Bumper Jigging Issue

Show & tell time! This was one of the better Pulau Jarak offshore sessions to date and I'll let the pictures and videos do the talking.

Small grouper, big appetite. Taken on Feed's luminous madai bumping on the sea floor using MajorCraft Giant Killing's Slow Pitch rod paired with Ocea Jigger.

Everyone hard at work with a variety of slow pitch set-up.

A school of Cobia hit us all like a wave messing up everyone's lines. This little fella put up serious fight falling prey to Shout's Flash worked using MajorCraft Giant Killing's Slow Pitch and Ocea Jigger on the drop near the sea floor.

Greasy grouper thinks it's got a good meal out of Feed's madai. Also on the Giant Killing Slow Pitch + Ocea jigger setup.

We got hit by another school of cobia, this time on Feed's Madai.

When night falls, we whip out our ultra light gear hitting the shallows around the Island. A feisty big eye trevally giving the MajorCraft Crostage Aji rod + Stella 1000FE a good run.

Taken on IMA's new fluttering micro jig, Ichimatsu.

Another big eye trevally but this time on Xesta's nitro jig.

Heading back to the deep, Feed's Madai managed to coax this hungry grouper. A setup second to none, Giant Killing's Slow Pitch and Ocea Jigger.

Another greasy grouper, also on Feed's Madai, Giant Killing's Slow Pitch and Ocea Jigger.

Switching to Bassday's bottom contact, I was able to raise this bait fish muncher up from the deep. Worked slow and taken on the drop very near the sea floor.

Occasionally, fish throw out their stomachs content to reveal bait fish the same size as the jig. Bassday Bottom contact sure does look like some of their food choices. I usually travel with a few of these jigs with me and will a few more home for other trips.

Giant Killing Slow Pitch loaded trying to tame sea floor dwellers.

Up comes a decently sized golden snapper, which explains the rod bending action.

Bassday's Bottom contact, not just for groupers. Hammered hard on the drop near the sea floor too.

Another jig switch, another fish take. A greedy greasy grouper. Taken on the Xesta Flap while bouncing near the sea floor.

With the same Xesta Flap jig, it managed to stir up this bullish golden snapper. Plenty of fight and head shakes all the way up. Most of the work comes from the Ocea Jigger being able to crank the bugger up leaving the jig action to the rod.

Overly ambitious snapper doesn't know that this Xesta Flap is being worked by an Evergreen's Poseidon Spin Jerker paired with a Stella. One way ticket.

We've also managed to piece together a 2 part video below showcasing some highlights of the offshore session to Pulau Jarak. Enjoy!



Photo courtesy from Tackle Source & full catch report can be found here at Tackle Source.

Jiggy new Stella

Out with the old, in comes the new. My heavy jigging outfit, a Majorcraft Giant Killing paired with a Shimano Twinpower, have served me very well hauling up countless species of all sizes. I was happy to be able to part ways with the Twinpower like it's new and the new owner wouldn't believe that I've fished hard with it with no signs of wear and sparkling new exterior. It even has the out-of-the-box signature smoothness. Drag was also in excellent condition, smooth and heavy. This is in part of the extra care I put into them and preparing them for maximum protection.

On top of being able to part ways with the Twinpower on excellent terms, I was given a good deal for the new 2013 Stella SW series and it was a no brainer upgrade for even better durability and performance. As expected, I received quite a bit of queries as to why get the new Stella when the old Stella is a much better reel? So I asked if they've tried both of them to know which is better? No surprises there when all of them said no but some of their 'friends' have tried it and prefer the old one but didn't elaborate 'why'. Therefore they didn't bother with the new and started hunting for the older model.

If one is truly better than the other, I'd like to know why and specifically with my own approach to using and caring for the reel. I can safely say, no 2 anglers fishes the same way using and caring for their tackle. What works for one may not work well for the other. In fact, by the time I posted this write up, I've actually fished with this reel a good few trips and I can say that I like it very very much and I actually feel that this reel is a step up from the old Stella in feel and solidness. Drag is rock solid and smooth on takes. It's built like a tank from all aspects with some areas with redundant seals as additional layers of protection.

Here's what I did in preparation right out of the box, bringing it to my level of acceptance on protection and durability before wetting lines with it. Here's what I found.

'Rigid Handle' claims are valid, feels like a solid 1 piece handle. The shank is forged, therefore super stiff yet light. I prefer a fatty knob and the original knob is excellent but a tad heavy. Transferring my old trusty studio composite XL carbon knob over would be perfect.

Fatty round knobs seem to work for me when it comes to jigging as I change my grip regularly to reduce fatigue getting stuck in the same position for extended periods. Studio Composite's carbon XL knobs are perfect for my hands and served me very well on the old trusty Twinpower. A transfer would do well on the new Stella.

As for the bearings that comes with the new Stella, they are supposed to be salt water corrosion resistant. They are to a certain extent but they too suffer failures over time and I've seen enough explosions to never use it as it is from out of the box. I'm more comfortable after packing them with marine grease for proper protection.

Shimano supplies very smooth bearings for their Stella reels. But typically for any reels, the inner knob bearings regularly experience spectacular failures from rust.

Most of the fundamental designs are being either brought forward or optimized for better durability and water resistance. The rotor seal cap is now being held together with 3 screws instead of 2. The rotor locking nut's being increased in diameter but shorten in height.

As for the drag knob, the old coil spring's being replaced with wavy leaf spring supposedly better distributes force over the surface of the entire drag stack. The biggest change by switching to this new spring is that you lose the feeling of tension build up when tightening the drag. With the new spring, it's constantly tight and you don't know how strong the drag is unless you do a pull test. Just something to get used to over time.

