At the recent AFTA (Australian Fishing Trades Association) Trade Show on the Gold Coast, Rapala Australia invited their Singapore-based angling talent, Fred Goh, out to show and tell Aussie tackle stores all about their ‘Gomoku’ style of light jigging.

And although this event was dealer-only, Fishing Monthly was lucky enough to get Fred out on the water for a day and ask him all about this concept. Essentially the Gomoku concept is a fusion of deep jigging (that we’d do for amberjack and kingfish) and light inshore lure fishing.

Although deep jigging is exciting and the fish are big, the size of the tackle is often daunting to a majority of anglers. There are very few anglers I know who have the stamina to jig all day and the offshore locations where deep jigging is most effective are limited to when the winds and currents are suitable.

Gomoku takes the deep jigging concept and shrinks it down to tackle that is a size that is manageable for nearly all anglers. By simultaneously reducing the size of the lures, the range of available species increases. So Gomoku will be suitable for such species as snapper, flathead, mackerel, tuna and trevally in the salt and bass and redfin in the fresh.

Fred’s been an advocate of the Gomoku style throughout the development of the concept – which at the moment is typified by easily distinguishable white rods with colour-coded grips – and is more qualified than most to spread the Gomoku word.

“There are no rules when it comes to Gomoku – it’s all about having fun,” Fred explained as he outlined the concept for the YouTube video (see factbox for details).

Although there are dedicated Storm Gomoku slim jigs, and jigs or heavy spoons in the recommended weight ranges will suit the tackle, Fred likes to rig the baits with assist-hooks to minimise snagging that can occur with a treble rigged at the tail of the bait.

Indeed, the applications to Aussie fish are limited only to your imagination – and to those species that eat a finger-length baitfish!

Fred’s main experience with this style of fishing is in the hard-fished Asian waters near his hometown of Singapore, but there’s three main techniques that will definitely work Down Under.

Schools of tuna or other small pelagics busting up all over the surface are common right around Australia – whether it’s northern bluefin in the Gulf of Carpentaria or Australian salmon in Pittwater, they all get focussed on small baitfish and don’t mind a bit of speed in the retrieve.

The surface retrieve is simple – lead cast the jig across the schooling fish and bring it back through the school at speed. The fish will tell you their preferred retrieve speed. Some days it’ll be flat-out and others it’ll be slower with a pause or two.

Either way, once you get connected on Gomoku gear, it’s gloves-off. The soft tips readily fold away and let you fish this tackle to the limit.

Trevally, snapper and even bass or redfin schooling midwater will be partial to a micro-jig worked through the school. With modern electronics, we’re all getting rather good at identifying depths at which these schooling fish sit. And just like deepwater jigging, there’s no use expending time and energy fishing where there’s empty water.

Count the jig down to the depth that the fish are schooling at and let the lure dart and flutter through the fish. When you’ve worked it through, free-spool the lure back through and repeat the process.

The long butt of the Gomoku rod sits under your arm and allows this technique to be very efficient.

Flathead in particular won’t be able to help themselves when it comes to micro-jigs. Flutter them to the bottom, let them sit there for a second and pop them up off the sand.

The assist-hooks minimise the chance of snagging up if the country is a little rougher than you expected and also offer some abrasion resistance with a lizard’s teeth.

Like standard soft-plastic fishing for flatties, you can tell when the lure hits the bottom by the slack dropping into your line. Pop it up and repeat.

But enough of us yammering on about Gomoku fishing. The proof of the pudding will be how it works on your water. Try the lures or go the whole hog and try the outfits. We’re sure that Storm (distributed by Rapala Australia) would love your feedback on their Facebook page (F: Rapala Australia)!

Best of all, though, is that the Rapala guys have offered a Gomoku/Okuma outfit as a prize for a reader in each of the three magazines (QFM, NSWFM and V&TFM) – see the competition box nearby for full details.