Microjigging
Printed From: The Fishing Website
Category: Saltwater Fishing
Forum Name: Heavy Metal - Jig fishing
Forum Description: Anything related to jig fishing here
URL: https://www.fishing.net.nz/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=125618
Printed Date: 26 Jan 2026 at 8:38pm
Topic: Microjigging
Posted By: MB
Subject: Microjigging
Date Posted: 21 Sep 2017 at 1:05pm
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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! The microjig was good for fast and furious fishing as more resilient than soft baits. Anyone else microjigging? Outside of a work up, when else do you use them? |
Replies:
Posted By: Marknado4000
Date Posted: 21 Sep 2017 at 1:43pm
| Thats a little jig for that depth! works mint anywhere that softbaits do, casting over reefs, into wash and foul etc. |
Posted By: MB
Date Posted: 21 Sep 2017 at 2:28pm
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It didn't have a chance to hit bottom, got smashed by a big snapper 20 metres down on almost every cast. Bloody awesome! I'd worry about snagging up over rough ground/wash zones.
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Posted By: DenimViper
Date Posted: 21 Sep 2017 at 2:52pm
| when fishing over foul I go down even more in weight class, 10 - 15 gm and keep to a single hook assist to minimise snagging |
Posted By: kaveman
Date Posted: 21 Sep 2017 at 3:48pm
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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 -------------  www.kavemantackle.co.nz
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Posted By: smudge
Date Posted: 21 Sep 2017 at 6:57pm
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Hi Boosh what line weight were you using? I'm giving the tiny jigs a shot as soon as the coast is flat ------------- Best gurnard fisherman in my street |
Posted By: MB
Date Posted: 21 Sep 2017 at 6:58pm
10lb braid with 15lb fluoro leader 
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Posted By: smudge
Date Posted: 21 Sep 2017 at 7:05pm
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Awesome. I will be doing 6lb braid with 20lb trace in 60m. Well that's the plan! ------------- Best gurnard fisherman in my street |
Posted By: Garry 23041
Date Posted: 22 Sep 2017 at 8:20am
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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! |
Posted By: MB
Date Posted: 22 Sep 2017 at 9:10am
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I'm convinced   |
Posted By: fish i
Date Posted: 22 Sep 2017 at 9:23am
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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.
------------- 6th place in the inaugural Te Kauwhata Regionals paddle crab division |
Posted By: jakepitsville
Date Posted: 22 Sep 2017 at 9:23am
| No real difference to the bottom bouncing we did in the 90s. Small 40g grim reaper moved very subtly on the bottom. Caught loads. Used one when the snaps were on with soft baits and caught bigger fish. Used the new micro jigs and yup they work |
Posted By: RaggedJoe
Date Posted: 22 Sep 2017 at 9:43am
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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.... |
Posted By: Telecaster
Date Posted: 22 Sep 2017 at 10:39am
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I had a good session on the kayak on Wednesday, I was in 30m and found snapper sitting up at 15m off the bottom. No bites with jig near the bottom but give it 15 or 16 slow winds and started catching. Lost a fish of a lifetime to a pulled hook about 5m under the kayak, got a good look at him in the clear water. I was using a catch 20g in blue and white, the same jig that I got my last PB on. |
Posted By: fish i
Date Posted: 22 Sep 2017 at 10:50am
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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.
Went out 60m mark the other week. Sounder had all sorts on it from surface to bottom over a small reef. Others on the boat, bait fishos got picked apart by throw backs, heavy soft baits/ sliders/ madais etc. got next to none, Kingfish jiggers getting odd small king. I stuck to 30g jig, big snaps and trevally, medium size kingies. So much fun on light gear. The rest, as the day went on, were all trying to rig their gear up on micro jigs and raiding my gear. ------------- 6th place in the inaugural Te Kauwhata Regionals paddle crab division |
Posted By: MB
Date Posted: 22 Sep 2017 at 10:52am
Sure, there isn't much new in fishing. The lure I was using was purchased in 1996 in New York for striped bass fishing. It's called a crippled herring. I ditched the original hook and tied an assist rig.  |
jakepitsville wrote:Posted By: Garry 23041
Date Posted: 22 Sep 2017 at 11:35am
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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. |
Posted By: RaggedJoe
Date Posted: 22 Sep 2017 at 11:39am
| Thanks all. Will give it another shot if the wind ever stops blowing on a day I am not working........... |
Posted By: MB
Date Posted: 22 Sep 2017 at 12:39pm
that's the hardest part about fishing right there!
