The Lamiglas Tropic Pro Evo TP5660 meets the Bluefins

In the Cantabric Sea things have been a bit hectic lately. Every two days I was receiving an e-mail or an sms with images or stories of large tunas hooked on popping or jigging tackle. Some of them didn't even got a chance to smell the boat's hull, breaking off with smoking runs, but few have been landed and they were well over 200lb. Is a tough deal because you're fishing in 3000ft of water, and pulling such beasts with that kind of tackle is a hell of a tug-of-war.

One large Bluefin in the 78" range (ext. 270lb) have been landed by a friend of mine on one of the new Lamiglas Tropic Pro EVO rods, the TP5660SJ. The guys started with an 18lb drag to increasinghly get o to 26lb, hard to handle both for the fishermen and the rod. It took the crew three hours to land the fish, and they had to pass the rod to withstand such pressure. I'm glad to see that the new series is being successfull, especially after the problems we had in the past with a couple of batches. The blank has been re-designed, or better say that layers of material have been put together in a different manner. The guides are the Fuji Alconite with chrome foot, new color for the blank too and a thin modern handle complete the make up.

Fox introduces the first twin speed fixed spool reel

Check out this novelty, I have red about it in a forum and really caught my attention. Not that I'm a big fan of two speed reels but this onesure marks a new level as far as fixed spools is concerned. read the Fox press release

Stratos 20000 TS

Introducing the new Stratos 20000 TS Twin Speed Spinning Reel. The first reel of its kind to be specifically designed for high speed jigging in deep water. The unique gearbox of the 20000 TS allows you to change seamlessly, with the flick of a switch, from a high 6.1 to 1 ratio, to a low 2.1 to 1 ratio to cope with the demands of high speed jigging.

At 6.1:1 the retrieve speed is perfect for working large deep water jigs to induce the best action and increase the strike ratio. Once you have hooked up on a large Amberjack or GT you can then reduce the retrieve ratio to 2.1:1 to help you crank your specimen up from the depths. We have all suffered from dreaded lock up on fast retrieve reels and the stalemate situation that then follows; this reel makes that a thing of the past!

Our two speed gear box has taken three years to perfect and is protected by a worldwide patent. The high torque gearbox runs on stainless steel gears for maximum strength and is supported by 16 top quality stainless steel bearings.

The drag system is not only smooth but also immensely powerful and may be adjusted to a maximum of 35 lb of pressure. The inertia start up is absolutely minimal ensuring an ultra smooth operation. The drag itself is fabricated from high quality carbon lubricated with our own special oil. The design of the system has resulted from thousands of hours of testing in a vast range of temperature and climatic conditions. Once you have set your drag there is a secondary locking knob to ensure that it does not back off or tighten during a long battle with a heavy fish.

The ultra-strong body is made from top quality machined aluminum for lightness and integral strength. All body parts have also been specially treated to ensure a high corrosive resistance.

The line capacity is enormous allowing you to use in excess of 300 yards of 80 lb braided line. As well as being ultra-strong this is a stunning looking piece of kit and comes in at just under 40 oz in weight.

The Stratos 20000 TS will allow you to get the utmost out of high speed jigging as well as similar big fish disciplines that require speed, strength and cranking power.

The "perfect models": The deep water Jobfish family

Many tropical jiggers hate this fish; I don’t even dare to repeat the names they call it or how disappointed they are when they land one. Is pretty easy to catch and its average size is not so exciting thus, to its detractors I like to point out a couple of things.

First of all I show them the size of the tail of the fish. Is just huge. This is a strong swimmer, fast and powerful. Then I tell’em that if this fish would grow in excess of 30 or 40 kilos nobody would be chasing Dogtooth Tunas anymore, because the Rusties pull way hard. When you catch eight kilos Jobfish you find yourself with your hands full, I promise. You start thinking you have a nice Doggie , or a medium Amberjack for that matter.

But my love for this fish doesn’t ends to its sport value. For me is the perfect subject for my distorted, over exaggerated, ultra wide angle photos. His mouth to me is as beautiful as the best mannequin’s face to a fashion photographer. The texture of its skin (scales) is just perfect for side lighting, and its colour a real plus when working against a blue sky. Is also easy to handle and to hold for the fisherman, which makes things better and most of the time is among the favourite choices for dinner, so there’s no hurry to release it.

