In last month’s issue Mark addressed specific situations that suited one lure type over the other in water to 20 metres deep, also allocating scores out of ten to provide an idea of relative effectiveness. Soft-plastics came out the winners by a reasonable margin. However, part two deals with the deeper- down scenarios, and sees the relative overall effectiveness of the two methods evening up significantly...

While really competent practitioners of both metal jigs and soft- plastic lures will generally find ways to bring home a feed using their chosen method in deeper waters, it would be fair to say that most see water over 30-metres deep as being the preserve of metal lures. And it’s not hard to work out why. Combine the metal jig’s ability to be dropped quickly down to where the fish are feeding with enticing actions and/or components, along with small but lethal hooks for easy hook-ups, and they’re obvious winners. Having said that, a few of us still fancy our chances with soft-plastics, and regularly have this faith backed up with pretty impressive results ... or we can end up struggling to compete for various reasons.

Yes, Nature is unpredictable and this impacts on when and why fish feed, resulting in one style proving more effective than the other at various times. But, as we can never be sure when this might be, it pays to experiment and be flexible – particularly if we’re not catching much but our companions are!

No matter what your lure-fishing preference is, finding a work- up underway, or even one that’s recently finished, tends to be a massive plus – but how best to take advantage?

The feeding birds and your fish-finder will provide some valuable information on lure choice and technique, including: where the main action is happening (enabling the boat to be positioned so it drifts over the main activity); how far up in the water column the baitfish are holding (indicating the depth where strikes may occur during the lure’s descent/ascent); and which fish species appear to be in attendance.

While the first indicator is reasonably self evident, the latter two warrant further explanation. If the baitfish schools appear to be reasonably high up in the water column, accompanied by predators hanging around nearby (but still well up off the sea floor), the lighter (i.e. 30-80g) and/or fluttery type jigs tend to be well suited, particularly if there’s little wind – as will be half- to three-quarter-ounce weighted soft-baits, particularly those with wriggly tails (unless the predominant fish present are kahawai!).

Such lures take a little longer to weave and wiggle their way down through the activity, making them prime targets for predators looking for an easy feed. I’m constantly surprised by how quickly snapper (and most other carnivorous species) can intercept our offerings, so although the lure should be able to descend relatively freely, it pays to maintain some contact with it and stay alert for any unusual line movements throughout. (A small freespool/ baitcaster-type reel does this much more effectively, and I’ll explain why shortly.) If the line jerks, whizzes away or suddenly slackens, the angler must quickly react by either engaging the reel or clamping down hard on the spool, before lifting the rod, and if the tip starts steadily bending, a firmer second lift sets the hook.

At other times, it’s all about simply getting down to the bottom, or near the bottom, to find hungry fish waiting, and that’s where the heavier, more streamlined jigs come in – especially in depths of 40 metres and more. Or, alternatively, you can send down a soft-plastic attached to a heavily-weighted Elevator Rig, which we’ll come to shortly.

Metal magic

Unless specialist slow-jigging gear is used, anglers are unlikely to get the full benefit of most well-proven metal jigs. While the lightweight, very bendy rods may seem designed simply to provide a spectacular-looking fight, this aspect’s actually for functional reasons. In addition to slowing down any lifting motions imparted by anglers so a more seductive movement is produced, the typically forgiving action cushions the sudden bumps and bangs of fighting snapper, protecting the lures’ relatively small hooks.

As for the reels, they can be freespool or spinning models filled with 6-10kg braid and knotted to around two metres of 10-15kg (20-30lb) fluorocarbon or specialised nylon trace.

One of the many successful metal jigs may be attached; I try to have the following models at my disposal in 30g through to 240g weights (ideally in predominantly bright, fluoro colours, such as orange or pink, with luminous aspects also incorporated): Shimano Lucanus and ColtSniper; Ocean Angler Jitterbugs and Flip Its (especially the bigger Flip Its in 180 and 240g); Daiwa Pirates; and BlueBlue SeaRideVs – although the last can be hard to source at times. My apologies to the many other lures that might be just as good, or better, which I haven’t encountered or used enough yet!

While all sorts of lure movements and tactics can prove effective, I find imparting a simple slow-motion, mechanical-winding action to around five or six metres up off the bottom, accompanied by occasional pauses and slow yo-yos, generally does the job.

As you can see, it’s hardly rocket science, which is why most anglers opt for this technique – and as these lures are often armed with small, sharp hooks, providing easy hook-ups, they are well suited for those anglers with limited experience, too.

I’ve personally enjoyed many fantastic slow-jig/metal jig sessions – so good that I doubt the action could have been any faster – making them 10 out of 10 for effectiveness on a regular basis. Yet I still have hankerings to try soft-plastics instead occasionally. Sometimes it’s simply down to having a bit more variety in my fishing day, at others it’s an attempt to increase the size of fish hooked (after all, some very big soft-plastic tails are available). Or, if the action’s slow, it may be an experiment to see if soft-plastics are more effective at the time. One thing’s for sure though, their deployment involves more complicated tactics than when jigs are used...

