by Gordon Macdonald •

Micro jigging has become extremely popular in Southern Queensland during the last year or two. Anglers are honing jigging and retrieve techniques and using an array of jigs to catch a plethora of prime species in the bay and rivers.

Snapper, mulloway, threadfin, trevally, tailor and a heap of others are being deceived by the actions of these micro metals. For anglers targeting snapper and other species in Moreton Bay and surrounding waters, mackerel can often become a bit of a nuisance as they will regularly engulf a jig and bite you off, which can become a little expensive at times. Something had to be done to save my jigs and decrease my blood pressure.

Recently I started experimenting to produce a wire assist rig that wasn’t too intrusive to put on my micro jigs when the marauding mackerel move in. I figured one out that was easy to make, inexpensive and really made a difference to results at the end of the day.

Most micro jigs are purposely rigged with assist hooks instead of treble hooks (which many other lures sport) because the limp nature of the assist cord results in the hooks rarely fouling on the leader. Your jig will remain in play throughout the entirety of the jig and retrieve and present as it was intended to.

Assists rigged with wire are more rigid than those rigged with conventional assist cord, however, they still seem to be fairly good at avoiding tangling. However, as the main reason for using the wire assists is to avoid getting bitten off by mackerel and other toothy critters, the small inconvenience of a hook fouling the jig is far outweighed by the extra fish landed and the jigs retained.

Often a mackerel will just sever the assist cord attaching the hooks and therefore the jig is saved, however at times they will engulf the entire jig and sever the leader. For this reason it may also pay to add a short wire leader in front of the jig, however be aware that this may decrease the strike rate at times. If you are fishing areas where mackerel are unlikely then I would not use a wire assist. However it pays to have a few jigs rigged with wire in case you are in mackerel territory and begin suffering losses.

MATERIALS

There are not a lot of good hooks on the market in Australia for this type of rigging, and even fewer reasonably priced ones. I commonly use Mustad Hoodlums, Gamakatsu SC15 or Shout Light Jigging and Ijika, finding these all work well.

Nylon-coated wire could be used however it is generally of lower stainless quality than uncoated wire. Uncoated Shogun, Superflex or Mason wire in breaking strains between 20lb and 40lb are my choice for this application. Additionally you will need a parrot-beak wire cutter (even side cutters will suffice for this thin multi-strand wire), some split rings (slightly higher breaking strain than the wire), split ring pliers or pincettes and possibly some heat shrink, krystal flash, Panic Baits or Needlefish skirts to finish the wire assist off. Once you have all this together then it is time to get started.

METHOD

Cut a piece of wire between 16-18cm long and fold in half, pinching the mid-way spot so that there is a small, prominent crease. Pass this section through the eye of the hook so that the tag ends face away from the gape as shown. Hold the hook and the tag end of the wire between thumb and forefinger. You will want between 6-8cm of folded wire protruding out from the hook eye on the gape side.

Start folding the wire back towards the hook point whilst still holding the tag end securely against the shank.

Fold the wire back firmly to begin wrapping both strands around the hook shank whilst keeping constant pressure on both the wire loop and the tag ends of the wire. If you do not maintain firm pressure then the wire will slip and spin around the hook eye.

Continue wrapping the wire in this manner until you have completed five or six wraps around the hook shank. You will need to maintain pressure on the wire as you wrap otherwise the wire will spring free. Whilst holding the wraps of wire firmly against the shank between forefinger and thumb to stop it unravelling, pass the loop end of the wire through the hook eye from the back side of the shank, so that the loop now protrudes out the gape side of the hook. Pull this loop very firmly with your fingers or a plier to lock the wraps in place.

Your completed rig will look something like this. How long the loop ends up being will depend on how far you pushed the wire through the hook eye initially, how many wraps of the hook shank you did and how thick the hook shank is. Some experimentation may be required if you wish to make your wire assist to specific length.

Whilst you can just trim the tag end of wire away and use your wire assist as it now is, many prefer to add a little movement and colour to the rig. Adding some 3mm heat shrink to the shank over the wire is an easy and inexpensive way to do this. I often cut the end of the heat shrink all the way around with numerous lengthways cuts as shown.

Next put the heat shrink over the hook as shown and apply heat with a paint stripper gun or with passes over a naked flame to constrict it.

You can use a split ring to attach the loop of the wire assist to your micro jig. Often an assist hook will be put on both ends for enhanced hooking potential, especially with flat-fall jigs. You can dress up your assist hooks in many ways including a heat shrink skirt, plain heat shrink or a micro squid skirt such as a Yamashita Panic Bait. Additionally I have used metallic krystal flash and glo-in-the-dark sparkleflash which I bind onto the shank. With micro jigs rigged with wire assists and a short multi-strand wire leader, your lure losses will be minimised greatly.