This is part of the scene I witnessed during the 1st Jigging Competition held in Miri from 17-19 April 2009. The location of competition is restricted at Miri’s dropoff where depth are mostly around 80-150m. Not sure to consider this new jigger lucky or unlucky, but this guy Jonathan is the man! He has just bought OJ with Eupro Hammer Jig PE3-6 loaded with 80lb berkley’s whipsplash. I was really impressed by his passion of jigging eventhough it’s his first time.
This incident happens on the 2nd day of the competition. 1st day we barely got anything, just a 3kg GT and few “durians”. But on the 2nd day morning, we are landing some amberjacks. This Jonathan has got a 6kg and was complaining to me that Amberjack is really too weak for him. Well, not hard to imagine with his tackle setup, 6kg can’t really put much of a fight. So I said, wait till you get the real thing. And before you know it, he was at the back of the boat screaming for help! His jig hasn’t even drop to the seabed and the line has already darting out for 300+m. Well, I am not sure if he’s doing it right as he’s new to the reel and he could be not adjusting his tension drag right. But anyway, when we all got there, he can barely lift the rod up. All he can do is pointing the rod to the monster’s direction and can’t even manage to get his rod into his fighting belt. But I think he is lucky that his drag hasn’t been set right or he could be landed into the sea if the drag is too tight and no one around to get hold of him. After a while, he really can’t hold the rod much longer and it took 8 guys to take turns fighting this monster. After 40mins, we manage to get back about 200m of line. At that time, the rod has used up all it could take and finally snaps! It was really lucky that the line wasn’t cut and quick thinking of fellow angler get an empty handline to continue the fight.
In the end, the monster finally surfaced! I could hardly believe the sight, the shark is really big with tail of over 1m long! This is my first encounter with such a beauty. Since shark is not qualify for the competition and also it’s protected and endangered species, we manage to release the hook at it’s tail and return it into the sea safely.
Rod snaps
Continue with handline
Remove the hook
Released
