quite a few things have changed.

The gear

Lures: When a new style of fishing makes its way over from other parts of the world, we usually need to adapt it to our local conditions. Micro-jigging is no different, having been developed in tropical countries with calmer oceans and less tidal flow than in New Zealand. So although our lures have been scaled down in size somewhat – with the major wholesale companies now concentrating on lures from 25g to 80g – they’re still bigger on average than those typically used overseas.

Micro-jigging - tips and techniques

When you’re first starting out, I suggest erring on the heavier side to make sure you can reach and stay near the bottom with your lure. So if unsure your lure is making it down, go up in weight and/or use a more streamlined shape. Typical jig weights for various depths are as follows: 20-30g, 5-15m; 30-40g, 15-30m; and 40-80g, 30-50m.

Micro-jigs are available in very different shapes, affecting the comparative rate of descent, so consider this aspect when selecting one for the prevailing conditions. In my opinion there are currently four basic shapes to choose from.

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Mini knife-type jigs: My favourite shape, these get down relatively quickly and are ideal for 15-50m (or shallower when there is wind).

Compact diamond, symmetrical: This is more of a twitchy shape. It darts around on the retrieve, and flutters while falling to the bottom, producing limited vibrations.

Flat shapes: These jigs fall horizontally through the water column and take longer to fall, vibrating during the descent. Such lures are better suited to shallow and calm-water situations.

Compact asymmetrical shape: These jigs are a mixture of flat-fall and diamond, usually being rounded one side with a few angles on the other. This means they can be twitched, but can also hover on the horizontal, then fall horizontally if your rod is whipped up to ‘pitch’ them onto their sides so they flutter back down to the bottom. A good universal shape, they can be used in most situations.

The best way to check out a lure’s action is by working it close to the boat, just under the water, so you can see how it reacts in response to rod and reel movements.

Rods: This is where the real fun of micro-jigging lies for me, with specialist rods being super light and bendy, yet offering surprising structural strength and power. Generally these rods are about two metres in length and strictly in spin-fishing configurations – so far, anyway. You can really load up these spindly looking rods, which is what I have been doing – and it makes me smile even while writing this. Boy, do they bend right over under load! In fact, they are quickly becoming known as ‘glory rods’ around the traps, as even a small fish sees them buckling hard over.

When a good sized fish is hooked, I tend to fish with quite a heavy drag compared to other types of lure fishing, and give it heaps. To me this is when the word ‘micro’ comes into play, with the small and lightweight rods ensuring the best possible tussle occurs.

If buying a micro-jigging rod, make sure it can twitch lures of at least 80g. If the rod’s too bendy, the lure will not move much under the water when ‘lifted’.

Reels: This is easy: simply use soft-bait spin reels in sizes 2500 to 3000. However, my friends and I recently upgraded our reel handles to a larger size so we can load the reels up more! I have seen a couple of reels on the market made specifically for micro-jigging. Basically they need a good drag and to be quite strong if you fish like me, using plenty of drag to get the ‘glory’ and fun factor right up there.

Line: I started with relatively light soft-baiting braid, but have recently gone a bit heavier to about 0.16mm – again, so I can exert a bit more drag pressure. Most good-quality braids will do the trick, with the line-weight being determined by your own drag-setting preference.

Leader: Like all lure fishing, fluorocarbon is the best material. I use 9kg/20lb line now, as I was getting quite a few bust-offs due to the trace wearing out where it’s tied onto the solid rings.

Micro-jigging - tips and techniques

The technique

It takes many years to become an expert in any fishing style. For example, just recently I was talking to a soft-baiting buddy of mine; we’ve been soft-baiting for about nine years and agreed it feels as if we are finally getting the hang of it!

Like all new techniques to our shores, opinions and techniques change and are fine-tuned over time, so in the future I may have to eat the words I’m offering now. So, having excused myself due to my relative ‘learner’ status, this is what I have discovered so far.

Micro-jigging for snapper is all about the fall of the lure and slowing actions down to get the bite. When micro-jigging, I’m concentrating on attracting snapper to my lure with twitching and fluttering jigs, then getting them to bite by letting the jig fall and sit on the bottom. I reckon snapper don’t like chasing prey down; they’re a bit lazy and will take an easy meal over a fast-moving baitfish. That’s why you should have moments spent with your jig sitting on the bottom, doing nothing. That’s how I catch over 50% of the snapper – with the lure sitting on the bottom, completely still. A bit crazy, eh!

However, when you think about it, an erratically moving jig signals to predatory fish that a baitfish is in trouble and dying. So it makes sense that the fall and pause on the bottom triggers them to race in for an easy meal. Your method becomes a creative experiment in technique, which can make for lots of fun.

Micro-jigging - tips and techniquesLure selection can also make a difference, and in these early stages of learning I’m using heavier, fast-falling lures when it’s deeper or windy, saving the smaller horizontally-fluttering types for calm days and/or shallow water.

You may believe soft-baits are better used in the shallows, and until recently I thought the same way. At the time I was aboard Damian Clayton’s charter vessel Diversity; we had been out in the deeper water, battling the wind to get our inchiku lures down, but catching plenty when we managed it. So once we’d loaded the bins, we decided to head inshore for a soft-baiting and micro-jigging session.

By this time it was even windier – around 20 to 25 knots – and we were fishing in about 12m of water. We had soft-baiters casting forward on one side of the boat and micro-jiggers dropping straight down on the other side. Guess what? The guys dropping straight down in the shallows were catching, while the soft-baiter casting away from the boat were not even getting a bite.

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It wasn’t too hard to work out why though, as I could see the wind catching the soft-baiters’ line, making it difficult to stay in touch with their lure. However, there was no such problem for the micro-jiggers on the other side, who found staying in contact easy, resulting in some nice fish being caught – including the best fish of the day – a lovely snapper about 6-7kg. This experience really opened my eyes (and also Captain Damo’s) to this method’s potential in the Hauraki Gulf’s shallower waters – and I know Diversity Charters will soon be taking micro-jigging charters out when the fish move in a bit closer to Auckland.

I reckon micro-jigging will really shine through summer and autumn, when the fish move into the channels and worm-bed-type areas, followed by the ‘anchovy season’ late summer and autumn (boy, don’t these micro-jigs resemble anchovies well!). So it will be all on for those after-work missions to the worm beds between Rangitoto and Tiri’, Rangi’ Channel, the area between Rakino and Waiheke, the bottom end and further in, around depths from 10-18m.

Just thinking about it, I can’t wait to turn the drag up a bit more than usual, get a huge bend in my glory rod, and have some real fun with my ‘kiddie-sized’ fishing outfit!

 


December - 2014 - Paul Senior

New Zealand Fishing News Magazine.
Copyright: NZ Fishing Media Ltd.
Re-publishing elsewhere is prohibited

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