I have been interested in shore jigging for a while now, and now own some gear dedicated to this style of lure fishing. The setup I use is on the lighter side of the spectrum, as where I fish there is not too much access to deep water marks. The balance of the tackle is important, by which i mean how every component matches up with each other.
Having researched and applied shore jigging info and advice to my fishing, I have developed preferences for my tackle, for example, in the way I rig my assist hooks. I don’t claim to be doing anything that unique however, and this is more just about what I’ve noticed in my fishing.
I mostly tend to use double assist hooks at the front of my jigs, without any rear hooks. My main reasoning is that it helps to minimize snags, which it does achieve. On most casts, I let my jig free fall straight to the bottom, even at a particular mark where you can’t avoid submerged rocky structure, and i haven’t lost tackle in a while. Granted, you have to be very careful to lift your jig up as soon as you feel bottom contact, which a sensitive braided line and rod really helps with.
Going purely off this logic I should be using a single assist hook on the front then, but I think that doubles assists better suit my style of retrieval. I like to incorporate a lot of pauses and tension falls between jerking the lure. When I’ve been fishing for pollock, I haven’t jerked the lure more than around 5 times before letting the jig flutter back down for a few seconds. Therefore, for much of the time the jig is underwater the hooks aren’t under much tension so I want as much chance of hook ups and penetration as possible, via the 2 hook system.
Basically, I treat most of my jigs as slow jigs as long as they have enough of an attractive fall, even if they aren’t necessarily marketed for this technique.
Savage Gear Needle Jig 40g
In my recent pollock fishing, I’ve had success with Savage Gear 40g needle jigs rigged with short cord double assists. These extra slim and lengthy jigs seemed to outperform other stubbier jigs, although the average size of the pollock has been very small (hopefully because of the location and not my skill).
Pollock caught with Needle Jig
Initially I was hesitant to pair these lures with Vanfook Jigen Short Twin assists. I thought the cord was too short for this length of jig and that the fish wouldn’t be able to reach the hook, for example, if they struck from behind. But this hasn’t seemed to matter as I had a good hook up ratio, even when the fish have been only slightly bigger then the jig. Perhaps it’s to do with how aggressive the fish are behaving, or that attacks might be directed at the head of the lure or that the hooks stay closer to the jig when it’s falling. Whatever the reason is, I’m now confident that front double assists no matter how stubby, suit my more slow style of jigging. The assist hooks that I do myself, I try to make on the shorter side because of this.
Homemade assist hooks beside 30g jig for reference
Of course it helps to use hooks of certain designs and sharpness but that’s a separate topic for another time.
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