Best Jigs For Catchin Slimies From Bait Schools?

[Steve07]

Hey guy's

Just wondering what bait jigs you gamefishing boy's use to catch slimey mackerel from the deep bait schools at the shelf & beyond to use as bridle rigged livebaits for marlin.

What sort of weight is best to get the jig down to the bait & the best tackle"braid threadline outfit or just

light overhead gear with a decent weight attatched"

Just fished at port stephens & had trouble catching slimies from the bait schools on the sounder,as i have

always used lure's only for all my trolling & also fishing on "SPINDRIFT"with jeff mostly for chasing marlin,

im a bit new to this livebaiting game,so any info or idea's would be much appreciated.

I found out on the weekend that at port stephens no livebait,on marlin.I fished one day with lure's &

only got a small striped tuna to put out as a livebait,but no marlin.But got a couple of livies before going

wide on sunday & got a small black marlin.

I think it's a great way to fish for marlin when the bait is available & i enjoyed it alot more than trolling

lure's all over the place to find one,plus the success rate for a solid hookup with livebait compared to a

lure,well everyone knows there is no comparison there.

thanks

steve

Edited May 30, 2008 by nexus

[Le Pasha]

Hey Steve generally the slimy schools that are on the shelf are bigger than your inshore slimies, so I prefer to use the Black Pete Super Jigs in size 3/0, or size 6. The weight is dependant on the current etc. but make sure you have something heavy enough to get you down to the school.

Tackle is personal preferences, whether you are more comfortable using overheads or threeadlines. Get something with a high retrieve rate so you aren't there cranking all day. Personally I like overheads and I use a small Avet with 50lb braid on a Rapala Jig Stick, also doubles as a kingy outfit. One thing that I have started to use which is awesome and has helped alot is YGK Jigman Braid, which changes colour every ten metres - mark the bait on the sounder, say its 40m down, drop down your jig, and using the colour changes

your jig should drop straight into the hot spot. On a hot day at port be prepared to lose countless jigs, as the marlin will come up and snap at your slimies, pain in the ass lol

Livebaiting for marlin is a whole different game, plenty of stuff to learn, and as you say the succes rate is so much better than lures.

Hope this helps,

Daniel

[warnie]

Steve

The slimies off port on the weekend were jumping on any jig you care to mention that

was dropped down to them resulting in full strings every time i admit to not knowing what i used

as i just picked up what looked tinsely and cheap however i do go for the one's with the bigger

hook range rather than the smaller ones...but saying that they can be tempermental at times

but a jig in particular that never fails me is the sabaki rig in the green prawn and is deadly

so deadly in fact that anything that swims down there wants to eat them so get plenty....

honestly anything that you can spool up with braid will do the job..... fast or slow retreive it matters

neither for as you noticed how the boats hovered over the bait schools that they considered to be balled up

and under duress they jig directly from that school and tease and stop there retreive on the way up delibertly to arise the

interests of a marlin and the more interest the better....it is a case then of getting the marlin to switch over to baits allready set ready in wait.... or feeding one back to him when he follows a string up...

this is harder than it looks but it is highly effective and some boats have got it down to a tee...

A 6-8 ounce snapper lead is around the norm for both the jig and for dropping down a bait

back down to the bait school and we have the line marked in 10 fathom increments to help take the guess work out of how deep you are to hold at...And as im sure you are allready aware of....... the use of a circle hook is the best way of ensuring a solid hook up and are very forgiven....

this of course is just my preferance and methods will differ greatly between boats

Cheers Warnie.....

[Jigholio]

Guys on the topic of sabikis does anyone know if R&R brand US made sabikis are distributed in Oz? AFAIK they're the only ones with stainless hooks...a godsend.

[Steve07]

Thanks Daniel & Warnie,

That's great info guy's & helps out heaps,will sink all that in & try it next time there are bait balls of slimies.

I did see a couple of the big game boat crews,like "BROADBILL" & "CALYPSO"getting there livies out there

& like you said they had it down to a tee.

Even seen them tease one up,switched over to a livie & instant hookup right beside me,a good 100kg +

striped too!

cheers & much appreciated

NEXUS

[the1murph]

when it comes to jigs all tackle stores sell them round the same prics

Jack

[whi7eindustries]

&*(&^ sells Sabaki's for $5 for two sets. I use these to get my livies every trip out, catch just about everything from Slimies to Trevally.

[daleyboy]

dont forget that if they arent biting that well on the jigs alone, a small bit of bait on the hooks helps alot.

[Guest Big-Banana]

dont forget that if they arent biting that well on the jigs alone, a small bit of bait on the hooks helps alot.

Ok for inshore. Not much good when the slimeys are down deep though.

[Sammy0884]

I use the Mustad jigs that come in double packs with two, three hook sabikis. they are about 2.50 a pack and the three hook packs are great, less tangles and there is another at the ready all the time.

Inshore i like the hyabusa brand, they work brilliantly without bait in any kind of burley trail