Well, so much for those who don’t like it. I’m Rusty’s # 1 fan, bring’em in and I’ll shoot’em. You’ll probably ask me for the photo later 

Jig colors? Do you really care?

Lately, I have developed an idea about colours, shape and size of the jigs that is pretty close to the one a Neanderthal could have thought of. Yet, again and again, there are examples that keep me thinking that maybe, we should stop for a second and weight our established theories. Should we eventually put in rewind and get rid of some truths that maybe, are not so truthful?

During my latest trip to the Tropics, the Andamans to be precise, everybody spent a lot of time jigging. Different places, different species, depths and tides. Every one worked with his favourite jig, included myself, and I picked a few. The reason for every lure I choose was different, yet most of them were simple, rusted, or paintless pieces of lead with zero appeal whatsoever. My main goal was to test, once again, what would make the difference and what would not.

I thought about my crappy jigs as soulless particles of metal, puppets maybe, and that I was their Mangiafuoco, the puppeteer. Without me, they had no chance to come back to life and draw the attention of any kind of predator. I worked hard for the money, fishing was quite good on day one to three but after that the tide changed and the action slowed down big time. So it was the moment to show all the tricks and turn a dead situation into some lively action.

Well, it was a tough deal, those animals don’t like very much any kind of slow retrieve (apart from GTs), and hence keeping a faster pace kind of tired me down. Thus, my crippled jigs, with no eyes, no paint and no sex appeal made some serious damage, even when the other guys, with good looking stuff would see no action.

I sell lures, have an internet shop and stock many different kind of lures with several different colours. None of them catch MORE fish, not a single one is miraculous yet there’s a jig that will catch more fish that any other: is the one that we will drop most of the time and that suits our style better.

Jigging the Andaman

I have just come back from the Andaman and I must say that it has been a very surprising trip. I knew that Akshay and Darran had been working hard on the jigging side, but until I could figure out myself I didn’t know what to really expect.

I must admit that the results have been quite spectacular, not only in term of fish landed or size, but in the map that these two guys have been able to design in the last two years. During our week we fished areas that are probably untouched as far as jigging is concerned, and the long trip to Invisible Bank, once the Mecca for the vertical style, is no longer necessary.


In fact we visited the Bank on a beautiful day, blessed with a flat calm sea and fast run, and we landed a massive amount of fish. Thus, the majority was GT and apart from one decent animal, most of them were medium to small size. It was also more difficult to find the right places, the area is indeed very big and scouting the places is not something that can be done on a daily basis, and we hopped on the biggest school of fish by chance, moving from one place to another.

So the right places are not too far away from the dock, well at least as far as Andaman is concerned, and the marks on the plotter are growing by the day. We landed a very interesting variety of fish, from GT to Doggies, Snappers, Ajs, you name it. And the funny thing is that in certain areas you can have two guys tossing poppers and one jigging and they all will catch fish.

I have to say bravo to my Indian friends, they worked hard to develop a brand new fishery, and it will sure payback in then future giving more opportunities to their costumers. Check their web at: Game Fishing India

Back to the Tropics

Off I go my friends, back to the tropics. It is going to be a humid and sweaty week, sounds awful yet is great, I missed it big time.

4 guys plus myself, fishing unknown waters, with not a single clue about what we can expect even though, expectations, as usual, are pretty high. Fishbase made us droll with all the sport fish available, and if only 50% of what they say is true and those species are available in decent numbers we're set.

This is an exploratory trip, probably will be mostly dedicated to jigging but we will carry popping gear too, just in case. We have 5 days to scout the waters around the island, not much time, yet enough to get an idea.

I hope I will come back with some good pictures and a decent story for the blog, keep posted !

Cape Cod, where the fish are bigger than the men

One day I can tell my nephews, I was there, at Steelwagon Bank, when the Bluefins were plentiful and the poppers were roaring!
I got there with my back still hurting, didn’t bring any rod with me, just my photo equipment (that already is quite a load), and a lot of layers of clothing in my suitcase. In Madrid at the beginning of November was still mild, above 15 Celsius every day, with 20º at midday, but Cape Cod seemed to have a different climate.

With me my friend Mario, the guy you nearly want to have travelling with you all the time. Great fun, good companion, good chatter, excellent fisherman and keen photographer as well. We were supposed to be there in October but a whole week of stormy weather drastically changed our plans and forced us to move our flight to November the 2nd. Lucky us. We ended up with some very nice weather, lots of sunshine and very decent sea conditions.
Domenico Petrarca, with obvious Italian ancestors, picked us up at the Logan airport and drove us to the hotel, very kind of him, he saved us a bit of hassle with the bus, something manageable but a tad tiring after 7 hours flights. On our route we stopped at the Longhorn Steak House and ate the whole thing. The red California wine helped the gastric juices and put us between the sheets at an even faster pace than planned.

