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Spineyman,

You have to have specialized jigging outfit for big AJ in GOM.
120-130lb braided lines, 300-400lb leader and a reel capable of 30lb or more.

I used Gorilla 12, 120lb braided line and 400lb leader and once you hook up, power the boat away and hang on for dear life.


George

This is almost the same setup i use in Nc when we are after the triple digit AJ's

120 main line connected to 20feet of 200lb leader and 28-32 lbs of drag (checked with a shimano scale) crimped to my solid ring. If I had a jigging reel with lugs I would even strap in and turn the heat up more, but @30 lbs of drag is all my 250lb body can handle for 15 mins with out a harness.

d-a
 
George,
I feel bad you loose the big one because the main line snapped.
It's Daiwa Sensor-8 braided line on that spool but I don't remember either PE-6 or PE-8 (I have few 20K spool with different PE rating).
Or you can try to pull with scale and how many pound that line will break.
I can send you extra spool with Daiwa Boat Braid PE-10 (120lb) if you're planning to go again with him before I can come down to your place.
 
George,
I feel bad you loose the big one because the main line snapped.
It's Daiwa Sensor-8 braided line on that spool but I don't remember either PE-6 or PE-8 (I have few 20K spool with different PE rating).
Or you can try to pull with scale and how many pound that line will break.
I can send you extra spool with Daiwa Boat Braid PE-10 (120lb) if you're planning to go again with him before I can come down to your place.

Freddie, did you let him borrow a fake Stella or something? :D
 
Freddie, did you let him borrow a fake Stella or something? :D

Freddy has so many he didn't even miss it.

d-a
 
Discussion starter · #26 ·
Freddy thanks for the offer, but I am not sure when I am going next. So there is no need to send me a different spool. I am thankful that I got to use it like it is. Had a blast even though we didn't get to keep and snapper or ajs because they closed the 2 for the season.
 
How exactly do you stop a runaway train. I was out deep water jigging yesterday and hooked a couple big ajs that I couldn't even slow down. I jacked ones jaw and he said we will have none of this and off he went straight to the bottom and swam under some structure and cut the 100# leader. For those of you that have jigged big ajs tell me what do you do.

Hey George

You could have hooked into a Big Grouper. I re read the report and see where you was 230ft deep. Thats Warsaw territory in the winter. With that many Aj's there there had to be some bait around. That will hold the groupers too.

d-a
 
Hey George

You could have hooked into a Big Grouper. I re read the report and see where you was 230ft deep. Thats Warsaw territory in the winter. With that many Aj's there there had to be some bait around. That will hold the groupers too.

d-a

Spot on Doug! There are some 400# class groupers in the GOM and it always seems that there are one or two caught this time every year! I am not at all sure that you could stop a fish like that with a Stella, sure would like to find out though!:D
 
Personally I don't use anything under 170 for those fish anymore they aren't line shy at all. What we found is that the big amberjacks just swallow your jig and you end up chaffing off in corner of mouth. Ive had an 80 pounder swallow a 13" nagamassa before
 
Spot on Doug! There are some 400# class groupers in the GOM and it always seems that there are one or two caught this time every year! I am not at all sure that you could stop a fish like that with a Stella, sure would like to find out though!:D


Ive caught some big Goliaths with my stella, but we did pull away from the wreck with the boat. It took me 3 days in a row of changing tactics, but I did get one up to the surface.

d-a
 
Personally I don't use anything under 170 for those fish anymore they aren't line shy at all. What we found is that the big amberjacks just swallow your jig and you end up chaffing off in corner of mouth. Ive had an 80 pounder swallow a 13" nagamassa before

I agree its 200lb jinkai crimped for me. The Grouper and AJ are not line shy.

d-a
 
When I fished with Capt Dean (Double D Charters, Miami)- he laughed at my setup I brought for jigging AJ's. I had my custom Seeker Hercules, with an Avet SX Raptor, 65# braid, 90# leader. We fished 200-260 FOW over wrecks. The very first drop, I got hammered before I even flipped the lever. I had the drag set to 20#, and I got laughed at.

All he uses for AJ's- 30# class stand up rod, Alutecnos Albacore 30, 100# Suffix braid, 120# mono leader. He only fishes bait for AJ's. But was psyched to watch me get my @$$ kicked with 'light tackle'. The best we could manage on a jig was a 30#. Which was tough, no harness, no belts.

Im headed back down in April, this time Im bringing my same Hercules rod, with my Accurate 665, and my Aruba 20, on a Tallus standup rod. And from what he tells me, the AJ's in Miami dont really push much over 70-80#'s.

I can see why you would need bigger gear for fish over 100#.
 
When I fished with Capt Dean (Double D Charters, Miami)- he laughed at my setup I brought for jigging AJ's. I had my custom Seeker Hercules, with an Avet SX Raptor, 65# braid, 90# leader. We fished 200-260 FOW over wrecks. The very first drop, I got hammered before I even flipped the lever. I had the drag set to 20#, and I got laughed at.

All he uses for AJ's- 30# class stand up rod, Alutecnos Albacore 30, 100# Suffix braid, 120# mono leader. He only fishes bait for AJ's. But was psyched to watch me get my @$$ kicked with 'light tackle'. The best we could manage on a jig was a 30#. Which was tough, no harness, no belts.

Im headed back down in April, this time Im bringing my same Hercules rod, with my Accurate 665, and my Aruba 20, on a Tallus standup rod. And from what he tells me, the AJ's in Miami dont really push much over 70-80#'s.

I can see why you would need bigger gear for fish over 100#.

Dean is a good friend of mine, great captain
 
Well while fishing a rig off Texas my son anthony proceeded to hook a small fish/jack then half way up it got real heavy and went straight back to the bottom. Oddly enough when we got it on the deck it was a warsaw grouper
 
My last trip to NC the two largest caught both came on the lightest outfit ( a small Accurate with PE6). They were both 80# class donkeys. It took them a while longer but the fish didn't seem to want to dive down as much. I had two pigs on. Lost one to a broken hook and another after about 15 minutes of give and take finally got reefed. I was using 25# drag and thumbing it. Seemed like the harder you pulled on them the more they wanted to go back to their happy place.
 
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