Please tell me about the Newfoundland Cod jig?
 

Hello Mr. Newfoundland Cod hand line fisherman. Eh? :-D

On TV, an hour long on the Newfies and the Cod Shareman way of life.
Very interesting. Had me wishing I could go spend a summer up there with them.
I saw them using a strange two part Jig on thier hand lines. I couldn't get a close up of it though.
The Jig I saw in the TV special was in two parts. Each of the parts had Bright Red on it.
The upper part was about six to eight inches long and the lower part, where the Hook is, was two parts. One dangeling red Skirt looking thing and the other was the Hook.
The line was traditional. Wound on the hand line square wrapper.
Down at the end of the line, the two leaders are tied off, with a jig at the end of each leader.

I'm piticularly intested in the older Jigs from the 1800's or before.

Does anyone on this Board know what they use?
Do you have a photo of the assembly?

I had a Halibut long line operation in Alaska. I used Herring on 'J' hooks or Circle hooks.
Jig's were too much trouble. They caught too much 'stuff' and also wrapped around the line on the way down. None of the jigs I tried worked. :-huh

In an attmept to cheapen my operation, I took some Foam chunks, cut like parts of Halibut. Soaked them in some Herring, squished into a bucket.
Threading a line up through the smelly x( Foam, and letting it down to the Halibut.
I caught everything EXCEPT Halibut.
That idea worked good for Cod, Crab's and all the ugly stuff down there as well. I caught one small shark using that stuff out in the blue.

I've always been interested in the way the Cod fisherman did the long lining.
Why do thier Jigs work and ours dont?

Hello Mr. Newfoundland Cod fisherman. Are you there? Eh? :-wink

I want to thank Pnose for his email.
This Program I saw was on the History channel. It was about some families who went to "Hay Cove" on the coast of Newfoundland.
I couldn't find Hay cove on either of my Maps. Could somebody point the location out to me?

These folks were to live and exist as the pioneers did. I dont know how long the experiment went on.
I think if was a four part series.
Life must have been rough for those folks.

Another question I had was on the Salting of the Cod.

Where'd they get the Salt?
Did they De-salinate the coastal waters?
Salt mines?

The salt came in on the boats that took the fish back to europe or south to the caribbean. These ships also used stone as ballast and many a church or other important building is built of this stone. Another tid-bit is newfie screech (black rum) was from Jamaica,it was black sugar rum (molasses) it use to come in 45 gallon barrels as 151 proof and get watered down in newfoundland. Now the screech isn't even bottled in newfie any more.

Thanks Brickie.
How did you ever find this thread? Did you notice the date of the last Post?

So you know about the newfie's. What did that Cod jig look like.

The TV shows life up there as quite a bit easier and less expensive than it used to be.

I am born and raised Newfie.As for the jigger well I could best describe it as a teardrop with a couple of hooks and a swivel on the bottom with a another tear drop attached.The weight is in the bottom teardrop that is full of hooks.If you ever get the chance to get "back home" try for late summer,the weather is the best and everyone is happy because the sun is shining.

Brickie, see if you can find a photo of all that stuff for me.
Maybe in a Cabela's or Bass Pro catalog and tell me the page or item number.
The reason I ask is I've never seen anything like it in stores.

I lived in AK for years and we bottom fished for Halibut and Cod regularily.
We used a lot of stuff, but nothing worked as well as plain old Herring on a Hook.

But the Newfies were doing great with that jigger. What is it???? I"m going nuts down here over that jigger.

me too, how long you been away??

I left the rock and went to work on the mainland in 1987/88. The last time I was back was in 1990.As for a jigger photo I will try to find something,I remember reading about different types according to local fishermens preferences.

:) brickie, try to get some info from the Cod jiggers back home. The locals. :)
Thanks a bunch.

still got family back there Brickie?? (sorry to be hijacking the thread, but this is interesting :) )

Before I die, brickie is going to take us back up there for a two week fishing vacation.
Huh brickie?

you better hope you live long. you'll be lucky to be allowed to catch a rubber boot nowadays!! don't think for a second that you'll be using a jigger!!!

Uh oh sherm, what's that mean? Are they out of Fish up there?
Global warming eh?

its a complicated situation but mainly political. a sore spot for most newfies. look up the fishery moratorium of newfoundland... you'll learn a pile!!

Joke, private joke just for us on this thread!
This may get me kicked off the site but it was funny.

One hot summer day, a Newfie came to town with his dog, tied it
under the shade of a tree, and headed into the bar for a cold one.

Twenty minutes later, a policeman entered the bar and asked, 'Who
owns the dog tied under that tree outside?'
The Newfie said it was his.
'Your dog seems to be in heat' the officer said.
The Newfie replied, 'No way. She's cool 'cause she's tied up
under that shade tree.
The policeman said, 'No! You don't understand. Your dog needs to
be bred.'
'No way,' said the Newfie. 'That dog don't need bread. She ain't
hungry cause I fed her this mornin'.'
The exasperated policeman said, 'NO! You don't understand; your dog
wants to have sex!'

(You gotta love this)
The Newfie looked at the cop and said, 'Well, go ahead. I always
wanted a police dog.'