Australian Slow Pitch Jigging – A Brief Overview, With Insights Into The Design Of The Acid Parabol FAP690H and FAP690ML
In the realm of modern angling, slow pitch jigging has emerged out of Japan as a game-changing technique, offering anglers a unique and highly effective way to entice a variety of species.
Unlike traditional fast / high-speed jigging methods, slow pitch jigging emphasizes a more variable rate of jig acceleration and deceleration on the pitch, finesse, precision, often jig suspension, and the perfect synchronization of action and tone.
In this blog post, we will brush over some of the fundamentals of slow pitch jigging, explore some of the intricacies of action and tone, and some consideration for SPJ in Australia for the use of SPJ with heavier class PE lines.
The Fishlogica Acid Parabol FAP-690H has a unique blank design suited to heavy SPJ work in shallower water.
At its core and in its purest form, slow pitch jigging is a methodical approach to jigging that involves the use of specially designed jigs and a deliberate, rhythmic motion to mimic the movement of injured or struggling prey, as opposed to mimicking a fleeing prey as traditional or fast jigging is mostly designed for.
It pays to note that there are times when nearly all techniques will work on any given species, times when the fish are feeding, and will fall prey to lots of different jigs, jig colours, jig weights, action and tone, indeed even demersal species will fall prey to fast jigging techniques at the right time (one of our Queensland SPJ trophies, Red Emperor, comes to mind). It’s the times in between, or in fisheries or areas that see more angling pressure that SPJ techniques comes to the fore.
To be really successful, a profound understanding of the underwater world, including the behavior and feeding patterns of the targeted species across the moon and tide cycle, time of day and time of year, and differing weather conditions, is a pre-requisite. The same goes for the use of electronics and setting drifts.
SPJ terminology can be daunting, even for experienced anglers – slow pitch, slow pitch jerk, fast pitch, high pitch, long fall, short pitch, quarter pitch, half pitch, full pitch, bottom bouncing, flutter fall, stop and go pitch, double pitch, reverse pitch, and the list goes on.. Different rod actions will elicit different jig action within those variations. There’s plenty of excellent info online where one can delve into these variations in detail, what we’d like to emphasize here is that it doesn’t have to be so complex. It’s about simply finding what works on any given day that is key, when things are slow, it pays to mix it up and try to find what might trigger the fish to eat.
Rods and Reels and the Why’s of the Acid Parabol Range.
Traditionally, slow pitch jigging rods have been designed primarily to effectively work the jig, and not primarily to fight the fish with. Indeed, the father of SPJ, Norihiro Sato has been quoted as saying (in his native tongue) “It’s the rod’s job to attract and hook the fish. It’s the reel’s job to bring it home.”
Purist slow pitch jigging technique involves a tip down, low rod angled fighting style and overhead reels with loads of torque (and control and feel for the pitching itself). Certainly, this technique offsets a slow pitch jigging rod’s inherent lack of lifting power, and facilitates a more consistent application of power and resistance, allowing the fish’s direction (or head) to be better kept. There is also an argument from Sato for keeping the fish calmer, which does have some merit. Line recovery using these techniques are by way of short longitudinal strokes, slight lifting of the rod using the lower sections with more lifting power, body weight transfer, and even the rocking or vertical rise and fall of a boat in sea and swell.
So how well does this apply to Australian conditions and species?? The answer is that there are too many caveats to this question to answer fully, and certainly not in one blog post. However, some of the most popular SPJ targets in Australia are targeted in shallower water relative to some other global fisheries. We (now?) have, in some locations, such as Fishlogica’s home waters in Central and North Queensland, an abundance of sharks. The underwater terrain of the Great Barrier Reef and inshore islands is, for the most part, rather gnarly. Our waters are warm, the fish are often large and have explosive power at the outset, even the demersal species we love to target. It’s from these considerations that the Acid Parabol rod design was born.
We wanted rods that didn’t depart from their purpose of imparting the right jig action across the many possible technique variations, but we wanted to be able to dictate the terms of the fight from early on. Most normal hybrid rods with light tip sections and powerful bottom sections that lose too much of the finesse and ability of true SPJ rods to pitch the jig, well, slowly... We wanted them to do both. Length was key. The raw materials were too.
Length:
A 6’9” rod may be generally regarded as getting into the realm of long fall specialization, or for fishing aboard high railed ‘party’ charter boats, as is popular in some areas around the world, including the United States. The majority of the rods built to be well suited for those applications weren’t built to be well suited for using lighter jigs on heavier PE class lines in shallower waters. After building and testing repeatedly with different actions and lengths we settled on 6’9” as the ideal length for both the FAP690H and FAP690ML, but this was largely based on allowing for the required blank progression for both imparting jig action and fighting the fish with somewhat higher rod angles, really well. Under a fighting loading, the top half of the rods are doing little, they flatten out, as they should... They were there for the pitching.
The bottom halves have the strength and enough lifting power to pull hard (line class relative) and aim to turn the fish’s head as early on as possible and get it coming to you (more on this further down), With the reduced leveraged length on the angler the tip section folding away facilitates, fighting the fish is relatively comfortable.