Day one of fishing welcomed us with quite a nice swell. Leaving the safe and calm waters of Green harbour made me think of Dramamine kind of day and after half an hour cruise to the bank my stomach stepped into Defcon 3. We had 4 casting candidates on board, plus me and the Captain. So I decided to stay in a safe place, worrying about my stomach more than necessary. Thus, after a while of many casts to some very reluctant Bluefins I grabbed a rod and hopped to the bow. My stomach was already at Defcon 4

One warm up cast and on the second one a fish boiled some 70ft from the boat, at 12hrs. One cast between his eyes, a couple of twitches and bang! I set the hook some three or four times, tried to start a fight and when the “bad-back-bell” rang I had nothing to do but pass the rod to Tom, a very nice guy sharing the boat with us. My stomach by then was at Defcon 5, and roaring its ugly head! I was happy though, I had hooked my tuna and the guys were happy too because they could fight it. Big deal for an old man like me!
Now, the great thing about having somebody fighting a nearly 200lb Bluefin when Capt. Dom (http://coastalcharterssportfishing.com/) is at the helm is that the show that he puts together is already worth the trip. His yells and screams are unique and can be heard probably around the whole of New England, such is his passion for fishing and his great expertise in popping and jigging for Bluefins. Domenico is a great deal of fun, very motivating and always cheering up the crew. No doubt that he is among the best skippers I ever had the pleasure to fish with.
We had no more fish that day, few swirls, followers but no mo takes.

The following day we headed to Boston for a photo tour. The weather was nearly perfect, amazing blue skies, no wind, and reasonably warm. I don’t know how many photos we took but I had an absolute blast. I took my tripod with me and set it on every corner, park, building, tree that I found attractive. If cameras could melt for abuse my D90 would now be like a Dali sculpture.

Second fishing round. Nice weather, nice seas, happy me. On the boat with us a very good friend, Kil Song, who I have never met in person but talked to several times, during the last few years. It was truly like meeting a buddy from college time, and I was truly happy to finally meet him in person. With him Willie, a very nice and polite guy, very much looking forward to his first tête a tête with a Giant. Kil is a very experienced Tuna fisherman, way more than myself, and have already fished Steelwagon ban some 20+ times this season. Even though he was the eldest on board he kicked our ass big time with a magnificent 3 strikes X 2 fish caught, one on jigs and the other on a stickbait. Willie fought a fish that Dom has hooked and Mario, hooked his freight train at the very end of the day and lost it at the leader because the wire of the lure broke, but Dom has the mono in his hands so the fish was ethically caught. We did the Longhorn Steak House thing again, and boy, did we have a good time or what!

After one day of photos in Plymouth, where we had a nice lunch with my friend Peter Johnson of Roberts Lures, the last morning we left…well at night. Crazy Dom picked us up at 04:30, there was ice on the boat and I can promise you that it was freezing. Right at the mouth of the harbour we lost the sensitivity of our faces and after less than 5 miles we had no more sensitivity in our fingers or hands whatsoever. The Tunas seemed to be less active, I’m sure the cold night had something to do with their behaviour and we didn’t manage to raise a single fish to a surface lure. Thus, after a radio call from a friend’s boat, Mario first and myself 4 minutes later both hooked and lots two nice fish. Mario’s broke the braid and mine simply spit the hook. Dom had a further bite too but even though we put the lures on the head of many animals, we ended up with skunked.

The last dinner in our favourite (and only) Japanese restaurant was delicious, and packing things to return home quite sad. We had finally experienced the most amazing popping and jigging that can be done in this planet. The wildest beats, the most challenging hunt you can ever hope for. I’ve been a GT fisherman for years, loved the Cuberas, Amberjack and large Dogtooth Tunas, but none of these fish get ever close to the sheer strength and power of a Bluefin. These things are the Ferrari, IVECO and Boeing of the whole biz. Things will never be the same again.

Cape Cod Blue Devils!

Didn't have much time to post a proper report, I wrote it in spanish but a busy day didn't allow for a second one. I'll just say that we had a hell of a good time and that Steelwagon bank is a true Bluefin Tunas sanctuary, even in November. Taste this picture for the moment and as soon as possible you'll have a full report

Can I help you?

People sometimes are strange, let me explain you.
I have an internet tackle shop (http://caranx.net/tiendas_esp_engl.htm). Is a specialist shop, solely dedicated to top water and jigging in saltwater. This is what I have been doing in the last 20 years, being a fishing guide and travelling to the world explaining people how to do it. So today I got the call from this guy, he needed some lures to catch Dentex, quite a nice predator we have here in the Mediterranean. He says he has seen my videos, he’s been following me in the mags and he is sure I can suggest him the best for his fishing.

Great, so far so good. I record his data and get myself ready to fix the order. I start suggesting him a white 120g Hooker, a lure I think is really worth having when fishing for these critters. He replies he likes the lure but maybe he wants it pink. I try to explain him that more important than the colour is the brightness (or the lack of it) of a lure, and he says ok…but I want it pink. Then I recommend him another metal jig I know it works well. Too heavy he says, and the colour doesn’t suit his taste. The third lure I propose is a 100g Ouka in White, in fact I believe he needs at least a white lure, but he says he was thinking about the pink/blue/sardine. So far none of my ideas was accepted and I told him he should probably tell me what he needs in fact he seems to have pretty clear ideas about his fishing needs.

At this point he picks another jig, one I don’t have in stock and I put forward a similar one, which is available. He declines and asks me again if I have that jig I just told him I don’t have. Nope, still is not available. I offer him another lure I know works well for the Dentex, many friend are pretty fond of it. He says no, he wants that jig. Again the one I don’t have. Then he thinks back again and asks me for the alternative lure I advised before and picks one. Guess what colour? Pink. At the end of the phone call he bought three pink jigs of his choice plus another one somehow I managed to advocate and I think he didn’t refuse it because he didn’t realized it wasn’t pink.

Well, after this conversation I have mixed feelings. On one end I’m happy because I made a sale and he bought the lures is confident with. A very good thing because he will fish them hard and catch some fish. On the other I wonder why on earth he called me if he knew what he wanted and couldn’t care less for my help. A simple e-mail could have sorted out everything faster and painless.

Can you help me?

Strange week at the Maldives

This has been a weird week indeed. The GTs were not too happy to snack on a popper on the surface while they seemed to be gathering in large numbers in crowded "balls" right around the drop off. Mating season maybe? It very much looked like, and this complicated the things for us a bit. Funny enough, even the other usual reef dwellers were not there. Snappers, Groupers and many other animals were deserting the usual feeding plains, in favour of deeper waters.

What might have influenced such behaviour is not really clear but there are some hints we can evaluate. First of all there has been an heartquake in Indonesia the week before our arrival. Nothing happened to the Maldives, no Tsunami or alike, but is possible that the fish noticed that. And another clue was the water temperature, pretty much below the average, with changes of current that would change the pattern of an area from one day to another.

Anyway, fish we caught indeed. The Dogtooth Tunas were especially cooperative, with two large specimen landed on jigging gear. Yes, jigging. This seemed to be the technique to use during the "foul" week, and this produced most of the fish and sure enough the biggest.

Great safari anyway, we are used to the high standards of the MV Madivaru crew and is always a pleasure the fishing and the off-fishing moments. Topping the bill the food and the after dinner time spent on the main deck all together.

Maldives, an image or two

I haven't wrote that much about my latest trip to the Maldives. It has been OK. Nothing spectacular but we had some decent jigging and nice popping as well.

Few images for you of this November's Safari, I will be back there in February and I hope I will have more stuff to show

This is my friend Albert showing a decent size Barracuda caught on a jig. The fish pulled hard and fooled me into thinking it was another beast. At the beginning we all said "Doogtooth" because the drag was screaming pretty loud and the line running fast, but the lack of stamina of the fish put our hopes down a bit. A nice fish nevertheless. Many people hate Barracuda and I think they're quite good fun critters

Eugeni in a tough situation, A GT took his lure and is heading back o the reef. The heavy drag settings are very tricky to use, especially when there's no gunwale to support your knees.

Snappers are always among my favourite fish to shoot. Then storm helped creating a bit more of atmosphere.

A bit of hard work near sunset. A small atoll in the distance reminds us we are in the Indian ocean, at the Maldives.