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Posted By: The Tamure Kid
Date Posted: 22 Sep 2017 at 1:41pm
Great thread, folks. Fish i, do you have any particular brands/models you favour, in terms of the centre/head weighted?
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Posted By: fish i
Date Posted: 22 Sep 2017 at 3:31pm
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These are my preferences Calm conditions - Broad leaf shape, flat one side, concaves and angles the other = flutter.Casting and retrieve and/ or current/wind - elongated shape, subtle curve on one side, angle on other. Fat head, skinny tail = action Basically you don't want a glorified sinker. Might be just me but snapper love orange Anything flashy, silvery when there is sun. Not if there's snakes about thou. Check out trade me, there are some epic ones at the mo' that don't cost the earth. The stores seem to have joined the hype a while back but didn't bring in the right ones; wrong action. And it's hard to find good ones in the right weight sub 40. Plus they are expensive. I lived in Borneo for a time. Hooked up with some keen fishos over there. Micro or light jigging is all they did, and proved to be the best method for most species. Learnt a lot from them and applied the principals back here with the jigs I bought back. But the little micro jigs on soft bait gear seem to work best for our species.
------------- 6th place in the inaugural Te Kauwhata Regionals paddle crab division |
Posted By: The Tamure Kid
Date Posted: 23 Sep 2017 at 2:18pm
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Excellent info fish i, thanks. Does this look like the kind of shape you prefer? From forum member Kaveman's online store (note, I have no ties to Kaveman). http://www.kavemantackle.co.nz/gallery/Micro%2Bjig/micro-ridgeback-30g-orange-lumo-out-of-stock/470767 And for soft bait style: http://www.kavemantackle.co.nz/gallery/Micro%2Bjig/casting-jig-20g-blue-pink/434108?view=grid&order=date_added |
Posted By: straks007
Date Posted: 23 Sep 2017 at 4:20pm
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I also have no ties to Kaveman apart from being a fan of his microjigs/jigs. I've been using them for a couple of years now with great success. They get my vote. ------------- http://www.legasea.co.nz" rel="nofollow"> 
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Posted By: NZTurtle
Date Posted: 23 Sep 2017 at 5:59pm
You think we have problems up here Boosh? Smudge is on the west coast... ------------- http://www.legasea.co.nz" rel="nofollow">
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Posted By: MB
Date Posted: 23 Sep 2017 at 6:38pm
Haha. The wild west! |
Posted By: nzfishwhisperer
Date Posted: 23 Sep 2017 at 10:49pm
Sometimes it amazes me how such big fish take such a small bait but guess that's what predatory fish do - just take the opportunity of any wounded bait fish....I love livebaiting with Mac's for Snapper which are roughly 20cm long and then you go Micro jigging with 14-28grm jig around the size of ya pinky and catch the same size fish  gotta love it alright - 3-6kg rod with a little 2500-3000 reel catching stonkers     |
Posted By: Telecaster
Date Posted: 24 Sep 2017 at 9:25pm
Same here, catching pannies straylining whole butterflied macks, then catching my PB on a 20g jig! |
Posted By: fish i
Date Posted: 25 Sep 2017 at 10:05am
Those top ones if they have a flat reverse side and were fished up side down, oK. But yes those 'blueblue' style jigs are freakin' deadly. My uncle gave us some of the 20g orange and lumo zebra ones, and they are probably my favourite jig in the arsenal at the mo. I now know where he got them from. Kaveman is the man. He clearly knows what works in regard to shape and colour, and has seemingly always been at the coal face and on the cutting edge of Japanese innovations, technology and methods when it come to fishing in NZ. Whilst I'm still just using a standard 7' soft bait rod, which works, it'd be nice to score an 8'+ rod to work these jigs properly. You'd get a larger draw back and thus longer hang time. Plus the more tip action would get these style jigs vibrating more on the draw back, which in my experience the fish love. You can get plagued by small kingies thou as they seem to get drawn to that vvrrrddddddhhh feeling when you rip them through the water. Still, fun thou.
