Pink Benthos is my go to jig. For reef fish or tuna. AJ's seem to love those things. Your buddy doing you right.

Glad to hear im headed in the right direction at least. Now, do I need to have any kind of wire leader on? Obviously a mono or flouro leader would be better, at least for inshore, but i dont wanna lose the jig because a king got a hold of it or somethin you know?

after looking, what size and weight do I need to get on the jigs?

pink ones are awesome, even for tuna!

overstockbait.com has some in thier 60% off sale. if you watch that site, you can find bomber jigs (5 oz, 7 oz) on sale quite often.

The 5 and 7 ounce are the most common sizes, my preference is 7 ounce for reef fishing, but I have them up to 14 ounces for when the current is running hard or the boat is drifting fast or both. I don't like fishing the big jigs unless I have to. If I was going to take 2 kinds of jigs it would be pink benthos 7 ounce and silver diamond jig in the same weight.

Do not trust the stock hooks and split rings on the diamonds lost the first AJ I ever hooked because the stock split ring separated. The easy solution is to take off the stock split ring and hook and attach an assist hook to the swivel, even better tie a round solid ring to your line then an assist hook to the solid ring and a split ring to the solid ring and then the swivel on the diamond to the split ring. That way the fish pulls on the hook, the hook pulls the solid ring, and solid ring to your line. You can use the split ring you take off the hook since its only function is to hold the jig, not the fish. Make sure the solid rings you buy are ROUND. many are oval referred to as flat and they will cut the line. This maybe more mess than u want to deal with on your first trip. If you purchase the Williamson Benthos and not a knock off, the hardware should do you fine.

Wire I can't help with as I don't use it, but many folks do to lessen the lost jig numbers.

Disclaimer: I have fished offshore since 98, but I take few trips a year. I don't feel I am even close to the best to answer but I don't like to see folks not receive feedback, I remember how helpful it was to me to have questions answered.

oldtrackstar, don't worry about getting chastised from anyone for offering helpful advice. Anthony65 is gone.
I received a ton of advice in the past, lots of GREAT advice from Snagged(RIP brother!).

something tells me not for long...............
he already re-appeared on 360tuna twice today under (new) different aliases.

Regardless, Old-t, Ronnie's right. don't be afraid to say what worked for you, that's what built this site & others.

@blueshoes- 3-6 oz jigs will cover you out to about 300'.
use wire on trolling gear inside the shelf.
familiarize yourself with all the rigging possibilities you might encounter, & bring the stuff. (terminal gear is relatively cheap.) make sure ALL of it is black.
for trolling- blue/white Ilander, dorado skirts, ribbonfish rigs.
Allocate yourself $40 for your own bait, bring something to keep it in. Squid, sardines, ribbons.
snapper-slappers in red/wht, pink/blu are killer on anything.
include some lighter 1-3 oz yellow bucktails you can pitch to dodo's & ling (perfect for a sardine...)
this should help you towards a limit.

as far as ribbonfish go, ive never seen them at a bait camp before. do people just use ones theyve caught? im not gunna lie, some of the ones ive caught are easily over 3 feet, seems like a monsterous piece of bait. Assume it can be cut up?


black- got it. Dont think I have any wire thats black at the moment.

trackster, do you have a pic of one of your jigs like that with the solid ring and assist hook?

all bait available @ bucees, walmart on the island,
also another bait place on the way to Pelican that has em
all frozen or fresh dead, no need for liveys.

no live ones. check.

another thing, circle hooks are the law offshore correct?


anybody ever use any big grubs? like 6 inches plus?

if you are ground-fishing with straight bait, yes, they have to be on circles.
you can, however, tip your jigs w/ bait & j-hooks are legal.

grubs work.

so while i was fixing everything up tonight after we closed i got caught up looking at all the offshore stuff, dont usually take a look at what we have.

does anyone ever use menhaden milk? a guy told me to use it once, thought about buying the gallon at FTU the other day

Don't even know what that is ... and I have a visual of a farmer sitting on a stool trying to milk a bunch of fish

Jigs/grubs and big live baits ought to be plenty productive for you.

Menhaden Milk/Oil is uaually used with ground Mackerel, Skipjack Tuna, Bonita or Bluefish cunks to make Shark Chum but it will also call in Kings, Wahoo and Cudas along with baitfish.

Zeek, I almost spit my coffee out when I read your comment.....