River2Sea Knife and Sea Rock jigs There have been several articles over the last 12 months talking about Japanese "New Age" deep jigging. Just as the Japanese revolutionized freshwater bass crankbaits with lures like the Rico, pioneering Japanese fishermen have taken deepwater fishing with metal jigs to a new level.

• Japanese deep jigs are sleek, beautifully finished, and specially balanced to sink more effectively with less weight
  
  Gamakatsu Assist Hook
  
  
  
• Most are designed to either use a traditional single or treble hook in the tail, or a free-swinging "assist hook" connected to the front eye. Assist hooks are short-to-medium length shank hooks with wide gaps that are snelled to heavy Kevlar cord. The cords is attached to the front eye either with a loop-to-loop connection, or a heavy split ring.
  
  
• Relatively short (5.5 - 6.5 foot) rods are used
  
  
• Reels are filled with 50 or 80 lb test spectra. Many Japanese buy spectra line that is color-coded to allow them to judge depth. Known as PE lines, these lines change colors roughly every 10 yards (oops! I mean meters)
  
  Shimano Stella 20000
  
  
  
• Spinning reels are often used instead of conventional reels. These are usually BIG guys - a typical example is the Shimano Stella 20000 FA (that's right, 20K), capable of holding 500 - 600 yards of 50 lb spectra
  

The techniques used with this equipment are similar to other forms of deep-jigging, but the combination of careful lure weight distribution and the Spectra line makes if much easier to control a jig at depth. It is entirely possible to fish 300-350 feet of water with as little as a 150 gram (roughly 5 ounce) jig. Depending on where the fish are, these jigs can be fished effectively over the entire water column, allowing you to catch fish on the bottom, as well as pelagic fish which are passing through midwater depths.

Japanese and Australian fishermen have accounted for some spectacular catches using this technique, including dogtooth tuna over 200 lbs.

Shimano Thunnus 16000