Ranfurly Banks – 110kg Southern Bluefin Tuna After a solid day chasing bass, hapuka, and kingfish, we settled in for some dinner and kept an eye on the sounder. There was some good bait fish hanging around, so we jumped back on the rods to see what else was down there. About five minutes in, I hooked a little bluefin tuna. It put up a decent 15-minute fight before we got it on deck and bled it. Wasting no time, I dropped the jig again, this time watching the sounder over Ethan’s shoulder. We spotted some fish holding at around 140 metres. I dropped straight down to them and started jigging away. On the next drop, things got interesting. The reel would stop, then go, stop again, then go—definitely not normal. I gave it a few winds and boom—we were on. The reel screamed and it was clear this was a big fish. The deck cleared quickly. Kale was on hand talking me through it while Ethan was yelling directions from up top. The rod was bent right over, the reel was screaming, and I was doing everything I could to turn this fish. Ten minutes in, I had made good progress—it was about 20 metres from the boat. Then it took off again. As we turned it, the rod snapped in my hands. Total panic. I was holding a broken rod in both hands like a lost kid, not wanting to let go of the rod or the fish. Kale jumped in without hesitation and started hand-lining it. As the fish got closer, we finally got a glimpse—massive. Ethan was directing the crew as Kale grabbed the leader and reached for the gaff. The moment it hit the deck, there was just silence. Relief. Shock. It was easily the fish of a lifetime. Then came the question—where’s the jig? A quick look showed it hanging out the side of its gills. It had nailed the jig on the drop, and there was no way that hook was coming out.

With some epic weather forecast we organised a great crew to travel the 18miles to a secret pin for some jigging.   As the weather was so good we decided to do a filming session while we trailed the new JC JIGS Electric Koheru Rattle Jig.  The fishing was hot, so hot in fact we timed on average 17 seconds per hook up. 

During the morning there was one other boat fishing the same pin, and we noticed the boat full of super keen young men who didn't seem to be in on the action like we were.   We decided to give them a Glow Green Gold Rattle jig, and told them it will change everything, and it did.  We got an email a week later from their dad thanking us and told us his kids were fizzing when they got home.  This is what his son Samuel had to say about their day.

Samuel Morgan.
We were up north at spot x trying to catch some kingfish on a common brand knife jig and we weren’t having any luck. JC Jigs happened to be fishing next to us and saw us struggling and threw us an Electric Koheru Rattle Jig in the Green Gold Glow colourway. Once we dropped the jig we started catching kingfish every drop. We are now only using JC Jigs!