Jigging Master Rods - First Impression
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=27516
Printed Date: 04 Feb 2026 at 11:38am
Topic: Jigging Master Rods - First Impression
Posted By: Accident Prone
Subject: Jigging Master Rods - First Impression
Date Posted: 03 Mar 2008 at 10:32am
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Before you read this I purchased my first JM rod a couple of weeks ago and thought I would share my opinion and first impression on JM rods. Chris Wong has not asked me to do this and has not influenced anything I have written below. Please don’t see this as blatant advertising or spam as this is not what I have intended. I just thought I would share my opinion and first impression on my new rod. I purchased my new JM Terminator 400 based on what I have read from several experienced jiggers (f.net members), pictures I have seen of the JM rods loaded up to the point where other rods would go POP, and a little bit of gut feel. I have never purchased a single rod before in the past without seeing one and/or playing with one first so for me it was a big call. When the rod arrived, I took it out of the bag and immediately was impressed with the finish of the rod, the build quality is simply flawless. Looking at the rods components, again very impressed!. Dressed with top end guides, reel seat and an aluminium gimble nock not crappy nylon/plastic which some rods have which was also nicely anodized to match the colour of the rest of the components. Loading up the rod, I was (and still am) amazed at how far the little sucker bends. I have seen several production rods go pop far before reaching this point. Gripping the foregrip at the top end and feeling the blank bend right down and into the foregrip is bloody impressive to say the least. The graphite used in the construction of these blanks is like nothing else, it really does give you confidence in knowing how much these little rods can take. With the rod having the ability to safely bend so far down the blank it really does help take the hurt off the angler with the major point of load being a lot closer to the angler (shortening the lever) and all that pressure it takes to load the rod is directly transferred to the fish. It is also good to see that the rod has no twist in it when loaded either as it has been correctly built on the spine of the blank, which many production rods I have seen are not. Fishing with the rod, I had it paired up with an OJ5000P loaded with 80lb jigstar and was fishing 400gm jigs. I used only a mechanical style of jigging and found it very comfortable and balanced as a set. The fish caught on it were kings to 20kg which unfortunately got chomped a few metres below the boat and a bronzie of around 100-120kg. I was running max drag on the OJ which is around 15kg from factory. The rod when loaded up on the shark is the only jig rod I have had confidence in giving it heaps and short stroking the bugger while loaded up to the point where I would expect a lot of rods to become 2 piece rods. Overall I am thoroughly impressed with the rod and can’t bloody wait to get out and give it another workout!. Would I buy another one? Hell Yes!! Who owns a Powerspell 400 or 500 and what are the main differences compared to the Terminator? Cheers, Josh |
Replies:
Posted By: brown
Date Posted: 03 Mar 2008 at 10:48am
nice one Josh I was in the same boat dude. i got mine last week to fish in the B&B comp, and paired it up with a TN40N. I only got to use it on one of the days and had kings up to 14kg, the feel was unreal and with a tonne of grunt in reserve.
Cant wait to get back out there and find some bigger boys....huge thanks to Chris for all his help
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Posted By: chopsticks
Date Posted: 03 Mar 2008 at 11:14am
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Excellent, well written report Josh. We all owe Chris a lot for making these incredible rods available to Kiwis. ------------- CONFIDENCE: The feeling you have before fully understanding the situation. |
Posted By: Kojack
Date Posted: 03 Mar 2008 at 12:53pm
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Another very happy customer. Yeeeeeeeeeeeee. Awesome report Josh well done and thank's for sharing.
I have ended up with the complete range of jigging master rods, Bugger don't you just love it.
Happy Jigging. |
Posted By: Fissure
Date Posted: 03 Mar 2008 at 12:57pm
Well said mate, more and more jiggers are now aware of this special brand of rod. It makes me proud that Chris and his company is based right here in Wellywood. 
I myself is waiting for my ps400. The jm terminators are wicked too. Superb.
