by David A. Brown
OFFSHORE
The Jig is Up
W
hat’s up is down and what’s down is up – and
somewhere in between, we hopefully find a fish
or two. That’s basically the deal with offshore
jigging – you use a heavy object fitted with a hook to traverse
the water column with a little more flash and/or dazzle than a
hook-and-weight and tempt fish into biting.
Potential targets run the gamut from pelagic to bottomhuggers, but the common Gulf jigging targets are amberjack,
cobia, snapper (reds and mangrove) and a variety of grouper
including gag, black, red, scamp, snowy and kitty Mitchell. The
occasional tuna, kingfish or wahoo might intercept a jig in deep
water, but that’s a tale for another time.
On a past trip out of his Indian Rocks Beach port on
Florida’s Central Gulf Coast, Capt. Ryan Wagner showed how
effective jigging can be on several of his hard bottom sites. On
this trip, we were trying out some new models of Tsunami’s
new Facet Jig – a compact head design with a swivel-rigged
VMC hook dressed with glowing silicone tentacles presents an
intriguing profile.
At times, such aesthetics and flexibility will earn you a
bite from finicky fish, but even a plain Jane, not-so-fancy jig
design can get the job done. Reason – this family of lures brings
some key benefits to the table.
Minimizes Intrusion: Unlike the usual sinker-swivel-leaderhook package that grouper see on a regular basis, a jig’s
streamlined body is less intrusive. Wagner said this is often what
it takes to turn a tough bite into chewing grouper.
“There are days when
the fish are really
aggressive and they want
to chase something. On
those days, live bait may be
better. But a lot of days, the
fish are less aggressive and
you just drop the jig down,
it makes a little puff in the
sand and the grouper come
over and suck it up. There
are plenty of days when a
jig will out-fish live baits
or dead baits.”
Imitates Local Forage: