Perth jigging with the Ajiking Wahoo

After having watched Seabreeze all week we were stoked to see that Saturday's weather was going to hold up so we were up at 5.30am Saturday and on the water by about 6.30 for a day of jigging. 

For those that don't know each year from around December to February / March samsonfish aggregate off the coast of Perth to spawn.  This is obviously a win for anyone with a boat suitable enough to take 30-40kms offshore to the spawning grounds and for local charter operators. 

In the main aggregations the fish are found in water between 80-200m deep, the more popular spots are around 100-120m deep.  Last year the average fish size was 35kg but the larger sizes went to over 50kg - which when you think of dragging one of these monsters up through at least 80m of water it represents a fair bicep-tearing, lower back breaking, tackle-testing challenge. 

This is also a good place to test out new gear and so for this trip, and for the rest of the season, I had chosen a Lemax SlimMax rod and a new Ajiking (pronounced Ar-jy-king) Wahoo reel.  The Wahoo reels are jigging and popping reels new to Oz available through Four Fish  They boast a 30kg / 10-piece drag, 8BB, stainless steel gearing, waterproof aluminium body and are a competitively priced cosmetically appealing piece of kit .

Armed with this and a few other new products we made the one and a quarter hour trip to back of Rottnest Island in good time.  On reaching the first spot I dropped down a 350g Bakau knife jig and when it hit the bottom started cranking the jig back up through the water column.  I was on straight away!  Seven or eight minutes later we started to see colour and eventually a 10-12kg fish came to the surface.  It wasn't huge, but it was a good start.  'Not a bad way to kick off the day' I said to the guys on the boat.

After a few more drifts Craig took the SlimMax / Wahoo combo off me and gave it a go.  It was his first time out jigging and he'd found the action difficult to get with an overhead setup so I recommended he tried the spinner.  It was a good choice because he found his rhythm a lot easier and then suddenly he was on!  This was his first ever sambo and after six or seven minutes of intense lower back pain another fish around 12-15kg came to the surface.

The action began to slow a little so we decided to move to another spot to see if things were any different.  It turned out to be a successful move because again on the first drop I was on.  The SlimMax flexed, bent and the drag on the Wahoo started squealing as a 13-15kg fish started peeling the PE6 braid off the spool.  After another five to seven minute battle had taken place the fish came to the surface.  We took a few photos before having a spell swimming the fish until it was ready to make the trek back down through 90m of water.

For more information on the Lemax SlimMax or the Ajiking Wahoo ema il sales@fourfish.com.au