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Posted By: JTF
Date Posted: 03 Mar 2008 at 3:48pm
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JM,honestly what else is there. |
Posted By: Nirai
Date Posted: 03 Mar 2008 at 3:53pm
Well said Josh JM are good rods! Keep in mind that all Asian rod manufactures list the lifting weights and specs for there rods and that is that! No guarantee's. No rod on earth is unbreakable when fished outside its specs or poorly. I have busted a top of the line Japa myself.  Keep and eye on that butt to tip angle, there not ment to meet and complete a circle. SS ------------- "Gunrunner" Surtees 610 Game Fisher current *"Double Barrel" Seacat 635 "Good Riddance!" *"Seriola" Surtees 485 CC Retired with honours! |
Accident Prone wrote:Posted By: mozz
Date Posted: 03 Mar 2008 at 4:04pm
Well said Josh........I will soon have my 2nd JM rod from Kojak and it probably wont be the last
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Posted By: of2fsh
Date Posted: 03 Mar 2008 at 8:14pm
------------- 2009 and 2010 BERKLEY SOFTBAIT COMP CHAMPS,Runner up 2013 ( solo),winner 2013/14 longest kingfish nz fishing competition |
Posted By: viking...
Date Posted: 03 Mar 2008 at 8:56pm
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Good one Josh, totally agree...got my PS500 a couple of weeks back and my OJ4000P arrived last week...spooled today ready for battle! Taking my set to Samoa for some doggie style!
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Posted By: ChrisW
Date Posted: 03 Mar 2008 at 10:57pm
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Thanks for the mighty comments guys. I'm wrapt that we have presented a product to the NZ public that performs like we say and better than most. I have to say that it was never easy getting Kiwi jiggers to transform into mechanical jiggers but once the technique is mastered, you know it....there's no going back.
Thanks for supporting Jigging Master & Zest.  ------------- give it death! |
Posted By: PimPmyPopper
Date Posted: 04 Mar 2008 at 6:48am
you lucky bugga. Dont forget to bring back some pics of those ocean canines! ------------- Who Stole my PoPcoRn! |
Posted By: Memorymaker
Date Posted: 04 Mar 2008 at 9:38am
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Well said Josh after seeing your new outfit and getting a chance to swing on it as well all I can say is man am I impressed !!
sorry to also advise T-Curve supporters I am returning my 2 after a dismal showing on my vessel, yesterday was the last straw for me after 2 snapped and now a reel seat spin thats it for me, I am an avid supporter of shimano equipment, but sadly this series of rods simply can't hack the rigours of White Island, truly sad to see clients having fish dumped through no fault of theirs and extremely frustrating for me, in fact when the reel seat spun my client was lucky not to lose a finger on braid.
The Jmaster looks the goods ------------- Fish don't make mistakes |
Posted By: JigNut
Date Posted: 04 Mar 2008 at 4:26pm
 ------------- https://www.facebook.com/pages/Fans-Of-Synit-Rods/137662896327800 |
Posted By: murf007
Date Posted: 04 Mar 2008 at 10:17pm
Yes Chris I had a try with Stellajiggers one a while ago, made the jigging job much more pleasant. One day I'll have my pennies saved up Chris ------------- The Bull Sh*t stops when the first jig drops |
Posted By: stellajigger
Date Posted: 05 Mar 2008 at 7:12am
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[QUOTE=out the back]Well said Josh after seeing your new outfit and getting a chance to swing on it as well all I can say is man am I impressed !!
sorry to also advise T-Curve supporters I am returning my 2 after a dismal showing on my vessel, yesterday was the last straw for me after 2 snapped and now a reel seat spin thats it for me, I am an avid supporter of shimano equipment, but sadly this series of rods simply can't hack the rigours of White Island, truly sad to see clients having fish dumped through no fault of theirs and extremely frustrating for me, in fact when the reel seat spun my client was lucky not to lose a finger on braid.
