It’s boring to fish alone. It’s great to fish with like-minded individuals that share the same passion and frame of mind.
In the next few issues, I will be introducing you to my playgroup; My fishing buddies, My brothers in piscatorial pursuits, my family.
This month, we will be taking off the shroud of the wonderful art of jigging with our fishing group’s youngest member, Anas Thongtha. Anas is from Thailand and has been based in Dubai for the last 4 years. He works for an airline based here. Calling him an avid angler is an understatement.
I asked Anas to drop by Casa Belen (my place) and take a small assortment of jigging gear that he would take with him if he was fishing in and around the UAE.
Anas is no stranger to big fish, he travels the world extensively, looking for new places to fish and new species to fish for. Given that, his gear is highly specialized and he buys gears that are reliable, after all, who would want to be in a dream destination and suffer gear failure?!
Before we dig in to the specifics, please note that Anas is fortunate enough to figure out his preferences and these are the brands and sizes of gear that he uses. This differs from person to person and may or may not work for you. Let’s start from the terminal end.
The hooks:
“Assist hooks” are used for helping to keep the fish from shaking the hook free. The hooks are tied onto the hook via an “assist chord”. Usually made of high tensile strength Kevlar, gelspun dyneema or spectra, these chords don’t stretch and are super strong. They are knotted to the shank of the hook, and covered with a piece of shrink tube to protect the knot.
Anas uses Japanese premade assist hooks in several sizes to suit the size of the jig. The gape of the hook should be wider than the widest part of the jig.
Solid rings
The assist hooks are then attached via loop knot to solid rings. The ones pictured are specialized “8” rings made by a popular manufacturer in Taiwan. This type of solid ring protects your knot from the jig’s swaying action.
The solid rig and hook setup is then connected to the jig via a XXX strong split-ring. Putting two assist hooks in on one jig is increases your chance of a hook up, this is common practice as shown in this well used jig. You can also use just one assist hook as I often do.
A specialized pair of pliers is used to attach the split rings to the jig and solid ring.
Jigs
There are literally thousands of jigs in different shapes, sizes and colors.
The short jig and long jig have different actions. Both are used for specific purposes and and for someone like Anas, it also dictates the type of tackle you use.
Short jigs are designed to get you down deep fast. Mostly used for bottom dwelling fish, it has a very erratic action and are best used with a very mechanical jigging motion. This jigging style gives it the short jig it’s best action. Amberjack and groupers love this jig. Depending on how the jig is designed, it also has a slight wobbling motion on the way down. 
Long jigs are center balanced and are designed to travel in a horizontal plane when you pause. When you give it slack, it will have a wide spiraling action on the way down. Long jigs are best used with spinning tackle because it gives you a natural pause between your jigging motion and cranking.
Being this specific on the tackle used is not a rule; rather, it is optimizing the action that each tackle system gives you and although a lot of people stick to this, it is again, a matter of preference.
Leader and line and PR knot
The leader system is again a matter of personal preference. Some use florocarbon and others use nylon. Anas and I share the same preference on this; we use different types of leaders for different situations and for different fish. If we are after tuna, florocarbon leaders are what we both use.
In vertical jigging, you want the non stretching qualities of PE (Poly Ethelyn gel-spun) line. This is the same type of line that’s used to make some of the assist chords. You can use the single colored lines and they will catch
you fish. Anas uses “metered” lines. These are lines that are color coded per 10 meters or so. This aids in depth control and it tells you exactly how deep the bottom is and how far from the bottom the fish are. The picture shows an example of a japanese made metered PE line as well as a nylon leader spool and a tool you use to make a PR knot. You can see how this tool is used and how the knot is tied by searching youtube using the search phrase “PR Knot”. The knot is very sleek and is a very strong. This helps the line pass through the guides easily.
Reels
Both overhead and spinning reels are used for jigging. Overhead reels are often used with the shorter jigs and spinning reels are used with long jigs. Overhead reels don’t give you a pause in between cranks while spinning reels give you a pause on the crank. Although you might think that there is no difference, the jig’s action will tell you otherwise. Long jigs will travel in sideways or in a horizontal plane on this pause, make a long pause and the long jig will do a wide spiral while dropping down to the depths.
Spinning reels give you almost complete slack line when you open the bail to drop the jig. The long jig performs very well in this instance.
You need a very reliable reel in jigging and there aren’t any better than the two pictured. Anas has both the Daiwa Saltiga 2010 model and the Shimano Stella SW. These two very strong and reliable reels are top shelf range models and will not let you down when it counts the most.
His preference for overhead reels is no different. The overhead reel pictured is a Jigging Master Powerspell PE5. This reel is specifically made for jigging.
These reels, although small in size have power comparable to a trolling reel that are designed to carry 80lb (40kg) line.
Rods
The Rods used for jigging are also very specialized. They are designed to be parabolic. This means the rods are designed to bend deeply but at the same time, give you a lot of lifting power. This also helps cushion the stress the angler gets from the fish, acting as a shock absorber. Anas uses Jigging Master Powerspell, Major Craft Offblow, and Zenaq Toquito rods.
Jigging isn’t for everyone. The physical requirements for this type of fishing are too much for most people, it certainly isn’t for you if your idea of fishing is sitting around and waiting for a bite. If you are determined to walk this path, the rewards are big.
My thanks to Anas for taking the time to drop by and share his images and compare notes.
Till next tide change,
Kit
