Jig Fishing :
JJigging with chrome lures is an exciting way to catch many of the species that live around Groote Eylandt. There are a few different ways to target fish with Jigs but all require the angler to impart an erratic action on the jig. High speed winding is one of the simplest ways of catching Mackerel, Trevally, Cobia, Queenfish and Tuna. If the intention is to fish straight under the boat, then the idea is to drop the jig down to where the Lowrance sounder has picked up some baitfish schools with some bigger shapes shadowing them, and crank the jig back to the boat. Most Jigs are designed with odd dips and wavy edges so that when retrieved the lure will have a natural sway. This is often enough movement for predator fish to get excited and chase the chrome lure that resembles a fleeing baitfish. The strike will be jarring as the big predator nails your lure. Blistering runs generally only stop once you have fought the fish for at least 5 minutes on the heavy gear and longer if the line is under 20lb.
If your lure was bounced closer to the bottom reef fish like Coral Trout, Spangled Emperor, Red Emperor, Mangrove Jack, Golden Snapper and parrot fish will test your drag and skill as they rush for home amongst the Coral. If your too slow to get the line back on the spool then more often than not your lure will limp back to the boat without your prized catch. We do a lot of bottom fishing for quality reefies using chrome jigs. Generally if there are Mackerel about we like to run a 10cm length of wire on top of the jig to ensure we don’t get cut off too regularly. Jigs from 30 grams can be very effective around Groote Eylandt and when the fish are on the chew you can just run a sinker and hook as your jig rig, wind fast and hang on.
Throughout the year large schools of Longtail Tuna, Queenfish, Mackerel and Trevally turn the millions of baitfish into what is known as bait balls. These compressed fish look like a rippling black mass in the water as the big predators stalk there every move cutting through at will for an easy feed. We love to come across these as we know the action is about to commence. Anglers use some of our Shimano Spin combo’s and stand ready with their jig loaded until the guide position’s the boat and gives the go ahead to let the chromies fly. Chaos is what usually occurs as the lures are wound back to the boat at pace with a big predator right on its tail. The idea is to not slow down your retrieve, but crank the lure back fast through the bait ball all the way back to the boat. This way the predator only sees a fleeing slither of silver resembling the baitfish and not a hard unnatural chrome piece of metal. This sight fishing is some of the most exciting fishing that you will ever do. Anglers travel from all over the world to get some of this mind blowing action. With four anglers on board we can rack up over 50 fish in a morning session with many more lost.
Jigging is extremely exciting when everything is going well and yet often the simple action of dropping a jig amongst some baitfish found on the sounder is enough to get cruising fish into a feeding frenzy. We have caught Spanish Mackerel to 30 kilo and Giant Trevally heading towards 20 kilo using chrome lures and when the jig fishing is on, this style of fishing is red hot.
