VERTICAL JIGGING AND SLOW PITCH
lA FISHING IN VERTICAL JIGGING E 'A PEACH THAT PRACTICE BY BOAT, OFTEN ON THE SEABED IMPORTANT FOR EXAMPLE FROM 40 TO 80 METERS BUT ALSO FROM 15 TO 30.
The Jigs are heavy lures that once lowered to the bottom are animated with fast ascents made thanks to the pumping of the rod and the subsequent recovery of the line with the reel. Once the jig is lifted from the bottom, the bow is reopened and the jig will spin again towards the bottom with a movement called a dead leaf that stimulates the predatory instinct of the fish.
The preys of vertical jigging
Vertical fishing is practiced in the Mediterranean for amberjack and snapper fishing but some variants allow less valuable and smaller sized catches.
These are kabura and inchiku, the lightest metal lures and equipped with a silicone skirt or an octopus that allow the capture of scorpion fish , hen, bream and pagri.
The choice of the backdrop
The seabed is very important for vertical jigging fishing. In fact, it is necessary to fish on rocky bottoms where predators hunt their prey. Today there are different jigs of different sizes and measures. For the fishing of snappers and amberjacks large jigs are preferred
The vertical is a fishing that gives great sensations above all because it is practiced rod in hand that allows you to feel the attacks of the fish on the lure and to instinctively strike.
We can divide jigging fishing into 2 broad categories. Heavy fishing and light fishing.
Heavy and light jigging
Heavy jigging is the technique for catching snapper, amberjack, grouper and even tuna. In tropical seas this technique is used to catch trevally and dog-toothed tuna.
Light jigging fishing, on the other hand, is aimed at catching pelagic fish such as dolphin fish, tuna tuna or bonito.
Heavy jigging fishing
This technique requires lures with a weight from 100 to 300 grams to fish on depths that can even exceed 100 meters.
Short rods and powerful reels
The jigging rod is a short and powerful rod with a good tip sensitivity that allows you to feel the movements of the lure in the water when it is in contact with the seabed. The jigging reel must be fast and powerful. In general, spinning reels in size 8000/10000 are preferred. Today there are jigging reels with rotating drum on the market that allow more precise animations when the lure is on the bottom.
Braid or nylon?
For jigging fishing the advice is to use the braided line . For heavy jigging, a 50 lbs with about ten meters of fluorocarbon will do as a link between the braid and the lure.
The fishing action
Knowledge of the seabed is very important for a successful fishing trip. Here the depth sounder plays a fundamental role. In fact it will be almost useless to animate a jig for hours on empty bottoms where there is no fish. You risk fatigue for hours to no avail.
Once you have chosen the bottom, start by opening the arc of the reel and letting the jig drop to the bottom. Once the jig touches the bottom, start jerking (strokes on the rod to make the jig rise a few meters) and retrieve the line with the reel. Reassemble the jig for about twenty meters and let it fall back to the bottom. Attention because contrary to what one might think many attacks occur when the jig goes down and not when it goes up, so pay attention to the reel when going down. Ready to brake the braid and shoe the prey.
The choice of color of the jigs
Prefer colors like pink and blue. Of course everyone has their favorite color but my advice is not to wander too much about colors and choose among the most captivating ones.
Light jigging fishing
This fishing technique, on the other hand, is often practiced below the coast with small jigs called casting jig, which are launched and recovered horizontally. This fishing allows the capture of blue pelagic fish such as tinnitus, mahi-mahi, skipjack and other pelagics.
Kabura and inchiku, on the other hand, are used on less important bottoms for the capture of pagri, dentex, sea bream, scorpion fish and gallinelle and other bottom prey.
The jigging reel, on the other hand, must be chosen carefully. Friction, speed of recovery and power must be calibrated to our prey. Low-powered reels may "smoke" quickly after a fight with a beautiful amberjack or a large snapper. Jigging is this: take it or leave it!
SLOW PITCH FISHING TECHNIQUE .
The big difference between VJ and Slow Jigging is basically the lower expenditure of energy on our part to make the lure move effectively.
Those who have practiced vertical jigging know what we are talking about: a hard work of muscles which, while working well in many situations, has been abandoned by many precisely due to the enormous physical effort to which the angler subjected.
The minor movement of the rod uses its elasticity to exert the action on the bait. The characteristic of a slow jigging rod is to have a thin diameter with a high elasticity, this makes the shaft super-sensitive and allows a softness combined with the whip action that allows the lure to dart upwards and do all movements without tiring the operator.
The very original elastic action of the top causes it to flex and then give a strong call to the artificial, operated by us with adequate turns of the reel handle (preferably rotating) in time to heart rhythm.
As Sato Sensei (the world guru of this wonderful technique) says: 80% of the fishing takes place in the setup (meaning the right choice of equipment) A good choice of materials and lures more than in any other fishing is important for making the game easy, fun and productive.
The blanks are made of highly resistant carbon materials of constant quality.
All slow rods should have all these properties, however the prices on the market are different and everyone would like to know what makes the difference.
SENSITIVITY: it is the characteristic that allows you to stay in contact with the lure and be able to perceive even the slightest bite.
CAPACITY OF ADAPTATION: this is the most important feature of a slow rod. Good rods cover a wide range of weights and conditions, cheap rods are in trouble when the situation gets tough: strong current, more layers of current, greater depth, fast jerk; consider that in 30/60 meters of water all rods are fine, at the limit even up to 100 meters a modest rod can make up for if you do a slow jerk or a long fall, as well as necessarily tends to collapse.
