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Jigwrex Jigging Expedition
To give the new Jigwrex rod a decent test, we opted for a location that could produce large quantities of big and strong pulling fish. The location of choice for the testing was decided to be off Fremantle in Western Australia. Every year, during the summer months, schools of Samson fish congregate at certain areas off the Western Australian coast to spawn. Rottnest Trench, off Fremantle is one such prime area where fishes of 40-50kg are common during this period.
For this trip, my friend Kervin kindly played the host and arranged all the transportation and logistics for us. We caught a flight to the Perth International Airport and met up there for a scheduled 3 full days of solid jigging.
Unfortunately for us, not everything went according to plan. The start of our trip was hit by poor weather. On our first day out, we were met by extremely strong winds. We could only managed half a day of jigging before we had to quickly seek shelter at Rottnest Island. During this half a day of fishing, we managed a few Sambos; none of which were particular spectacular in size though. Nevertheless, we took this chance to relax and enjoy the scenic sights and beauty of the quaint little island resort of Rottnest. The Quokkas and free roaming peacocks all added to the relaxing and holiday like atmosphere of the place.
Day 2 of our trip was unfortunately even worse. The winds got even stronger and for obvious safety reasons our charter captain Allen did not wish to head out. We were basically stuck with only 1 possible day left of jigging on the subsequent day and still had not tested the rods out properly yet. We had no choice but to reluctantly wait out the bad weather before we could test the Jigwrex. With a dismal mood, we proceeded to do some sightseeing in Perth and also half a days worth of light bottom fishing on Kervins boat.
Finally Day 3 had arrived. On this day, the weather turned slightly better. The winds were still very strong but were more manageable and we started the day by heading straight to the jigging grounds. Once out there, it took only a matter of seconds to understand why Fremantle is so hot on the list for Samson jigging. The four us onboard had barely released the jigs deep enough to hit the bottom and all were already hooked up onto some solid fish. We tuned up the drags on our Stellas and jiggers to test the durability of the Jigwrex rods and even after some ugly bends, we were glad to say the rods came out unscathed. All of the fishes came up averaging 15-30kilos and were decent fish but not what we were after; which was a fish above 40kg with a fork length of at least 1450mm. We repeated a few more drops of this fishing and like clockwork, all of us hooked up again. Allen explained how the bigger fish were the female fish that would stay deep while the male fish would stay higher in the water column as part of the spawning ritual. He also demonstrated how he could target these fishes by slow jigging very heavy jigs near the bottom. I changed my jigs to a heavier one and after following Allen’s advice, was rewarded by a much nicer fish of around 30 kilos. Upon seeing that all of us had our warm up session completed, Allen than recommended us to try another spot that often produced much bigger fish. Seeing that we had not much time left and that we had already tested the rod on smaller sized fishes, we agreed.
The big fish spot consists of several sunken containers. To fish this spot, we essentially had to fish with an almost lock up drag on the Stellas and Jiggers. This was because the fish if given any slack, would simply head back for the safety of the containers and cut us off. I let the rest of the team fish first and was pleased with what I saw. Each drop was accompanied by screaming runs before the expected sharp ping of heavy gauge PE line snapping. I was not going to miss any of this and took up my position with the heavy PE 8 Jigwrex outfit. To fully test this rod, I had purposely loaded the Stella with PE 10 line and 200lb leader. Now with such a good spot we were on, I was determined to stop one of these monsters and fully test the rod I had designed. I locked up the drag of the Stella threw out one of the heavy jigs into the abyss. As promised by Allen, once the jig hit bottom, all that was needed was a couple of quick jigs and I was well and truly hooked up on a good fish! As I was fishing with a locked drag, this fish could not even pull any line off and the full load of the fish was borne by my arms. At that moment, I vehemently regretted my folly in my crazy drag settings and my arms felt as if they were being pulled out of their sockets. Fortunately for me, at this moment, the fish also got tired and started to turn. After what seemed like an eternity, I managed to pump the fish back up to the surface. We measured the fish length at 1520mm and estimated it to be a possible 40-45kg. Finally, we had given the new range of rods a decent enough testing.