Another snapper in daylight. The red color in contrast with the blue sky really makes for a dramatic contrast. There's a main light on camera right, a Nikon SB600. I exposed for the sky and the flash filled the subject probably at 1/4 of power

The local band playing at night, around the campfire in a desert island

What happened here?

We have been scouting one by one the passes of the atolls we cruised by, all the best, with the proper tides. The quest was for the big Dogtooth Tuna (Gimnosarda unicolor), an animal that can grow in excess of 250lb and bite a jig with rage. We sure hook some of them but none of us was able to bring it to the boat. Several monster strikes all burnt in few seconds. Broken lines, bruised leaders, hooks pulled. This is how fishing can be at the Maldives.

When we got to the southernmost atoll of our cruise, during a slow jigging session outside the main pass I had a strike of a large fish. The fight lasted few seconds and then the hook pulled. Sad news I thought, another one is gone. Yet, while retrieving the line I felt some weight. Then some pressure and finally the line started peeling off the reel at a quick pace. John, the skipper, quickly motored the Dhoni to the open seas, in order to keep the fish off the coral, and once in deep waters I started to fight the fish.

At the beginning everything was normal. The fish would take some line and I would get some back but at one point everything turned into a dead weight lifting. Boy, that thing was heavy but it was unable to steal any braid now, while I was suffering to retrieve every single inch. When we finally saw the fish under the boat we exploded with joy, they have been fooling us for so long that this was like a sweet revenge. To our surprise the fish was foul hooked on its flank, close to the pectoral fin, and this explained the odd fight. I surely missed the estimated weight by a great deal, it was 30% less than I though but hey, who cares, it was a nice fish and a great one to photograph

Bermuda: new jigging paradise?

Is probably too early to say but the first clues have been quite impressive. We have just spent 5 days of fishing in the waters of this beautiful island and every single one of us has returned home excited and happy with the result. It was an exploratory trip, but the bases on which it was put together were strong. Bermuda holds 3 or 4 IGFA world records for both kind of Amberjack (Dumerili and Rivoliana). The biggest Greater Amberjack ever caught around the world comes from here, and if you put in the mix the abundance of Yellowfin Tunas, Groupers, Wahoo and many other different species, the landscape looks pretty bright.

Let me spend a word about the island itself first. It simply is a beautiful place. Neat, tidy, coloured, warm, peaceful, not polluted, green, blue... Again, a small and remarkably amazing paradise. People are nice too. Our captain, Peter Rahn, his wife Leslie and the boat's mate Steve are wonderful people, as well as many other inhabitants that we met and spent some time with. Lodging and dining is not the cheapest around, yet with the current value of the Euro compared to the Dollar is still doable.

Talking about the Captain and his fleet I have nothing but good words. Peter worked hard on something that is quite new for him. Jigging is a technique that requires a specific knowledge and thanks to his vast experience on the local reefs, he managed to constantly put the boat in the best spots. Theres many banks and reefs around the island, and not all of them are prooductive, yet he seemed to always know where to put the boat, and even if sometimes the tides were playing big time against us, when the fish turned on again, we were on top of them.

The first day we fished with the boat that we booked, a 41' Custom Express. But once returned from our fishing we noticed a super jigging boats moored near the Overproof. It was a 36' lobster boat, just arrived from Maine, and o boy, that was perfect. From day 2 we fished every day on the Son Rae, 5 guys in a row jigging elbow to elbow, or not even that because there was room to spare, without a tangle or a problem. The Son Rae is just the perfect jigging machine and we took full advantage of it.

One of the highlights, unexpected to be true, has been the variety of species we caught on jigs. I don't know if ti was 20 or more but every day we would catch 4 or 5 new critters. The mix of the subtropical water with the warm current of the Gulf creates a perfect environment, where fish from more moderate latitudes meet with other more typical of the tropics.

The amount of fish we caught has been quite impressive, I still wonder if Peter was expecting this result or if he was a bit skeptical. Millions of small Almaco Jack where ambushing the reefs. Even during the deadly tides you would manage one of them to bite the irons and I'm pretty sure that, because of the abundance of those smaller critters, we found it more difficult to hook serious contenders.

The big fish didn't participate too actively to the party. We hooked few of them but for a series of reason we only landed one, a 40lb Almaco jack. Thus, they are there, I don't have a single doubt about it, and for this reason I want to come back in May, when the summer starts and the migratory species are more likely to show up. Peter told me that the Yellowfin Tuna stay deep on the drop-offs, and that he can see them in the sounder. Quite a good change for a target fishing like ours: can't wait to get rid of the winter.