------------- 6th place in the inaugural Te Kauwhata Regionals paddle crab division |
Posted By: MB
Date Posted: 25 Sep 2017 at 10:05pm
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Some great replies, thanks I took an inexperienced angler out yesterday and promised him fish, always a risky strategy! It was too windy for microjigs, so we used 100g versions and they were out-fishing inchiku by 2:1. Having said that, the bigger fish did fall to the inchiku. Not a scientific experiment, but shows that microjigs and their bigger relatives are worth adding to the tackle box.  |
Posted By: The Tamure Kid
Date Posted: 25 Sep 2017 at 10:20pm
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You can get plagued by small kingies thou as they seem to get drawn to that vvrrrddddddhhh feeling when you rip them through the water. Still, fun thou.
[/QUOTE]
Haha, that's a plague most of us would be happy to put up with! Thanks for the feedback.
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Posted By: kitno
Date Posted: 25 Sep 2017 at 10:22pm
| That's a prime looking specimen Mighty Boosh. |
Posted By: The Tamure Kid
Date Posted: 25 Sep 2017 at 10:23pm
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That's a stonking snapper, M Boosh. i've seen other guys catch great fish out wide in the Hauraki Gulf on the fluttering flatfall jigs in big sizes. They do tangle a bit in a charter situation, but that's not a problem for you.
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Posted By: EarlyRiser
Date Posted: 22 Oct 2017 at 11:34pm
Another vote for Kaveman jigs ------------- "FELIX" Kingfisher Cat 5.1cc |
Posted By: kaveman
Date Posted: 23 Oct 2017 at 7:56am
Thats a great fish Joel  ------------- www.kavemantackle.co.nz
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Posted By: kaveman
Date Posted: 23 Oct 2017 at 9:47am
fish i, i had a 8ft6" Synit for micro jigging, loved it but since i am about to bring out my own range of rods, i decided to sell it and use my own rods. The sofbait/ micro jigging models are 8ft2" and in 3 weight ranges. Will be doing demos up in Auckland when they arrive in 2-3 weeks time. I will post as soon as they arrive ------------- www.kavemantackle.co.nz
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Posted By: Garry 23041
Date Posted: 23 Oct 2017 at 10:07am
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My belt pulley fell off my alternator and my engine got hot.....how does that relate Kaveman wonders? When I get it all back together if the budget allows and your rods are the business I am keen to see if I can improve my catch rate with a dedicated rod over my softie rod... I sure hope I didn't cook the head! |
Posted By: smudge
Date Posted: 23 Oct 2017 at 11:52am
Hehe Turtle yeah it's pretty hard to get out when you're limited to weekends. The second factor of course is that we usually have bait fishermen on board so I fish from an anchored boat which is pretty productive out west. Mostly using 60g inchikus in 40 to 60m but do a little with micro jigs:      TThat's from about 10 trips since June but only two time we were able to get over the coast ------------- Best gurnard fisherman in my street |
Posted By: piwikiwi
Date Posted: 23 Oct 2017 at 4:54pm
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I also have no ties to Kaveman....although sometimes he gives me free stuff love his Micros off the kayak and Im a hardcore softbaiter but the Micros often turn up something special like a big snap, a trev, Dory, or gurnard. Orange prob my fav. They get down fast if you happen upon a school. Good quality too they last for ages. Sometimes drag them sometimes jig them, sometimes cast and retrieve.
i use mostly 20 gram in 10-20m.
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Posted By: smudge
Date Posted: 23 Oct 2017 at 5:03pm
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I better talk to the Kaveman methinks. Microjigs are very cool and should be more fun even than the inchikus ------------- Best gurnard fisherman in my street |
Posted By: eynon
Date Posted: 23 Oct 2017 at 7:53pm
| sure are. had some luck with the hornet recently too. |
Posted By: Stefan
Date Posted: 23 Oct 2017 at 8:42pm
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https://trademe.co.nz/1445665540" rel="nofollow - https://trademe.co.nz/1445665540 Bees knees, longer than your average Micro jig but they work a treat and only 38g. |
Posted By: kaveman
Date Posted: 23 Oct 2017 at 8:54pm
Haha, the "hornets" have been my standout performer for lst 12 months, outfishing all other jigs hands down but they are really a slow pitch jig  ------------- www.kavemantackle.co.nz
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Posted By: eynon
Date Posted: 23 Oct 2017 at 10:36pm
yup but no harm picking some up with the micro jigs, can never have enough fishing gear hehe |
Posted By: Barbary B
Date Posted: 15 Dec 2017 at 3:58pm
 Just got some more Yakamito 30g spirits. The red one has been hot lately. Such a great way to fish! I'm now leaving the SPs behind most trips.------------- "Look ahead, look astern, look to weather, look to lea Look down along the coast of High Barbary..." |