Reel Repair by Alan Tani

I am going to give props to guys who jig heavy 6-10 oz jigs with spinner.  I tied a 7 oz ahi assassin glow jig on today after limiting out on sculpins.  The set up was my penn SSV 6500 LL paired with a tsunami 40-80 lbs spinning jig stick.  Wow that was hard work jigging that 7 oz jig.  Even reeling it in at depth was painful.

I feel your pain Max 
When the 300g jigs come out, I offer to drive the boat 

When I fished Cod in N.H. our normal jigs ranged from 250gr - 500gr. in 200'-400' of water. I still have the 21oz jigs in storage. I sold all my 26oz Jigs. You do this because you love to fish. If you want to lay on the beach & take in the Sun well enjoy. I will have Dinner tonight but it's hard to eat that nice Tan that you have.

Mike

Quote from: maxpowers on May 18, 2014, 05:40:18 AM
I am going to give props to guys who jig heavy 6-10 oz jigs with spinner.  I tied a 7 oz ahi assassin glow jig on today after limiting out on sculpins.  The set up was my penn SSV 6500 LL paired with a tsunami 40-80 lbs spinning jig stick.  Wow that was hard work jigging that 7 oz jig.  Even reeling it in at depth was painful.

"PG" (Power Gear lower ratio) reels and extra long handles.

SSV is a perfectly fine reel, but not optimized for vertical jigging.

Quote from: johndtuttle on May 19, 2014, 12:31:40 AM

Quote from: maxpowers on May 18, 2014, 05:40:18 AM
I am going to give props to guys who jig heavy 6-10 oz jigs with spinner.  I tied a 7 oz ahi assassin glow jig on today after limiting out on sculpins.  The set up was my penn SSV 6500 LL paired with a tsunami 40-80 lbs spinning jig stick.  Wow that was hard work jigging that 7 oz jig.  Even reeling it in at depth was painful.

"PG" (Power Gear lower ratio) reels and extra long handles.

SSV is a perfectly fine reel, but not optimized for vertical jigging.

I understand John.  I was just playing around since it was a 90% sculpins spot and I have already got my limits.  It was just to test what it felt like to jig since I have never jig with a heavy jig using a spinner before.  I brought the rig along in case if the only fin baits we will have were anchovies.  Unfortunately there was no live baits at all so we just fished with frozen squid.  Since I already have a better rig for fishing the squid with heavy weights, i was just fooling around with the spinner set up for fun.  It really was not difficult to jig but reeling in the line with a 14 oz sculpin along with the 7 oz jig was actually fairly strenuous.  Hence my newfound admiration for guys who jigs regularly.

Quote from: maxpowers on May 19, 2014, 12:39:41 AM

Quote from: johndtuttle on May 19, 2014, 12:31:40 AM

Quote from: maxpowers on May 18, 2014, 05:40:18 AM
I am going to give props to guys who jig heavy 6-10 oz jigs with spinner.  I tied a 7 oz ahi assassin glow jig on today after limiting out on sculpins.  The set up was my penn SSV 6500 LL paired with a tsunami 40-80 lbs spinning jig stick.  Wow that was hard work jigging that 7 oz jig.  Even reeling it in at depth was painful.

"PG" (Power Gear lower ratio) reels and extra long handles.

SSV is a perfectly fine reel, but not optimized for vertical jigging.

I understand John.  I was just playing around since it was a 90% sculpins spot and I have already got my limits.  It was just to test what it felt like to jig since I have never jig with a heavy jig using a spinner before.  I brought the rig along in case if the only fin baits we will have were anchovies.  Unfortunately there was no live baits at all so we just fished with frozen squid.  Since I already have a better rig for fishing the squid with heavy weights, i was just fooling around with the spinner set up for fun.  It really was not difficult to jig but reeling in the line with a 14 oz sculpin along with the 7 oz jig was actually fairly strenuous.  Hence my newfound admiration for guys who jigs regularly.

Ah, there is that! 

I firmly maintain that as Rockfishing is the foundation of West Coast sport fishing those tasty rascals (that are nothing more than dead  weight once hooked) turn people off of spinning reels forever. Nothing beats a low geared conventional and a rail to set your rod on for that. Spinners are soooo painful for rockfish.

Other species that actually fight can be landed pretty easily (even from down deep) when the spinning reel is mated to the right short rod with a far slower action (ie "parabolic" in the common fisho lingo). The fish will load up the rod in a run then as the rod recoils lift them. It's hard to explain but in practice it's much easier than winching up dead weight.

It's really a "system" of different rod and reel that makes it work. I could write a huge post on the advantages of spinning for vertical jigging, lets keep it short and say they are arguably better for "fishing" vertical jigs for a long list of reasons, but not as good at "catching" fish once hooked due to low cranking power and no rail use when cranking.

I use both spinning and conventional to switch muscle groups from right to left etc. to stay in the water longer.

perhaps its your gear thats making the jigging tough?