After that fish, it was already late in the afternoon. Allen signaled to us to pack up and we then proceeded on our journey back home. During this trip, we were unlucky that we had 2 days of poor weather, but fortunately for us, the single window on the last day allowed us to go out and fully test our products. We cruised back to Fremantle Harbour contented with the knowledge that we had overcome the odds and Jigwrex had passed the fieldtest with flying colours.
Unfortunately for us, not everything went according to plan. The start of our trip was hit by poor weather. On our first day out, we were met by extremely strong winds. We could only managed half a day of jigging before we had to quickly seek shelter at Rottnest Island. During this half a day of fishing, we managed a few Sambos; none of which were particular spectacular in size though. Nevertheless, we took this chance to relax and enjoy the scenic sights and beauty of the quaint little island resort of Rottnest. The Quokkas and free roaming peacocks all added to the relaxing and holiday like atmosphere of the place.
Day 2 of our trip was unfortunately even worse. The winds got even stronger and for obvious safety reasons our charter captain Allen did not wish to head out. We were basically stuck with only 1 possible day left of jigging on the subsequent day and still had not tested the rods out properly yet. We had no choice but to reluctantly wait out the bad weather before we could test the Jigwrex. With a dismal mood, we proceeded to do some sightseeing in Perth and also half a days worth of light bottom fishing on Kervins boat.
Finally Day 3 had arrived. On this day, the weather turned slightly better. The winds were still very strong but were more manageable and we started the day by heading straight to the jigging grounds. Once out there, it took only a matter of seconds to understand why Fremantle is so hot on the list for Samson jigging. The four us onboard had barely released the jigs deep enough to hit the bottom and all were already hooked up onto some solid fish. We tuned up the drags on our Stellas and jiggers to test the durability of the Jigwrex rods and even after some ugly bends, we were glad to say the rods came out unscathed. All of the fishes came up averaging 15-30kilos and were decent fish but not what we were after; which was a fish above 40kg with a fork length of at least 1450mm. We repeated a few more drops of this fishing and like clockwork, all of us hooked up again. Allen explained how the bigger fish were the female fish that would stay deep while the male fish would stay higher in the water column as part of the spawning ritual. He also demonstrated how he could target these fishes by slow jigging very heavy jigs near the bottom. I changed my jigs to a heavier one and after following Allen’s advice, was rewarded by a much nicer fish of around 30 kilos. Upon seeing that all of us had our warm up session completed, Allen than recommended us to try another spot that often produced much bigger fish. Seeing that we had not much time left and that we had already tested the rod on smaller sized fishes, we agreed.
The big fish spot consists of several sunken containers. To fish this spot, we essentially had to fish with an almost lock up drag on the Stellas and Jiggers. This was because the fish if given any slack, would simply head back for the safety of the containers and cut us off. I let the rest of the team fish first and was pleased with what I saw. Each drop was accompanied by screaming runs before the expected sharp ping of heavy gauge PE line snapping. I was not going to miss any of this and took up my position with the heavy PE 8 Jigwrex outfit. To fully test this rod, I had purposely loaded the Stella with PE 10 line and 200lb leader. Now with such a good spot we were on, I was determined to stop one of these monsters and fully test the rod I had designed. I locked up the drag of the Stella threw out one of the heavy jigs into the abyss. As promised by Allen, once the jig hit bottom, all that was needed was a couple of quick jigs and I was well and truly hooked up on a good fish! As I was fishing with a locked drag, this fish could not even pull any line off and the full load of the fish was borne by my arms. At that moment, I vehemently regretted my folly in my crazy drag settings and my arms felt as if they were being pulled out of their sockets. Fortunately for me, at this moment, the fish also got tired and started to turn. After what seemed like an eternity, I managed to pump the fish back up to the surface. We measured the fish length at 1520mm and estimated it to be a possible 40-45kg. Finally, we had given the new range of rods a decent enough testing.
After that fish, it was already late in the afternoon. Allen signaled to us to pack up and we then proceeded on our journey back home. During this trip, we were unlucky that we had 2 days of poor weather, but fortunately for us, the single window on the last day allowed us to go out and fully test our products. We cruised back to Fremantle Harbour contented with the knowledge that we had overcome the odds and Jigwrex had passed the fieldtest with flying colours.
You may wish to view more photos of the JigWrex Rod Fieldtest by clicking here