Raw Materials:
When we talk raw materials, we’re talking about what the blank is made from, in this case carbon fibre (~99%) and resin (~1%). Japan’s Toray are the global leader in unidirectional carbon fibre pre-pregs, and they make quite a number of them. Generally, there is an inverse relationship between tensile strength and modulus of elasticity. That is, generally speaking, one could expect a fibre with a lower modulus of elasticity (having less stiffness, essentially) to have a higher tensile strength. In 2014 Toray developed an intermediate modulus fibre suitable for prepreg, T1100G, out of the needs of the aerospace industry. To this day this fibre stands head and shoulders above others, with a tensile strength of around 7000MPa, setting a new benchmark in the strength v stiffness relationship. With a modulus of 324 GPa it is perfectly suited for use as an SPJ rod fibre. After all, the pitch is meant to be slow, that is to say, we want it to be strong and responsive, but not too stiff. It’s these properties, in combination with Toray’s Nano Alloy Resin and industry best standard construction methodology that allow for an ultra-thin yet strong blank, with excellent durability, and the ideal responsiveness.
The Fishlogica Acid Parabol FAP-690H with a static load of over 12kg at ~45 degrees. While we don't recommend fishing these angles with this loading for SPJ it demonstrates the rods impressive capabilities.
So, what of the tip down fighting technique and torqued reels with these rods? Well, they’re built to offer the ability to fish that way, but also to allow a pump and wind style retrieve. When hooking powerful demersal fish near the bottom it can be important to stop the fish making the bottom, and get every inch of line back in that initial melee as possible, it can be a chaotic up and down start... Once the fish is tiring, it can pay to rush the fish up to beat the sharks. It’s hard to do that using exclusively the tip down technique, even with the additional torque low geared overhead reels provide. By that same token, despite the rods being built to handle them, we don’t recommend the use of very high angles up to 45 degrees, purely due the lack of inherent lifting power when using such angles, and the loss of that more consistent application of power.
Which leads us back to the reels. When we talk about torqued overhead reels, it’s worth noting that specialized SPJ reels such as Shimano’s Ocea Jigger range or Daiwa Saltiga's range of overhead reels (and more) all have excellent torque, and by all, we mean both the high and low geared models. Of course, it’s true that the low geared models have more torque / winching power, but it’s traded off for less line recovery per turn. In Australia and around the world, there are many anglers that prefer to use the ‘high’ geared reels, normally as it may suit their preferred pitching styles better, or due the fact that on a smaller or subdued fish, or when winding in the jig, line recovery is of course quicker. However, when targeting trophy fish where things are likely to be at a stalemate or in the fish’s favour at some point in the fight (often the start), it’s normally still our preference to fish the lower geared reels when fishing heavy SPJ. They afford better versatility across the fighting styles, and that all important more even application of power to better keep the fish’s head. It is somewhat paradoxical, but true that sometimes, and particularly with trophy fish in shallower water, that a fish can be landed, or certainly subdued, quicker, on a slower reel. At the end of the day, this is always going to be a matter of personal preference and conditions at hand, but if you are seeking opinions or thoughts from friends or others, ensure they have used both the low and high geared reels across a broad range of scenarios.
Considerations for Jig Selection and Rigging for heavy SPJ
If we think about the physics of the effects of drag on the jig attachment point, it’s easy to understand that fishing heavy PE lines (we’re generally talking anything PE4 and above here), heavy leaders and beefed-up hooks and rings is going to affect the jigs action and result in less direct contact and feel. Infact, there are Japanese purists that would completely turn their nose up at the idea of fishing PE4 or 5 for SPJ.
Indeed, like in many styles of fishing, if there wasn’t good reason to fish heavier, we usually wouldn’t.
Alas, taking a PE2 outfit to many locations at the reef here locally to catch Red Emperor, where the majority of the bites come at or close to the bottom is going to result in more lost fish, to the bottom or the sharks, than we could guess we would lose by slightly dampening the jig action, losing some feel and control and never getting the eat in the first place. The simple fact that the catch rate will be better is reason enough to do it. It could even be regarded as a waste of the resource to fish so lightly in areas where shark depredation is bad.
Thankfully, in depths to 100m in particular, fishing PE4 or 5 is still highly effective here at home, although there are some considerations that can be mulled upon to offset the effects of increased water resistance induced drag and get some of the lost feel and finesse back.
Choosing the right jig:
Slow pitch specific jigs can be rear, centre or forward weighted, with the majority being centre weighted. Centre weighted jigs still work well, particularly with broader profiled jigs or modified rigging. If you’re looking to get more time with the jig horizontal, try a forward weighted jig, particularly if you want to run longer heavier leader or run conventional rigging with beefed up hooks and rings.
Keep the leader as light and short as practical:
Despite the absolute necessity of leader to prevent the PE main line touching the bottom structure and the necessary shock absorbing benefits that come from the stretch in leader, try to keep them to 3-5m long.
Alternate rigging options:
There are a couple of things that can be done to offset the drag at the attachment point, these include switching from twin assists to singles at the attachment point, ensuring there are no feathers, squid or flash attached to the hook(s), going with the strongest hooks in the thinnest gauge possible for the line class, and using thin and short lengths of assist cord.
