Hit the motherlode of fish yesterday. Took the opportunity to give microjigging a go. 28g jig in 50 metres of water, no wind. Got smashed every time by a kingie or big snapper. What a lot of fun on soft bait gear!

It didn't have a chance to hit bottom, got smashed by a big snapper 20 metres down on almost every cast. Bloody awesome!

28g is 1 ounce so will get down faster than a 1oz jighead as softbaits are bouyant. Love micro jigging and have used 30g in 70m no problem, no good in windy conditions though

10lb braid with 15lb fluoro leader 

It's all I fish anymore pretty much.
I fished softies only for years and years but have gone to micros now 95% of the time.
My catch rate is similar.
some days my mate beats me with softies sometimes I beat him.
They cast better by far and last well.
I use jiffy clips and can swap weight color in seconds and I don't get smelly gulp juice around anymore.
Very civilized!
Yes you can use smaller weights in deeper water or faster drifts weight to weight over softies.
They are good also for leaving on the rod in the holder because they don't dry out.
On my boat I always have one ready to go (30g) in the holder so I can just drop the boat and have a flick on any interesting sign (prospecting).
They don't beat the rod up if in the hook clip in my experience.
Downside is they will pull more hooks than softies.
You have to be judicious with your drag because those small hooks will tear through skin if not well hooked.
compared to me very rarely loosing a hooked fish from a softie
Same for big fish, those hooks are much lighter.
More of a pain to get out of the fishes mouth as well and they grab fingers like magic!
In general I love them and am helping Kaveman with his food bills from time to time into the bargain!

Micro jigging is where it is at. It's all I seem to do now. It's very effective and you tend to save money, unless you're getting dusted. The amount of bigger fish that hit them has convinced me also. 30g is all I usually use. And use centre or head weighted jigs, tail weighted suck; no flutter. Micro jigging is fun and addictive.

How actively are you fishing the jigs? Long cast and gentle retrieve bouncing the bottom? Or more up and down, slow wind x 5 drop, slow wind?

I use the former for softs, and later for micros. But I probably don't persevere enough, as success rate is average at best.

I bought a specialist micro jigging rod, then broke 2 inch off the end - bugger - had it repaired, but no doubt its lost its specialist action...


My crew (SWMBO) favours anchor down, burley and smelly baits....

I use more heavy duty jig or live bait hooks, 1/0 single on my assist. People tend to think it's just another fad and only applicable in work ups. I couldn't disagree more. The styles and methods that you can employ with a standard softbait spin set up, in all sorts of terrain and conditions, opens limitations. Yoyo, hitting the sand, jerk fall, slow mechanical, casting, sweep/ retrieve etc. all have their place. And yip, can concur with others sentiments; you often pick up fish that are in mid water column which you don't tend to pick up with other methods.

Ragged Joe, it does take practice to optimize them but you can get there pretty quickly.

As stated above a lot of ways to make them work.

On sand with my std 30g which I fish mostly for snaps in 20ish depth here's my starting technique for the day.

I cast forward of the drift like softbaits and do most of my fishing from about 2 o'clock to 5 o'clock in terms of sweep in the water if viewed from above.

I run them a lot like a softie but when I lift my wrist I tend to do a lift with about 3 small movements of the wrist as part of the lift if that makes sense?
this makes the thing swim up and weave in short zigs as it goes.

Then I will pause and even let it fall a little bit which is often when a strike happens and do a second lift. Then all the way back to the bottom again which would be a couple of meters total.

This is for bottom sign! if the fish are tight to the bottom I do just one lift with some little wrist movements and back to the bottom.

It's pretty subtle stuff.

If fish are touching it on the bottom but no hookups let it sit there for a 3 count or even count to 3 after the movement if they are tentative sometimes works well. The last is a great softbait trick for larger mooching snaps that are shuffling your gear but not hooked when you lift to set.

I favor very gentle lifts at strike and if it has weight I just keep lifting. The second I lose the weight of the fish I let it drop again and often get the fish on the second pass. If you lift to fast and hard you will move the lure to far away from the fish.

Lots of ways to skin the cat and I bet others fish them way different. This is a good starting point if you understand softies though because it's a modification of something you know.

RaggedJoe wrote: ... if the wind ever stops blowing on a day I am not working...........