Bermuda was also a great lab for my photographic experiments and I have learnt few more things. The most important is that I don't have to clean the sensor myself, and the second that I need to buy a GOOD tripod.

You can see more images here http://www.caranx.net/bermuda_report_2008.htm

The new Tropical fishing season is about to start

It truly is, in less than one month I will be hopping on the first airplane with the first group of costumers. Destination Bermuda, for an exploratory jigging trip, the first both for me and the costumers. I have always been curious about this spot. In the IGFA book of records there is a good deal of massive Amberjack caught in these waters and I wonder how our irons will behave. My friend Miguel, an excellent Portuguese fisherman, last year landed this massive Amberjack in Cape Verde, I'm showing here the photo for you to see what we are after in Bermuda... pretty ambitious guys uh ???

Jigging feature in Sport Fishing Magazine

More than one year ago, Doug Olander, the editor in chief of Sport Fishing Magazine (http://www.sportfishingmag.com/), contacted me in order to put together a sort of jigging symposium in Panama. He wanted an American, a European and a Japanese jigging expert to fish together the waters of the Gulf of Chiriquí and compare techniques of three different schools, with three different anglers, all supposedly "experts" in this field.

I thought the idea was brilliant and knowing Doug's skill on the PC keyboard would have come out great. I contacted Hideyuki Kitamura, probably one of the most experienced jigger in Japan and sure enough one of the most respected. My friend Setsuo Hamanaka (http://www002.upp.so-net.ne.jp/Ham/) helped with the logistic and communication and Dough brought in Ben Secrets, an excellent fisherman from California who, while working for Shimano, not only helped them putting out the "Butterfly Jigging" campaign, one of the smartest marketing campaign done recently in the fishing history, but also learned a lot from the Japs Shimano-pros. By the way, Ben is now at Accurate (www.accuratefishing.com), and the American brand came out with some amazing conventional and spinning reels for jigging, machines that I am lucky enough to use.

Hideyuki gave us all a major class of how to fish in a sea that those days was not too generous. He hammered the critters while I could barely follow his lead. I have learnt a lot from him, and you can learn too by reading his comments.

The article is great, Doug nailed it, picking the best from the best. The most important tips and information are there, available for those who know how to "read" them and put them in practice. The issue is September/October, you shouldn't miss it.

A Jig & a Wahoo, a recipe for disaster

Yes, I have caught this Wahoo on a jig but I wasn't jigging it, I casted it to a fish which boiled after a sardine

I have never caught a Wahoo on a jig. Never. Not a single one and I have hooked quite few many, probably more than I can count with all of my limb's fingers.

I can be fishing elbow to elbow with two or three fishing buddies, none of them using wire, neither myself. We land on top a pack of hungry 'Hoos, jigs dropping, reels reeling, rods wiggling. One strike, the friend on my left starts fighting a fish, I feel a nibble, maybe not even that and my jig is gone. My friend lands a fish, the hook is on the chin, away from the jaws, damn luck!

Situation nº 2. Me and my friend Mario in El Hierro island, Canary Archipelago. Our skipper finds a pack of hungry Wahoos. I am fishing with a 30 and a 50lb jigging rods, first without wire, then with a small piece. I hook 5 Wahoos in a row while Mario is looking at me in disbelief. I manage to loose each one of them because either they cut me off, snap the line or break the wire, due to a bad haywire twist.

The story doesn't end here.

Ascension island. Wahoo are not a pest but they are there and show up every once in a while. I'm fishing with 4 other guys. 3 of them hook and land a Wahoo without using wire, and when I decide that is my time for a try I put a lighter jig near a school of Bonitos where I saw some Wahoo sniffing around and drop it a bit up current. The small iron hit the water, line start coming off the reel at the usual pace and all of a sudden it is dead. Nothing comes out of the spool anymore. The jig is done, a Wahoo took it probably 5 meters below the surface on my very first specific "Wahoo cast" and cut the mono leader like butter.

I have similar stories at the Maldives, Panama, Costa Rica etc etc. In about one month I will be probably fishing Bermuda, a pretty new spot for jigging, quite an exciting experience. Is full of these toothed critters, and I know that my friends will sure land some. I don't know whether to bring a lot of wire, or a rabbit's leg, is a hard call. Doomed? Maybe, I'll let you know when I come back