Another option is to add drag at the bottom of the jig by placing hooks on it. Be sure it’s a quality jig if using this method as you’re no longer loading through the terminal tackle only and on heavier class lines this becomes more of an issue. This method can be especially effective for demersal species that don’t take the jig with a lot of force but rather gently mouth it. When fishing hooks top and bottom, again, use the strongest hooks in the thinnest gauge possible. If multiple hooks find purchase they need more force to penetrate as the load is distributed.
Another thing we’re starting to see is jigs with alternate attachment points. While only recently available these have the potential being one of the best options for heavy SPJ yet, a single or twins run off the alternate attachment point takes drag away from the line attachment point at the top of the jig and move the drag down the jig. One downside to adding hooks anywhere away from the line attachment point, is the tendency for those hooks to grab the leader on occasion and completely ruin the jig action. Once that happens, that drop is done and you’re coming back up to unhook them. This can be mitigated by being really in tune with what the jig is doing (as one should be) and adjusting the pitch and fall accordingly.
Action and Action Tone
On the Fishlogica website you'll see the specifications for the rods include a guide for 'Action Tone' through the specified jig weight range.
A jig’s action, and the action tone (or just tone) are different things, albeit they are closely linked and altering one will alter the other.
You can think of a jig’s action as akin to its heartbeat. It determines how the jig moves in the water, how it is imitating the natural, wounded motions of prey.
Action Tone has more to do with how the rod affects the jigs movement. To discriminate we use terms including fast, medium, and slow action tone. Fundamentally these are arbitrary terms to use as a guide. What we are really talking about is how saturated the rod is by the jig weight (and other factors as in the next paragraph), and therefore the change in speed of the pitch or the rate of jig acceleration and deceleration, and indeed, jig action.
Just like varying the pitching styles, it can pay to vary the action tone by use of heavier or lighter jigs to see what the fish are responding to on the day. For Example, most of our fishing for Red Emperor is done on the FAP-690H on PE5 line in 40-70m of water with 120 or 150 gram jigs. On occasion, if the fish are marking but not eating, an increase in the jig weight to 200 or 250g, therefore slowing the jig’s action tone can prove fruitful. The same can be true for downsizing the jig and speeding up the action tone. The use of larger jigs and slower tones also seems to have some merit when targeting the largest fish, whether that’s an effect of the larger jig profile or the more saturated rod and slower action tone, or both, is a good question that needs more investigation.
A good starting point in many situations is a medium action tone. If you’ve had success before in certain conditions, of course, start there.
When thinking about action and action tone we need to have regard for the impacts of tide or current, depth, wind, PE class, leader diameter and length, and rigging. Again, there are many caveats when talking about any of these impacts. In less-than-ideal tide or current conditions, with lighter jigs or in deeper water it may be necessary to go back in line class. Lobbing the jig up current a short distance so the line is close to vertical as the drift comes over the structure and fish can be helpful, as can using the boat in and out of gear to keep atop the jigs. In wind vs tide conditions heavier jigs or drifting using a drogue can help too. In saying that, drogue use on short drifts over isolated structure can be trying and it’s not the go to technique most of the time.
Mastering the art of jig action and action tone is about establishing a harmonious connection between you, the rod, reel and line, the jig and rigging, and the underwater world. It’s about understanding what is happening with the line and jig, and speaking the language of the fish, understanding their instincts and offering them a compelling reason to strike. By honing your skills in deciphering and manipulating jig action and action tone, you embark on a journey that transcends traditional angling. You enter a realm where the correct movement of your jig resonates with the ancient instincts of the fish, creating a symphony of movement and vibrations that can lead to the deception of even the wariest of fish.
The specs for the two rods in the launch range are listed below, if you have any queries on the rods or Slow Pitch Jigging in general, please reach out to us on the website or via our social channels, we're always happy to talk SPJ!
Acid Parabol Range – Fishlogica
Length: 6’9”
Weight: 193g
Guides: Fuji Titanium SiC (11)
Seat: Fuji
Line: PE# 4-5 (Recommended – PE# 4 or 5, Max – PE#5)
Jig Weight: 80 – 300g (see notes regarding action tone below)
Drag: Max 10kg
Sections: 2 (Butt Join)
Packed Length: 157cm
Butt Length: 59cm
Action Tone:
- 80-120g: Fast Action Tone
- 120-180g: Medium Action Tone
- 180-250g: Slow Action Tone
- 250-300g: Extra Slow Action Tone
Length: 6’9”
Weight: 190g
Guides: Fuji Titanium SiC (11)
Seat: Fuji
Line: PE# 2-3 (Recommended – PE# 2 or 3, Max – PE# 3)
Jig Weight: 20-120g (see notes regarding action tone below)
Drag: Max 7kg
Sections: 2 (Butt Join)
Packed Length: 157cm
Butt Length: 59cm
Action Tone:
- 20-50g: Fast Action Tone
- 50-90g: Medium Action Tone
- 90-120g: Slow Action Tone