Live and Dead Bait Trolling Jigs
This jig design simulates a squid on the prowl. The jigs feature phosphorescent heads, planing wings and a stinger hook that's deadly to short striking fish. Rigged with a live bait or a ribbonfish, this jig is deadly on Kingfish, in addition it may also be jigged, tipped with whole or chunk bait. Fished with live or dead bait this is the "Mac Daddy" of all jigs. The planing wings and weight options allow these jigs to be used at different depths assuring ample coverage of the water column. You'll be amazed at all the fish you've been missing.
I have been using the 1 oz white jig with great success when slow trolling ribbonfish on the down riggers. These jigs can be easily rigged with bright wire and multiple stingers. The back of the jig's head has an eye that allows for the haywiring of the stingers. Each jig comes with a red "bleeding" J hook. This hook can be easily replaced with stingers.
The larger 7 oz jigs have served me well when trolling bonito strips for wahoo and dolphin. The jig head lends itself for both the enticing digging action and necessary smoke trail that entices these fish to bite. I have found that the purple black, blue white, and red white color combinations have worked well here in South Florida. When rigging these I have opted to keep the standard red "bleeding" J hook that the jig comes with.
The 3 oz jig can also be used with bonito strips. At times we are able to catch larger bonito allowing us the luxury of cutting very long yet thin bonito strips. I rig these on the 3 oz jigs to simulate "ribbonfish". When available these long bonito strips have outperformed the ribbonfish. I troll these just as I would a regular ribbonfish. I prefer the heavier 3 oz jig over the 1 oz because these strips are somewhat "beefier" and troll much better with the 3 oz jigs.
The Snapper Slapper Jig comes in 7 different color schemes and in four different weights: 1, 3, 5 and 7 ounces.
Notice the built in eye behind the jig head to attach live bait rigs, stinger rigs, as well as multiple stinger ribbonfish rigs. Rigs may be haywired in or attached with small snaps. Titanium or Surflon leaders may also be used when rigging these jigs.
The Snapper Slapper Jig comes in 7 different color schemes and in four different weights: 1, 3, 5 and 7 ounces. These jigs may be used for bottom fishing as well as trolling dead baits such as bonito strips, and slow trolling live baits or ribbonfish. A King Mackerel magnet, these jigs are deadly when used in combination with ribbonfish. We have done extremely well with these and they are the only Kingfish jig that we sell or recommend. Our pro-staff has had excellent tournament results in all of the events where these jigs were used.
Unlike other jigs, each Snapper Slapper Jig has a built in ring behind the jig head. This ring is used to faciliate the attachment of live bait rigs, stinger rigs, as well as ribbonfish rigs. These multiple hook rigs may be haywired in or attached with small snaps. Toothproof Wire from American Fishing Wire, Titanium, or Surflon Micro-Supreme leaders may also be used when rigging.
The planer wings together with the different jig weight options allow these jigs to be fished deep with or without the use of downriggers. The low center of gravity allow these jigs to run true at all times. In addition to Kingfish, these jigs have landed us Wahoo as well as Dolphin when trolled with bonito strips. The Black & Purple and Blue & White jigs have been the most productive for Wahoo, while the Pink Orange & Chartreuse, Green Chartreuse, and Blue Chartreuse have been deadly on Dolphin. Our favorite Kingfish color has been the White jig. While these jig will also work on bottom species, we have not experimented with these in that capacity, and at this time are unable to recommend specific colors.
Our trolling method for both Dolphin and Wahoo has been to slow down allowing the jigs to sink and then gradually increasing our speed to allow the jig to "swim" towards the surface. We have trolled these over the reef systems and this method has proven to be the most effective.
When using ribbonfish to slow troll for Kingfish we fish these deep on the downriggers. We adjust depth based on current water temperatures. Off the Florida Coast we sometimes fish these as deep as 100 feet when the water temperatures are high, and as shallow as 20 feet during the cooler months.
Our method for finding the right depths includes researching the current bite depths, and when these are un-available or un-reliable we troll in a west to east direction until the bite is located. In finding the bite we employ two downriggers each at different depths, one close to the bottom and the second any where from 20 to 60 feet shallower. The total depth of the location we are scouting dictates how the downrigger depths are adjusted.