The Jmaster looks the goods
.Have used T-Curves at white no drama ,you must of copt a faulty batch or your clients are doing something wrong. ------------- Live Bait , the Lance Armstrong of catching KINGFISH |
Posted By: Memorymaker
Date Posted: 05 Mar 2008 at 10:54am
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Hi there stella, agree the first break was marginal, and the reason i didn't look elsewhere immediately, the second breakage was definately not angler error, Rods and reels for that matter get a severe test of their character when employed for use on a commercial vessel and are put up to the test on hundreds of fish during their lifetime, as an operator myself the most frustrating outcome for me is to lose fish through gear failure, the gear failure we have the most control over is the terminal equipment, trace lines, knots , swivels , hooks ect.. minimising failures at this point will ensure when connected with fish these elements won't fail. proper maintenance on rods reels will minimise the risk of failure here. Selecting rods and reels for commercial use is based on feedback from customers and from seeing the equipment in use, or from contact from other charter operators or sales people. The conclusions i have come up with around the T-Curve sreies is they simply are not suitable for my type of operation, i was excited the first time I used one and still think with extra development they can still be a good rod, the reel seat failure as I stated before was the final nail for that series of rods for me. I think they are better suited to spin reels as opposed to overheads.
Shimano have some awesome products and will still fill most of my tackle requirements ------------- Fish don't make mistakes |
Posted By: ChrisW
Date Posted: 05 Mar 2008 at 11:15am
here is Sooshee with an est. 110kg bronzie on his Terminator 400.
UHD with his est. 120kg bronzie on JM500 rod (2006). I was more impressed when Rick started up Pursuit to chase down Sooshee's fish and UHD was waterskii-ing his bronzie behind the boat, still attached to his JM500.
------------- give it death! |
Posted By: Monty
Date Posted: 05 Mar 2008 at 6:52pm
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Hi guys, can I use these for general kingi livebaiting on a boat, along with jigging at times of course. This is because I now head to a future with a back problem & these rods look like the biz to me for less stress on my back. I will be currently getting a couple of Tiny's GT-R rods, but need to plan ahead if they end up being hard on me. I would generally only fish for kingies in the hauraki gulf so dont think a 4 - 500 would suit. sorry to all you purists but I will even be using them for bait fishing the strong kaipara graveyard area.
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Posted By: ChrisW
Date Posted: 05 Mar 2008 at 8:05pm
No probs using these rods for live bait or bottom fishing. I use the whole range for tarakihi, B.Cod, Puka fishing in Wellywood. For H.Gulf kings, i would suggest the lighter PS350 to PS250 or TC300 to TC200. Kojak & Jimi have both been slaying kingies to 20kg+ on their JM150 - that's
 crazy impressive!. The heavier rods are better suited to 50lb braid while the lighter rods suited to 30lb.If you have a growing back problem then you need to start using short rods! JM rods are not only short, but they are parabolic too, bending all the way past the reel seat. Under load, this shortens the rod even more reducing the leverage against you but still putting plenty of hurt on big fish. You don't have to pump these rods much, just short strokes because the rods just recover line so easily without angler fatigue.
All JM rods are built with a very special "elastic graphite" that has been in wide use in top-end Japanese rod designs for years.
Talk to guys who have them up your way - Mozz, OF2FSH, Kojak and many others. Talk to them nicely and they might let you use one .------------- give it death! |
Posted By: Bunzo
Date Posted: 05 Mar 2008 at 9:22pm
I just found my 1st problem with a T-Curve  , I was replacing my old Stella 20k on my New Nirai with a new Stella 20k [every new rod deserves a new reel ] and putting it back on the 4yo T-C 400, and found I had the OTB problem of a loose [spinning] reel mount, a strange one for shore but worth watching out for. I have 4 T-C's with out a problem before this, but waiting [impatiantly] to run Cam's JM PS along with my Nirai on the local Ambo's before we chase the Doggies in May. Yes! the Power spell do sound nice by all reports.
PS: T-C's sell in Aus for under $300 and sometimes as low as $180 [my last one].
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