Unlike the East Coast, Gulf Coast fishermen seldom jig for tuna until recently and adopted Japanese style jigging wholeheartedly. There are many advantages of using short Japanese style rod and jigging techniques, but there are some advantages of using long rod for tuna jigging. One of the obvious advantages of long rods over short rods is that you can cast far and work the area away from the boat. Tuna pass by or stay under the boat deep, but they tend to stay away from the lights of the boat, especially when they stay near the surface. To get those tuna, you got to cast far. On the Sun/Mon Jamaica trip I had two yft by casting far. When I cast, I let the jig sink about 50 ft, lock the reel and start jigging. I apply two different jigging methods when casting. One is to jig slowy up and down and the other method I use is to reel fast by jerking as Japanese jig fishermen do. Between two tuna I got on the trip with cast, the first tuna took the jig while I cast,let the jig drop and started to jig slowly up and down. The second tuna took my jig when I let the jig drop after casting. When you drop your jigs and tuna takes it, two different things happen. One is you get slack line as jig stops. You got to crank as fast as you can when it happens. And sometimes your line goes faster than normal when tuna take your jigs while descending. That is what happend on my second tuna. As soon as I felt my line went down faster than normal, I locked the reel and tuna was on ! Try the casting technique with longer rods, your catching ratio will increase substantially.
Ksong, I had asked the question below on your Big Eye thread. But it did not stay up long with all of the weekend fishing reports The photo mentioned is with the Tile fish. Thanks "I see the Newell reel in the photo. Could you take a moment to go over the rod,reel,line and terminal setup that was being used? Thanks in advance. Kev."
Kil: I too have some questions I have wanted to ask for a long time, specifically about exactly what kind of long rod you use up there and, related to that, what size jigs you can cast with it effectively. Someone who has fished with you (can't remember who--it was some time ago) said the long rods you guys use up there are really heavy and you jam them down on the rail. But everything I have heard you say about the 9 and 10 footers seems to indicate they are very light. And what size jigs can you cast with a rod that long? I am of course thinking of spinning, which I know you are not doing with the long rods and I was wondering if I could cast a jig effectively with my Souls 9 footer, which does beautifully with poppers and lures under 100 grams and even better over that weight, so long as you don't get above 120. This rod has a soft tip but a huge amount of backbone and only weighs 18 ounces. I have a feeling you are talking about very different rods from the super long popping rods (8-9 feet). My thanks as well. Russ
Ksong, I had asked the question below on your Big Eye thread. But it did not stay up long with all of the weekend fishing reports The photo mentioned is with the Tile fish. Thanks "I see the Newell reel in the photo. Could you take a moment to go over the rod,reel,line and terminal setup that was being used? Thanks in advance. Kev." Sorry, I didn't see your post on the other thread. the Newell reel is 646-3. I used to use the reel for tuna jigging when I was afraid of line capacity. I caught many tuna with reel. Though drag is not consistant and make strange noise, it is functional. I chose the reel for tile fishing as we fished deep upto 850 ft. I put 600 yard of 65 lbs braided line. It seemed to took forever to reel in the line from 850 ft deep because of low gear ratio. You definitely need higher gear ratio reel if you want to fish deep. The rod is custom made 7' St Crox rod rated upto 100 lbs. It has enough backbone for deepwater bottom fishing as well as tuna fishing. On the trip I forgot to bring my fishing tackles, so I borrowered a 28 oz copy version of famous Samme jig as a sinker and jig. I don't know whether the action of the jig or the sweatened bait attached to the hook of the jig attracted tilefish as tilefish is not known to take jigs.
Kil: I too have some questions I have wanted to ask for a long time, specifically about exactly what kind of long rod you use up there and, related to that, what size jigs you can cast with it effectively. Someone who has fished with you (can't remember who--it was some time ago) said the long rods you guys use up there are really heavy and you jam them down on the rail. But everything I have heard you say about the 9 and 10 footers seems to indicate they are very light. And what size jigs can you cast with a rod that long? I am of course thinking of spinning, which I know you are not doing with the long rods and I was wondering if I could cast a jig effectively with my Souls 9 footer, which does beautifully with poppers and lures under 100 grams and even better over that weight, so long as you don't get above 120. This rod has a soft tip but a huge amount of backbone and only weighs 18 ounces. I have a feeling you are talking about very different rods from the super long popping rods (8-9 feet). My thanks as well. Russ The popular length of jigging rod here is 8' on a party boat and 7' on a private boat. I found two best long jigging rods are 8' Wahoo GUSA and 7'9" St Croix rod rated upto 100 lbs (PM79XXXHF). They are not heavy as they are graphite rods. GUSA Wahoo rod (custom) is 20 oz and my 7' St Croix rod (9" cut from the bottom) weighs only 14 1/2 oz. Considering OTI's 8' popping rod (80 lbs) weighs 19 1/2 oz and 7' Calstar 700XH (custom) weighs at 21 oz, they are pretty light. Some guys use 7'6" St Croix blank rated upto 65 lbs (PM76HF), which is lighter then PM79XXXHF, and they like it. I never use over 10 oz jig for tuna for any circumstances. When the current is strong, the long cast is inevitable to hold the jigs in the strike zone for a while. You should do well for casting jigs with your popping rods if you use lighter jigs as I do.
Thanks, Kil. I have a 700H and a 700XH in spinning version. Neither is a custom but both rods were built for Accurate by Calstar--overpriced because that Accurate sticker costs a lot of money. Both have graphite reel seats. The 700H weighs 18 ounces on a highly accurate postal scale, and the XH goes about one half ounce heavier. Thanks for the information. Russ
Unlike the East Coast, Gulf Coast fishermen seldom jig for tuna until recently and adopted Japanese style jigging wholeheartedly. There are many advantages of using short Japanese style rod and jigging techniques, but there are some advantages of using long rod for tuna jigging. One of the obvious advantages of long rods over short rods is that you can cast far and work the area away from the boat. Tuna pass by or stay under the boat deep, but they tend to stay away from the lights of the boat, especially when they stay near the surface. To get those tuna, you got to cast far. On the Sun/Mon Jamaica trip I had two yft by casting far. When I cast, I let the jig sink about 50 ft, lock the reel and start jigging. I apply two different jigging methods when casting. One is to jig slowy up and down and the other method I use is to reel fast by jerking as Japanese jig fishermen do. Between two tuna I got on the trip with cast, the first tuna took the jig while I cast,let the jig drop and started to jig slowly up and down. The second tuna took my jig when I let the jig drop after casting. When you drop your jigs and tuna takes it, two different things happen. One is you get slack line as jig stops. You got to crank as fast as you can when it happens. And sometimes your line goes faster than normal when tuna take your jigs while descending. That is what happend on my second tuna. As soon as I felt my line went down faster than normal, I locked the reel and tuna was on ! Try the casting technique with longer rods, your catching ratio will increase substantially. Kil, your right on the money, so many times i cast out far and while the jig is falling the line goes slack thats when i reel like crazy until the line comes tight and set the hook.
Both have graphite reel seats. The 700H weighs 18 ounces on a highly accurate postal scale, and the XH goes about one half ounce heavier. Thanks for the information. Russ i put the titanium frame guides on the 700XH conv but havent weighed yet..also put the titanium rollers on the GUSA 6' parabolic DRAGON..the guides weigh 1.43 oz and the blank about 6 going to be a light 60-120 stick, i may try the ti frame on the NEW GUSA WAHOO JR, but right now it has HNSG..and aftco seat..i will try to get weighed before delivery..
