Author: Jordan Jennings

As newcomers ourselves to slow pitch jigging we studied and took in all of Benny Ortiz’s tutorials and information. Additionally, outfitted with Benny Ortiz’s selected recommendations on rods, reels and terminal tackle, we felt confident going into this. On a recent trip down to Baja we were met with a great opportunity to put slow pitch jigging to the test. We marked willing yellowtail in the 180-200 ft. range and what ensued was some very fun yellowtail fishing. It wasn’t the size of the fish or the amount of fish that had us looking for the next bite, it was…

If you’re in the continental United States for the most part we are all in the same boat except for some lucky key areas, meaning it’s still early Spring, our weather patterns have not settled in and fishing as a whole is questionable from day to day as we anticipate warmer months. Which leaves us scouting the map for a location to feed our fishing habit. For this piece on Where to Fish we head to the Florida Keys.  The Florida Keys are far from a kept secret and likely land on the top of many serious anglers’ “bucket list”…

After a yearlong hiatus (2021 canceled), the Miami International Boat Show has returned! The biggest and baddest of the boat show circuit, MIBS is truly an experience and if you’re a boat nerd like me, it’s a must at least once in your lifetime. The Super Bowl of boat shows if you will. Frequented by most of the who’s – who’s in the industry and the vendors bringing their latest, greatest, biggest, and most groundbreaking offerings. Truly an angler’s paradise. We advise going to the Miami Boat Show without your credit card or any of your own banking information. Moving…

Breaking down the why and how to rig your Sea Falcon jigs with Gamakatsu Assist hooks. Do hook and terminal tackle selection really matter? YES! And from what I’ve learned, especially so when it comes to slow pitch jigging. Our go-to (thank you Benny Ortiz for the tip): Gamakatsu 510 Assist hooks and Gamakatsu 620 HD Assist hooks. Attached with their tried-and-true Superline Split Rings. The key is having the right shape and size of the hook. The shape of Gamakatsu 510 and 620 HD is so that once hooked, the chance of a fish spitting or spinning off is…

Breaking down the details and taking a deeper look at Sea Falcon’s lineup of slow pitch jigs. Queue up the Will Smith circa 1997, it’s time to get jiggy with it!! Alright, excuse the poor dad joke/reference – hopefully I didn’t lose you with that one because these new Sea Falcon jigs are legit! I ran through a very high-level introduction of these slow-pitch jigs in my video (link to), but now I want to drill down into more of the specs and details of each. As well as talk about applications, and how we will be fishing these! Quickly,…

Slow pitch jigging has become one of the hottest trends in fishing of late. Long mastered in Japan, rapidly growing on the East coast + Florida, and now moving into the West coast anglers arsenal. One of the biggest (if not thee biggest) components: the jigs themselves! Sea Falcon jigs are custom made and each from hand crafted molds. Built for precision presentation and durability to get bites trip after trip. Whether vertical jigging for pelagic gamefish or slow pitching over bottom structure, Sea Falcon has you covered!

We invited PENN employee & bass fishing enthusiast Emil Wagner out from Georgia for a day of bluefin fishing San Diego style. The following is what ensued (watch the action above)…. “Do you have much experience offshore fishing?” One of my first icebreaker questions after picking up Emil Wagner from the airport. “Not really. I’ve been amberjack fishing down in Florida but otherwise no other saltwater experience. But I’m super pumped!” That last piece you could feel was sincere and genuinely excited to be on this adventure. Well as the name implies: Go Big or Go Home and with the…

Guide’s Day Off: Linked up with Capt. Brandon Nelson of Lucky B Sportfishing for some Yellowfin & Swordfish fishing Before we jump into the fishing story, I feel compelled to share a quick shot of how the day started when I arrived at Kona Kai Marina. “Local summer” morning sunrise in full effect! So our game plan was to head offshore to search out yellowfin in the AM and then make a few swordfish drifts in the PM. I was pumped, as I am more than happy to log as many days as it takes to capture public enemy number…

I think most of us know the advantages of fluorocarbon by now. Better abrasion resistance + more underwater stealth + better knot strength. All compelling reasons that can truly make the difference between landing the fish of a lifetime or not. So with those factors in mind, we never leave the dock without our Yo-Zuri TopKnot fluoro. Specifically 30lbs. & 80lbs. TopKnot, 30 for covering most of our live bait needs and 80 for leader when casting poppers, stickbaits, and surface irons. This has covers from everything from Islands calico to paddy yellowtail & dorado to school sized yellowfin and…

