DR WEB PAGE COMBOS NOVEMBER 2011

Without sounding like a know it all, I average at least 50 days a year offshore jigging and have formed some observations as to what’s best, in tackle. Unless you’re built like The Terminator the key is to go for an outfit that is light, and comfortable to use. Heavy, bulky, unwieldy outfits tire the angler really quickly and, if the fish aren’t thick, you may need many drops before your first hook up. If you’re too tired to do that, you won’t have a good day on the water. Check this chart.

We specialise in light, comfortable jigging outfits based around a size 4500 reel, and designed to suit 50 and 30-pound braid. As you’ll see below the combination is used to deadly effect by countless clients both in Australia and overseas. Importantly, our outfits are not expensive. I always say its far better to get a well priced jigging combo and spend the savings on a charter, especially if you’re relatively new to the sport. Here’s what we offer:

Firstly, the rod. Five feet six, underbound guides, with Fuji tip, and rated to 24-kilo line. Weight, just 300 grams. It’s our own house brand which we carefully designed to maximise light weight, power, and economy price. The rod is tippy, meaning it’s forgiving, with plenty of flex to store energy on the jigging upswing. There’s plenty of grunt at the butt end to help after hook up.:

Daiwa’s Exceler 4500T reel is the perfect match of strength, weight and most importantly these days, price. Gear ratio 4.7:1, seven ball bearings, 10 kilos of drag, 35 inches of line retrieved per handle turn. Supplied with 200 metres of 50-pound colour change braid, which means a big saving:

If you’d like to see it in action check this link for Gorm’s video. It shows a whaler shark they hooked at Texas Reef last year, after it grabbed a kingfish on the way up. This video shows the 4500T under heavy drag pressure for over half an hour, and it never misses a beat:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPCa8MR4rHU

Price of the combo including rod, reel and line is $325. Reel only is $190, rod only is $110.

We also offer two very good Daiwa rods, the first being the Saltiga JG-511HFS jigging rod.

5 feet 11 inches long, rated for jigs to 330 grams, but perfect for 250 gram models. Price, $190:

I’m very fond of this rod, because a lot of owners have written about it in glowing terms. Here’s an example:

Ended up grabbing two of these puppies from Andy late saturday night. Christened them Sunday morning with a long Jig session at 12 mile and at the peak….the rods are fantastic, and are significantly easier on the arms when compared to the Jigwrex that I was using before hand. Great action, yet still feel strong enough to pull even the biggest of the Sydney Kings from the reefs.  Top job Andy!!

It has Fuji guides, reel seat and gimbal butt:

Here’s some feedback from our clients on how these combos have worked on the water:

The other rod option is the Saltiga JG-60, that rod’s a little longer and casts better than the JG-511. This one doesn’t have a gimbal butt but has more flexibility and can even be used with 10-kilo line for snapper fishing. Price, $190:

Rod writes in:

We even put a few on that awesome little Saltiga JG-60 that Hayden got from you. It is a lovely versatile little stick with enough feel to have a ball on such fish & still load up with enough guts to stick it to a reasonable marlin etc.

G'day Andy.

  Remember that Saltiga Jig rod that you dropped off to Hayden in Newcastle a few months ago? He recently gave it a good testing at Lord Howe on some of the monster Kings.

First drop was one of your jigs on 80 lb braid, 100 lb leader and 25 Kg of drag.

Check this story out, from one of our clients who fished with our combo in November 2011. One good day on lord Howe Island equals a whole season on the mainland. The outfit delivered the goods:

Hi Andrew,how are you mate??

I finally got some fishing in last week with the outfit I purchased off you when I was on the mainland- 4500T Daiwa plus the 24kg Saltiga rod. To be honest with you I purchased this lighter outfit for the missus to use on her upcoming trips at LHI. The outfit raised a few eyebrows when I took it on the boat as it looks a little smaller than what we usually jig with. One comment I think was: “Hilly we’re jigging for Kings not fishing for garfish!” Anyhow, I took it out last Friday with the aim of putting it through a thorough torture test and I’m glad to report it came back in one piece …just.

I (and others) jigged with it flat out all day landing around 25 x 6-8kg kings. By the way your jigs went down a treat with the fish and fellow fishermen! I had the drag tightened to the absolute maximum and whist the fish still pulled line off at a rapid rate we landed them eventually.

The best part was that we thought we would troll home and target some of the Yellowfin and Wahoo that are about at the moment. Sure enough the boys laughed at me when I put out a skirt on the ‘little’ outfit. But after about 10-15mins the line started screaming off the reel with a good Wahoo hooked up. My brother, who was over from the UK grabbed the rod first and tried to stop the fish but with little impact. Wesley Young, the skipper of Blue Billie Fishing Charters, got behind the controls and showed all his experience in chasing down the fish so we could put some line back on the reel. After a good battle and some huge runs the fish was alongside the boat and gaffed. A PB for my brother and thorough torture test for the outfit.

Here’s some pics of kingies caught on the combo in November 2011 off Port Stephens, NSW

The fish averaged 90cm, with a couple just over the metre mark:

Keen jigger Mario bought the 4500T and Saltiga JG-60 combo for his son’s first jigging trip. They fished off Sydney:

Mario writes:

Hi andy thanks for all the gear we bought from you.the 4500 rod and reel combo is very lightweight jig stick, those jigs are dynamite on kings they just love them. Here’s a picture of my 12 year old son Matthew doing it all on his own with a 4.76 kg king at the 12 mile last weekend. Mario ps getting some more gear soon thanks

Not at all Mario, just glad the gear is working so well for you, and please pass my congratulations on to Matt. We also have some great five feet eleven Korean jigging rods in stock, fitted with Fuji reel seat, gimbal and guides. Great quality but cheaper than the Saltigas because the brand names aren’t well known, here in Australia. We’ll do deals on multiple orders and really good deals for charter operators. Call or email for more details on our jigging combos? In terms of weight, price, power and rugged reliability, they really are hard to beat. Thanks for reading,