The shape of the lure is also important even more than its weight, the shape greatly influences the action of the rod, but I will try to better detail this concept in the section dedicated to the description of the various models of lures I produce.
The reels will preferably be rotating and must have a recovery of 90/100 cm per turn of the handle (clearly to obtain this peculiarity they must have a fast recovery and a suitably sized reel).
The barrel rotates between the clock position from 3 to 5 o'clock, using a turn, half turn or a quarter turn of the reel handle (even 1/8 turn is to be considered) which needs a fast recovery of about 100 cm per turn or more.
Speaking of the reel, which having characteristics of lightness and fast recovery, will allow us with the minimum effort to always remain in direct contact with the bait, an essential condition for a good final result, rotating drum reels are highly recommended precisely by virtue of the fact that they allow constant and continuous contact with the lure during the fall, a very important moment because on that occasion there are several bites.
Slow jigging greatly emphasizes the moment of fall of the lure which is constructed in such a way as to pay particular attention to the shape and positioning of the weight to guarantee different effects both in fall and in jerking. With slow pitch jigging you will catch the same types of fish as the Vj adding all those categories that have slower attacks but at the same time maintain the skills of hunters and defenders of their territory. Considering the lower energy expenditure in the fishing action, the results will be far superior, if only because it is possible to fish for much longer times, it will be enough to make our rod do the heavy work which, for this reason, will play. a very important role in this technique so new and still too little known.
Once the reel has been quickly turned by a turn, half or quarter turn we were talking about, we just have to wait for the cockroach to exhaust the momentum inflicted on it by the rod and then start to fall again, here our timing comes into play to give another turn crank in the time needed to create a rhythmic hopping of the lure = STOP & GO, most of the attacks will take place while the lure is positioned horizontally, as soon as it exhausts its upward momentum, and when it resumes bouncing again: this is the basic technique, but it can be varied in many and many ways. It is decidedly important not to be monotonous in the movements, it has been seen that the varied rhythm definitely increases the results the more it is varied and cadenced with "stop and go" of different rhythms.
Believe it or not, this technique works
Works for a wide variety of fish (from pelagic and bottom predators to rooting)
Works for a broad type of fish mood (not only when the fish is active, but also when it is inactive)
It works for a wide range of sea conditions
Catch a lot more fish
We all know that when the fish is in business and you are on the fish, any technique works, (once I was fishing for bream in tenya and seeing the continual creation of bream fish I set up a spinning rod, naturally as soon as the second equipment was mounted, the tombarelli disappeared and after some time, disappointed, I let the jig go down to the bottom and put everything in the rod holder; the jig dangled on the bottom while the boat went to leeway, at a certain point the rod bent by itself and he had hooked a sea bream only with the rolling of the boat, this gives you the further information that it is not always necessary to move the lure super fast).
But the fish isn't in business all day. In fact, in many places, the activity times last about two or three hours and it happens a couple of times a day, very often at the turn of the tides. If you don't want to wander around all day looking for active schools of fish, you need to think of something different. So how to fish when the fish is not in business?
Slow Pitch is the solution.
How does it work?
Predators are always looking for easy prey. The easier they are, the better. It is an instinct. The sick fish make random movements, swim for a while and then stop, whiz in irregular directions, turn sideways, flashing their hips, and fall to the bottom. In the ecosystem of the sea, going to the bottom is a sign of weakness, either you are unable to swim or you are hiding to protect yourself.
This is the purpose of Slow Pitch, to tempt fish to bite.
Slow pitch is not winding the line slowly. It is a continuous sequence of stops and starts at all times. It is mainly 1 pitch per second. This pace is very slow compared to conventional vertical jigging.
The moment you give a spin of the reel, the rod bends gently, immediately giving an acceleration to the top of the lure; 1 pitch can be 1 turn, ½ turn or ¼ turn. You can jerk the rod up a little with each pitch, or not.
After the pitch, you stop and hold the rod, at that moment the rod quickly returns to the top, manifesting its characteristic in a whip action, so that the lure is tossed to the sides. The Jig balanced in the center, slides on the sides and takes the horizontal position for a moment, it is just when the jig is on its side that the predator goes to attack it.
Bring the barrel down with half a turn or without turning. If you wrap half in the descent movement and half in the ascending moment, the jig continues to swing up suspended between its sides, if you do not wind in the descent moment, the jig falls and makes its free fall for which it was designed, too. this is a good time for a bite.
Only when you feel the weight of the jig on the tip of your rod, pull it up by wrapping and jerking to start another pitch. This may be the time when you notice that the fish took a bite in the previous step. You can change all the different types of action to your rod, speed, length, pace, timing and all kinds of combinations.
You will never know what prompts the fish to react to your jig, but mainly experience has taught that it is when the jig is on its side in a horizontal position and when the jig is falling that most bites occur; in other words, these are the top moments the jig is free on itself, even when you are not doing anything to the jig itself. Slow pitch Jigging wants to optimize these moments. You do less, put the jig horizontally, let it swim by itself, and drop it.
This method has had extraordinary results on all types of fish. Groupers, hake, rock fish and other bottom fish that were not so much a target for conventional vertical jigging. But now these delicious fish are our best customers with Slow Pitch Jigging. Tuna, Amberjack, and other fast swimmers also love these slow falling jigs.
The most essential part of Slow Pitch Jigging
It is essential to stay in vertical alignment with your jig. We should commit ourselves to positioning the boat, it is of primary importance for this purpose, when we cannot be vertical, the slow pitch does not work or works poorly and therefore captures much less.
The funniest part of Slow Pitch is that you have so many tactical choices.