Above, rotor lock nut (wider and flatter) and cap seal (3 screws instead of 2 for better seal). Below, minor tweaks to the drag knob and top stack of the drag, biggest change is in the drag knob.

The new Stella's crank case is rubber sealed and suppose to be water tight in the event of accidental submersion or excessive water splash. The insides are typical Shimano with 'enough' lubrication. I'll need to coat it thoroughly for maximum protection.

Main gear support bearings are now held solidly in place with 3 screws to reduce or eliminate free play. As I mentioned earlier, this is a redundancy feature to reduce free play and increase rigidness when cranking.

Left, dry case, bearing out of the housing ready to be packed with marine grease. Right, bearing packed with marine grease, case thoroughly coated with marine grease to displace water if any gets into the crank case.

The line roller's got a minor upgrade too with DLC coating for the line roller. Diamond Like Coating is supposed to be super tough, smooth, and durable. A noteworthy upgrade for people who fish hard with their reels. I would expect Shimano to include rubber seals in this assembly as it is one of the most vulnerable area for salt water intrusion creating rust damage. Nevertheless, I'm packing the entire assembly with marine grease leaving no space for water to occupy.

Top left & right, line roller assembly taken apart to be fully stuffed with marine grease. Bottom, nicely prepared and ready to get jiggy!

Overall, the reel's built like a tank and I've already had several off shore sessions where it's performed flawlessly without complains what-so-ever. I wonder if there's really a need for people to be so serious about taking sides over which Stella is better? After all, it's just one part of the equation for tackle set-up while the rest is about how you get the best out of the whole package.

Slow pitch & long fall jigging at Pulau Jarak.

To usher in 2014, we kicked it off to a jiggy good start at Pulau Jarak. A 3 days 2 nights easy going trip with a bunch of like minded enthusiastic anglers. It's been a while since the last time I set foot on the all too familiar GT Chaser with its leathery clean and hardy deck. We kept reminding ourselves that every trip to Pulau Jarak will never be the same and all we can do is to be prepared for almost anything and everything.

This time around, we managed to have some good fun with a variety of feeding frenzies and the occasional awkward deafening silence of no hook ups for hours.

We did however manage to document some interesting catches. Here's what we call slow pitch and also long fall jigging. A technique used in combination of the target species, jigs used, and most importantly to pace ourselves between the intense high pitch jigging.

On the first day jigging at depths of around 60-80meters, to our surprise the only fish that was fond of our sexy jigs were the GTs even around the seabed. GTs after GTs. The fun wore out rather quickly as it wasn't fun trying to haul GTs up from great depths. No other species were around or taking out jigs, we'll just have to put on a brave face, keep calm and keep cranking.

Majorcraft Giant Killing's jig rod fully loaded. This rod is a force to be reckoned with.

Xesta jig deemed too sexy for this GT, worked at moderate speed.

Another on falls for the Xesta, also worked at moderate speeds taken on the fall about 5 meters off the seabed.

Double hook up on Shout jigs. Stay and Width jigs. Worked slow taken on the fall.

The Gees kept hitting, this one went for the new Xesta Agraam, worked fast and was stopped like hitting a freight train.

Up close of the Xesta Agraam speed jig.

On day 2, we went popping around Pulau Jarak shallows and yielded just 1 take. Weird GTs here taking jigs and not poppers or stick baits. For hours we went around and about, no more hook ups. We then headed a little bit further out to deeper waters in search of demersals. Again, nothing was taking our jigs.

Without further delays, we headed to deeper jigging grounds. First stop, a notorious spot called 'Hutan Melintang' as we couldn't believe that not a single fish was interested in our jigs. An infamous spot known for its wide variety of predators namely razor sharp toothed gangsters like sharks, barracudas & spanish macks that just can't help confiscating our jigs and hooks.

As usual, another surprise for a few of us, a mate got the first take and felt like it was a snag. He kept cranking and didn't budge. Another mate got another take, this time it took some drag and immediately after, I was on too! The first fish finally realised it's been hooked up and started to dart about taking drag. And all of a sudden, all 3 of us couldn't feel anything anymore and started retrieving our lines. It felt like it was all tangled up and an occasional tug here and there. We then noticed that there was a school of cobia gangsters, jigs in mouth, swimming up towards us and the boat. The school took notice and immediately scrambled, made a sharp turn parallel to the boat tangling up a few more lines as they go. 2 of us lost our fish and only the first one survived and managed to land the whopper of a cobia of about 30kgs!

On the next drop with a new jig tied on, a quick take and feisty fight ensues.

This small cobia took fancy to my Xesta Agraam jig and was no match for the Majorcraft Giant Killing rod.

After the cobia frenzy drought hit us hard for the next few hours hauling only one grouper and another tiny spanish mack. Before the sun sets, we headed off to anchor at Pulau Sembilan (P9) slowly winding down the day before night falls. A nicely semi sheltered spot famous for its big schools of giant hard tail scads. We quickly switched to our favourite ultra light jigging gear Evergreen Temujin Spider matched with a Shimano Stella 1000FE. We managed to fill up all of our ice boxes and witness the occasional spectacular queen fish aerial fights.

Full loaded Temujin Spider. This is no giant hard tail scad fight.

Feisty little queen fish put up a massive fight taking my IMA Gun 12g for a good run.

And another bigger queenie guaranteeing a good run on the ultra light tackle.

All in all, another signature appeal of Pulau Jarak's unpredictability and yet hauling quite a bit of fish (mostly hard tail scads). We'll be back to keep Pulau Jarak's reputation in check till the next time.

Photos courtesy of Tackle Source.

More Maldivian Madness!

Part deux of my previous entry on Maldivian Christmas Special, the madness continues. 

Enjoy!

The Maldivian Madness!

A follow up on my previous entry on Maldivian Christmas Special, here are some of the live action. 

Enjoy!