Pulley Ridge Light trip on the Yankee Capts

[kilsong]

I am in the Key to fish Pulley Ridge Light trip on the Yankee Capts for three days starting from tomorrow.
I will stick to jigging using 6'8" Black Hole Charter Special Slow Pitch jigging rods.
Though grouper and snapper respond to jigs, they prefer bait.
I will post the report and pictures later.

 

[cany]

Catch em up Kil

 

[MIKE TUNA]

Looking forward to report..Hope all is well been a long time..
I'll be on Capt Yuri March 11 to 14th 4 days with my crew.. I'll add to your report when I return..
Unfortunately I just torn a tendon in elbow so all my fishing will be done with an electric reel this trip so I'll let you keep the jigging title for now.. Mike

 

[kilsong]

I fished on the Yankee Capts on a short notice while I was fishing in Florida to test new Black Hole surf rods.

After catching a few drum using the new surf rods, I headed for Key West. On the way to Key West, I tried tarpon using new Black Hole surf rods unsuccessfully at night.
There were 23 anglers on the 3 days Pulley Ridge Light trip on the Yankee Capts out fo Key West. Surprisingly I could count at least 8 guys who used light Slow Pitch jigging rods on the most of the trip.

I used economic version of 6'8" Black Hole Charter Special Slow Pitch jigging rod with IRT 500 and 600 spinning reels and JM PE3 conventional reel.
I found Alex and his friend used out 5'8" Black Hole Cape Cod Slow Pitch rods along with other brand rods. It was a good opportunity to observe different models of slow pitch jigging rods.

I got only one blackfin tuna for a day. But my luck changed after dark.
By 10 pm, I switched to 6 oz Al Gag jig with soft bait. Instantly I hooked up a monster grouper, but I couldn't stop it. Eventually I lost the big grouper as it went into structure.
I used my reliable 8 oz flat hammered diamond jig. And I fought 3 grouper and one nice mutton within 30 minutes.
I was tired and I went sleep as I expected good bites daytime. That was my mistake. I woke up at dawn and I had constant bites with grouper and mutton. But I lost three big grouper while fighting and landed 4 small mutton snapper all on 8 oz flat hammered diamond iig by pounding bottom slowly.

Strangely when sun came up, I lost touch and I couldn't get any more bites while other angles get grouper bites on jigs here and there.
I was expecting another good night bites, but we came home after 4;30 pm as wind picked up.
But I was ,more than happy to have 10 plus fight with grouper and mutton on jigs.

Here is my observation.
Some use really light and soft slow pitch jigging rods.
It might be more fun to fight big fish with such light rods, but I feel they need a little heavier and beefier rods to handle bigger fish effectively and efficiently.

Here is a video of action of 5'8" Black Hole Cape Cod Slow Pitch jigging rod with 210 g jig in 300 ft. As you see in the video, the rod tip action is proper.
And the rod is capable of landing tuna upto 100 lb tuna or 80 lb AJ or yellowtail.



and fighting with the technique



In Florida, the slow pitch jigging rods are used mostly for bottom fish, but tuna and yellowtail are targeted with the slow pitch jigging rods on long ranges boat out of San Diego.

 

[kilsong]

Here is a picture of 70 lb -80 lb AJ caught by Ray Rekehs, rod builder in Florida using 6'3" custom Black Hole Cape Cod Slow Pitch jigging rod on the Pulley Ridge trip two - three years ago. There were only Ray Rekehs, Bryan Diez and myself who used slow pitch jigging rods on the trip.

The second observation is they use 4 hooks on a jig for slow pitch jigging.
In my opinion four hooks are too many.
I prefer to use one big hook or two small hooks. You can use on the head of a jig or bottom of a jig depending on your preference. I prefer to use hooks at the bottom of a jig for bottom fishing.

It is a pain to untangle lines when using 4 hooks and it is dangerous when you unhook from fish. I always believe fish find hooks and attack them.
The third observation is they use glow jigs invariably.
I tested glow jigs and non glow jigs for 40 years and I still rarely don't see the difference whether I fish tuna, grouper or snapper at night.
I used non-glow 8 oz hammered diamond jigs at night and I believe I had hit more than any other anglers who use glow jigs that night.
I feel fish has sense to detect the movement of jigs even in complete darkness,

 

[kilsong]

Another observation is the Yankee Capts uses huge sea anchor.
The first day was pretty rough, but I could use only 8 oz jig in 250' 300' thanks to the sea anchor.

Here are pictures of the trip.













I used economic version of 6'8" Black Hole Charter Special Slow Pitch jigging rod for the whole trip.

 

[kilsong]

Thanks Capt Greg and crew for the wonderful trip. They work hard.