Plastic fantastic

Two main ways are used to fish soft-plastics in deep water (i.e. 30-60 metres): ‘conventional type’ soft-plastics rigged on 5/8 to 1oz lead-heads or heavily-weighted elevator-type rigs. I far prefer ‘conventional’, as these lures are better at enticing big fish into biting while ‘swimming’ down – but a big disadvantage concerns how long they tend to take getting down to ‘the zone’; by the time the lure gets there, the jig fishers may have hooked and landed a couple of fish and the boat drifted off the main action. Multiply that several times and you can end up looking pretty silly!

But that’s not usually the case, especially if the drift’s not too fast and the boat has been positioned nicely up ahead of the activity/area to allow for the lure-descent time.

The usual tactics with spinning gear involve casting well up ahead of the boat’s drift direction – as far as possible using 7’6”-8’ spin rods – sweeping off a few rod-lengths of extra braid afterwards (the deeper the lure must sink, the greater the extra line released). The primary objectives are to let the lure freefall most of the way down, but become tight to the engaged reel while descending the remaining 10 metres or so to the sea floor. If you’ve cast a long way ahead and released enough slack line, but not too much, you will succeed – with those critical last few metres often attracting savage bites!

However, this is pretty advanced stuff, so you may prefer a baitcaster or small overhead type outfit for this task instead. This type of gear allows the lure to be dropped straight down behind the boat, with the angler then staying alert for any unusual movements shown by the unloading braid, especially when in the lower part of the water column. If there is, quickly engage the reel or clamp down hard on the spool, before either striking or making a quick little jiggle upwards to see if there’s any weight on the end or to entice another bite. It’s hard to beat this method when predators are feeding throughout much of the water column.

Otherwise, use an elevator-type soft-plastic rig, especially if the snapper are hard on the bottom and just getting down to them is key to getting bites. Indeed, the speed of deployment rivals that of metal jigs, and catching fish often means simply dragging the rig along the bottom, or winding up for a bit then dropping down again – or maybe jiggling and jerking the soft-bait occasionally. But I’m not a huge fan. As something of a tackle ponce, I find the look of the bulky lead-heads used relative to the slimness of the trailing tails disturbing, along with the hinging between the two articulated components. However, the snapper often don’t share my opinions, and tens of thousands of snapper have been caught this way!

Deep water elevator rig tips:

Look for weighted rigs with ‘J’-type hooks armed with ribbing on the shank rather than those with worm hooks, as the soft-plastic tail is often pulled down out of position, and this hook’s gape is so big that some of the smaller, but still-well-legal fish, can’t get their mouth over them.

For similar reasons, pick one with a hook size that’s not too big (usually 3/0 is ideal, but varying size systems can mean some brands’ 5/0, say, has the same size gape as a 3/0) or many snapper will grab the soft-plastic tail, but not get hooked, thanks to the point and barb being positioned too far away from the tail itself.

Use soft-plastics with active tails, such as paddle and grub tails, as they generate more disturbance and noise while descending. Incredible as it may seem, it’s not uncommon to get bites from fish while this rig is hurtling down towards the bottom, led by a 6-8oz weighted head! Luminous properties – in both the head and lure – can make a big difference at times, especially in deep water.

It pays to experiment

While there will be no discernible preference for soft-plastic lures or metal jigs at times, with both working equally well, at others it can be almost totally one or the other. So, if the hoped-for action fails to eventuate, make sure you have the other option all rigged and ready to go, too, just in case. For similar reasons, it’s an advantage to have two or more anglers on board, enabling both methods to be deployed simultaneously so the more effective technique is determined. (That’s one of the big advantages offered by charter boats: the skipper can have several anglers rigged up with different lure options, shortcutting the potential lure-selection process.) However, the real potential on offer obviously still depends on the various anglers’ using the appropriate tackle and techniques.

So, there you go – lots of options in the deeper waters, with both lure types able to produce, but I’d have to hand the overall honours to metal jigs. It’s hard to beat something that involves an outfit that’s lots of fun to use, armed with a lure that plummets down to where the fish are, and hooks up efficiently – even when you’re not much of an angler!

Relative effectiveness scores: Soft-baits 6.5; slow-jigs 8.5

A (possible) conclusion

Upon adding the scores from last month’s article (13.5 and 7 out of 20 to soft-baits and jigs respectively) to this month’s results, we get a total of 23 and 15.5 out of a possible 30. This would seem to indicate a relatively comprehensive victory to soft-plastics, but I suspect my bias towards soft-plastics has skewed these scores. In reality, it probably simply indicates that the shallower the water, the better soft-plastics are suited. At least, that’s what I think today, to this point in time...