The conventional style of hi-speed jigging is not good?

Nothing is wrong with hi-speed jigging. It’s an exciting game and it does work very well in some conditions.

When I first started jigging, I was doing hi-speed jigging. I caught several amberjacks and tunas. The sudden impact of bite was such an adrenaline rush, especially after a long, hard, empty efforts of reeling and jerking. But I didn’t know there were much tactics. I didn’t know what was working, what was not working, or what I should change. All I could do is to believe, have faith in what I was doing, and just keep working hard. I didn’t feel my arms at the end of the day.

Even though the reward felt big, I was at the breaking point to give it up when I met Slow Pitch Jigging.

There’s no all-mighty method that works all the time. Fast or slow. But I think understanding hi-speed jigging in comparison with slow-pitch jigging really helps to bring your understanding and awareness to the game. So let’s talk about the history of jigging.

Why jigging came to be this way?

So the jigging has been a heavy-tackle, hard-working, muscle-breaking sport.
If you look at it in the evolution of fishing, there were reasons why it had to be this way.

1. THE LINE

There were only Nylon mono-filament and Fluorocarbon fishing lines when jigging was born. These lines are thick in diameter. And for the strength to catch the kind of fish you target with this method, it had to be really thick. 50lb Nylon line’s diameter is about 0.74mm, while PE line is about 0.41mm thick for the same strength. Because of its thickness, Monofilament and FC line catch more water, creating a lot of line slack between you and the jig.

Suppose you and your friend are 100m apart, with a line in your hands. And you try to pull the line to move your friend on the other end. High wind is swinging the line between you two. Your friend can feel that you are trying move the line? Very little you can feel.

This is what you get when the heavy line catches the water before reaching the bottom.Plus, what makes it even more difficult is that these lines stretch to tensions. Monofilament stretches 20% to 45% before breaking, FC stretches 17% to 37%, while PE only stretches 4%. So if you are jigging with mono or FC, the line stretches and absorbs all your actions.

As a result, you need to jerk the rod big and strong, and keep reeling fast, fast, fast, just to move the jig.

2. THE BOAT

Most jigging boats were free-drifting back then. This creates the same problem of the line slack as #1. The best way to do jigging is that the jig goes straight down and you stay vertical. It means you are linked with the jig directly with a straight line. This way you have a very good control over your jig.

In order to maintain such vertical alignment in currents and winds, the jigging boats in Japan now have the spanker sail or at least sea-anchors. Spanker is the aft sail that keeps the boat pointing toward the wind. With an occasional little forward throttle, the captain can cut the influence of the wind and let the boat drift with the current. It keeps you vertical because the jig is moving with the current. Now most Japanese jigging boats have this sail and the captain can actively control the drift to keep you vertical. Sea-anchor is not a controlled drift. The parachute can put the brake on the wind pushing the boat. It’s better than free-drifting, and it works fine when the wind is mild and the current is mild.

See more detail
>> Boating to stay vertical

In the old days, jigging was done in the free-drifting boat. You are being pushed away from your jig constantly. You get a lot of line slack in the water. Sometimes your jig can’t reach the bottom. What does that mean? The water pushing your line away from you is greater than the gravity pulling down the jig weight. That is a lot of line slack. That’s why you constantly keep reeling just to take out the line slack.

3. ANGLER’S ASSUMPTIONS

When the jigging came out on the fishing scene, everyone doubted how the fish could possibly bite on the chunk of metal. So it’s in our head that we should move it fast fast fast so that the fish would not have time to examine what they are biting on. Only now we are understanding that it’s mainly the hydrodynamic vibrations of the motions that the fish react to. And the shape of the jig has been refined and modeled in different styles that they make all kinds of actions. Now some even say “Don’t try to move the jig. Let the jig do the job.”

Learn from the history

These are the reasons why the jigging has developed toward faster motions and heavier tackles. Jigging was done around 50 meters. 60 meter was considered “deep”.

Then the revolution came. PE line. And then came the idea of boating to stay vertical.

Slow-Pitch Jigging came out of this line of evolution. With PE line and staying vertical, we didn’t have to keep reeling so hard any more. Then, maybe, we should switch from spinning tackle to overhead tackle. How about letting the jig fall, rather than only uplifting? And how about going deeper and using lighter line and lighter hooks? And so on and on.

Sato Sensei really refined the setup and actions in every detail such as knots and hook setting, to maximize the jigging potentials.

I think knowing the history helps you understand deeper about how to set up and use your tackle.

Hope the information helps you! Good luck!