Rockfish and Lings, yes.
Glad not many people try it for bottomfish, the technique flat out kills some days. When fish are in feeding biting mode most techniques work. With this technique I've figured out how to get non biters to eat the majority of the time. We've tested gear and techniques side by side on my boat.
Northwest Spotsman magazine had an article written by Dr. Jerry Han about a year or maybe two ago on the technique.

 

My cousin and I began our jigging journey with the slow pitch. We were using ugly stick jigsticks with shimano spinning reels and butterfly or flat fall jigs. We effectively caught all you mentioned except bluefin.
We eventually moved up to higher quality gear once we knew the investment was worth it.
I still fish a change up that incorporates slow pitch. Even purchased some 30-50 gram jigs for the inshore species. Excellent for suspended bass and can entice bites when the bite is slow or even off.
Last couple years before Doug passed if he was jigging, inshore or offshore, he had his trevela combo in hand. There were times when it was more productive than the standard shrimp fly rig w/weighted jig but more often not. But he loved the light setup so that was his go to.

 

Missed you at the SSS, Alan. There was a booth that was a slow jig specialist giving advice as well as selling lures. Coulda fixed ya right up. Ran into a couple guys that fish with you and had a nice chat with them. Got a lot of comments on your halibut hoodies, too.

 

My friends said they saw someone wearing the halibut hoodie! I think they talked to you, Rvi and Nate.
Looking forward to another great season!

 

Yes! The first set up I grab is my slow pitch.

 

I've been doing it for a couple years now, it is hands down my favorite way to fish! I've even gotten a few sponsors getting me jigs direct from Japan. Message me and I'll tell you everything you want to know about it. That goes for anyone interested, I just don't want to hijack or clutter somebody else's thread.

 

Yep, my buddy and I started a few years back. Same as wdlfbio, my slow pitch gear is usually the first thing I grab. No bluefin yet but absolutely hammers the bottom fish, salmon, and albacore.

You will most likely need two setups minimum for the fishing we have here. A heavy setup for 300+ gram jigs and a lighter one for shallow water. Had great luck last year fishing 450+fow for halibut and lings with the larger jigs. The smaller ones are great for rockfish, Cabezon, lings, coho, and albacore.

 

Y’all need to shush!!!!

 

Sorry I meant to say we haven’t had any luck with it in our area.

 

Yep, he's right, totally doesn't work like Luke G said

 

I just ordered several slow pitch jig rods from PE2 to PE10.
I've caught fish on jigs before but I want to get better.

Do you think jigs will work for salmon during buoy 10 run?

I've seen ppl catching salmon below the Willamette Falls on jigs.

 

I just ordered several slow pitch jig rods from PE2 to PE10.
I've caught fish on jigs before but I want to get better.

Do you think jigs will work for salmon during buoy 10 run?

I've seen ppl catching salmon below the Willamette Falls on jigs.
[/QUOTE

Had em eat SPJ while chasing rockfish in 200’. Oh, and while drifting, for salmon. I’ve never done the buoy 10 thing.

 

 

I had a guy on my boat get a pretty good chinook last year on a jig. I see no reason you couldn't catch salmon on them, but having to use barbless hooks on jigs might make it hard to keep them pinned.

 

Ah....forgot about the barbless hooks. Maybe 2 assist hooks will help.

 

Started messing around with them a couple years ago. Haven't purchased an actual rod for that style of fishing yet, just used one of my bait rods. It's been fun.

I had a friend with me last summer who has fished albacore more than I catch his first slow pitch fish. The next morning he damn near bought out Englunds in Westports supply.

I somewhat understand but need to learn more about the action of the rod(s) but why do a lot of the rods don't have much covering the butt section such as cork or whatever? Just bare blank.

 

Started messing around with them a couple years ago. Haven't purchased an actual rod for that style of fishing yet, just used one of my bait rods. It's been fun.

I had a friend with me last summer who has fished albacore more than I catch his first slow pitch fish. The next morning he damn near bought out Englunds in Westports supply.

I somewhat understand but need to learn more about the action of the rod(s) but why do a lot of the rods don't have much covering the butt section such as cork or whatever? Just bare blank.

I'm waiting for my first SPJ rod to arrive this week.
I don't know why the butt end isn't covered either. Maybe for balance sake?

 

I might be way off here, but aren't these jigs similar in action to buzz bombs? The buzz bombs don't lose many fish partly because they slide on the line, so when a fish headshakes, it can't push the hook against the mass of the jig. That and trebles of course.
I think the assist hook leaders also help with keeping the point in the fish.
One thing I've learned is to keep the connection gear robust. No cheap snaps, split rings or quick connect hardware. Weak gear failures will break your heart .

 

Definitely not a balance benefit. 98% of rods do NOT balance like they should. In my experience the ones with out full handles are even worse!!

 

We have 2 Trevala S rods that are like that
Not well liked by anyone on my boat

 

I have one Trevala rod that I like a lot.

 

I very much like my Trevala rods, we have 5 on our boat
Just not the S version
It has that blank rod butt

 

I've got 4 trevala's now and they're very well liked. We tuck the rod but high in the armpit when jigging, this is more like how they're held in Japan, and I believe the exposed rear blank is to provide a slimmer profile to fit between the anglers arm and torso.

 

 

that's a sweet looking set up!
specs on the rod and reel?

 

Rod: Custom by Jon Ramos
Reel: Accurate boss valiant 500N SPJ
Line: 30# diawa J-8 color change braid
Leader: 50# fluorocarbon

 

Keeping hooked up on salmon, or anything for that matter, is helped by quality gear. The parabolic bend of a great rod and the very high retrieval rate (7 to 1 or more) helps keep them pinned. If Im jigging salmon I’m going to have the drag set right and reel pretty much continuously. Slack line will cost fish.
Your gonna loose some fish on jigs. For me getting the HOOKUP is what matters. 😝

 

The very butt end is covered and used to help hold the rod in position just at and behind the arm pit.

The next part is blank, because there doesn’t need to be anything there. It’s dead weight and a waste of time and money. These are setups used all day. Ounces make pounds. No sense in adding dead weight.

Then the reel seat. We cup the reel and seat together. We don’t use a foregrip, so there’s not much there. Again, dead weight and wasted money. Then guides. Guides are important.

 

The little I know, but learning, #1 I have these,

#2 I watched this, it answered some if the question above, i knew the answers and I know very little.

 

Reading up on it...sure seems basically how my grandpa and I jigged buzzbombs off the the slagpile in puget sound.

 

I love buzz bombs. coho seem to love them!

 

When you're jigging tuna, do you troll up 1 fish and then shut the boat down and jig? Or do you wait to see them on the sonar?

 

Depends on the crews attitude, if they want to try and convert early, we'll try every troll bite. If we're about to get to the tuna grounds early we'll often troll while the fish are active or until we have multiple rods hook up on the troll. This indicates we likely have a large active school under us, so trying to convert to a jig stop is likely to be successful and very effective.
And tuna don't show well on most Sounders, their feed does, but there's little air in a tuna compared to many fish so they show a comparatively small return relative to their size