Jig testing off Moreton Island

[dayoo]

Was supposed to do an offshore trip off Fraser yesterday to test out my Hot Lips jigs on Red emperor and other reefies but it was cancelled and slotted to another day closer to the full moon.

Started to unpack my gear when last night I spoke to Bill Corten who invited me to test out the Hot Lips jigs on pelagics off Moreton as he had a last minute vacancy on his boat.

Headed down to the Cleveland ramp met the crew and headed out at 5.30 am to do some jigging for Pelagics. The other 3 crew had knife jigs so I was interested to see how the Hot lips measured up. Bill suggested that I use a spare plastics rod with 40lb braid so as my first drop neared the bottom my rod buckled over and I was on. Up came a nice eating size 4kg AJ.

The knife jigs the other guys were using also accounted for some nice AJs

My first five drops with my 3oz krystal flash Hot lips jigs got hit every drop but only boated 3 (two AJs and a nice Yellow Tail Kingfish) as the line snapped on the other two. Didn't have to work as hard as the other guys who were pumping there arms up and down.

During the day many AJs and Yellowtail were boated and released as well as a nice 13kg Samson Fish. We kept the bag limit of two per person.

The conclusion of the crew was that the Hot Lips were as effective as the knife jigs.

My pics attached but the pic of the Samson will follow as soon as Bill emails it to me.

Cheers
Barry

[Horse]

Nice fish Barry and it goes to show you that your style of jig is very effective in a range of situations. They sound a lot easier than working knife jigs
Were you using flouro heads or skirt material?

Neil

[outwide1]

Your a lucky man Barry as i was the first one Bill called yesterday to join him and the boys from fish head but i thought it would look to suss having a sickie on Melbourne Cup day.Looks like a good day had by all.
Welldone ,Mick.
PS.i would like to get some of those to have ago on the reds off DI.

[dayoo]

Nice fish Barry and it goes to show you that your style of jig is very effective in a range of situations. They sound a lot easier than working knife jigs
Were you using flouro heads or skirt material?

Neil

Neil,

The jig heads are powder coated with glow in the dark super glow from the USA and are skirted with various colours of krystal flash and flashabou glow in the dark. I was using 3oz as we were in deep water.

Cheers
Barry

[dayoo]

Your a lucky man Barry as i was the first one Bill called yesterday to join him and the boys from fish head but i thought it would look to suss having a sickie on Melbourne Cup day.Looks like a good day had by all.
Welldone ,Mick.
PS.i would like to get some of those to have ago on the reds off DI.

Will be making some over the next couple of weeks in 2, 3 and 4oz on owner forged needlepoint 7/0 hooks. Only have them at the moment made on Mustad forged 7/0 and 8/0 tarpon hooks which I used today. The 8/0 is strong enough for reds.

Cheers
Barry

[dayoo]

Some more pics, a close up of the terminal tackle and Samson fish.

Cheers
Barry

[Bill_Corten]

Hey Barry

You were pretty quick to post a reply up there and I don't blame you.
The jigs you knocked up were superb and worked a treat on the soft plastics rod. By the way, good to see an old hand like yourself join us on the dark side using the plastics rod and (by your standards) light braid. Just takes a bit of adjustment taking you time working the fish to get them up. No doubts at all about the way the "hot lips" were matching the heavier metal jigs for performance. Interesting too how you still got them down to 95 metres when we went up the road a bit further to check out some large bait schools.
As you are aware from the from the samples of my old jigs that have caught me fish over the last 25 years from Waddy on Fraser to Kingscliffe, light jigs have come a long way and are still a big unknown for many people. Combined with braid and heavy duty plastics rods and of course the modern materials to add flash and bling, the lumo powder coating you have perfected too, these little gems are awesome allrounders on the offshore reef scene. Trouble is, now you will be too busy making jigs to go fishing!!!!!
Thanks for your great company on the water, it was a long time coming.

Cheers
Bill

[JB]

Great stuff barry, they look like quality lures.

[popgun19]

Nice work Barry ! I had a close look at the pics (good looking jigs) and couldn't see any bait attached to your jigs, did you use any ?

[dayoo]

Nice work Barry ! I had a close look at the pics (good looking jigs) and couldn't see any bait attached to your jigs, did you use any ?

No bait Brian just colourful bling

Cheers
Barry