Dorado. Mahi Mahi. Dolphin. The name may change per your locale but the allure of arguably (and a personal favorite) the ultimate gamefish remains the same. Stunning coloration. Insane acrobatics. Hard pulling. Good eating. The pursuit of dorado definitely pegs the fun meter to max. One of the best parts of dorado fishing is that when you find the “right” school, they are eager to bite a wide variety of presentations and baits. Live bait, dead or chunk baits, casting artifical lures, topwaters, trolling jigs, you name it – they will smash it when in the biting mood. But like…

Showing our friend Emil from Penn around our backyard for a Southern California variety pack. Oh boy. From my semi-limited experience with these types of things, usually when planning trips months in advance with coordinating multiple schedules, timing the seasonality within a fishery, adding cameras, and pressure of living up to the hype built up – all results a recipe for hard fishing. Well, here is a contrary tale of when a hardcore bass fisherman from Georgia gets his first experience into offshore fishing here in Southern California. Day 1: “Go Big or Go Home” – 100 mile run to…

Farm to table. Sea to Plate. Hoop-net to Grill. This process we follow as fishermen and sea-foodies, few things yield greater reward than catching and cooking a locally sourced bounty. Especially so when said ocean treasures taste as good as California spiny lobster! For Southern California anglers, a fishing adventure within our vast backyard can produce some of the best seafood eats. Bar none. We are blessed with a myriad of tasty species ripe for amazing table fare, but few outshine the spiny lobster. And call me crazy or maybe even delusional, but I’m convinced there’s something in the water…

Yellowfin tuna. A staple of the Southern California sportfishing scene come summertime and one of my personal favorites to chase. A fired-up yellowfin school will dial up the fun factor to MAX in a hurry. Nautilus Circle 2/0 right where you want it Typically locating the school, tossing a bait net or two of “freebies”/chum, and flylining a live sardine will do the trick. But not all days come so easy and there are certainly times where they act more like their finicky bluefin cousins. Keyed in on micro baits or the un-hooked live chum you pitch them. But fret…

Having an adventure does not always mean you have to travel great distances to have fun. There are plenty of adventures to be had in your own backyard! This list is for adventures by boat! Backyard Adventure is more of a state of mind than a distant location. We all have amazing places pretty close to home if you just look and then tap into the fun with family and friends. Boating is often a perfect match or the key to tapping some adventures. Backyard Adventures Boating Checklist USCG Required safety gear- life jackets, throwables, visual distress kits, sound-making device,…

Long Runs + Epic Bites + First Fish + Nonstop Laughs Decisions. Decisions. I don’t know about you all but I have a healthy love-hate relationship with pregame planning prior to a trip. Studying the FishDope temp charts and pinging buddies for intel. Make a long run (80+ miles) to solid volume of bigger grade fish? Or run the other direction, to much closer, of mixed-grade fish? I poised the question to the boys and the answer was easy. Make the run & shoot for the larger models. We blew through the local hotspots and to our surprise they were…

If You Haven’t Heard, There’s a Bit of Bluefin Around…. Speechless. I know I haven’t been in the game for nearly as long as others but it’s hard not to recognize how truly special the times are. Here’s a very quick teaser for this report: So we arrived at the boat at 10AM and pushed off from Dana Landing circa 10:30-11 with a bait stop. Our course pointed us due west to a zone that I had just spent the day Wednesday in for a Local Knowledge shoot. Which, is going to make for an epic episode highlighting our So-Cal…

Yellowtail Shootout 2021: It Feels Good To Be Back!! First and foremost – a huge THANK YOU to everyone who came out and fished this year’s 14th Annual Yellowtail Shootout! You could genuinely feel the stoke throughout the weekend. I’m sure there will be more to come on the epic catches, winners, prizes, and all details of the event in the near future. Hint hint. Wink wink. So, how did Team PaddyWhompus do? Well, to quote one of our veteran team members Jerry Walker “We need some yellow spray paint before we weigh these Yellowtail Tuna!”. In other words, no…

Some Good Ol’ Fashion Family Fishing Fun Offshore Great Company + Cold Beers + PERFECT Weather + Consistent Fishing Action. I can’t think of a better way to celebrate another trip around the sun & another year of my wife somehow putting up with my shenanigans! I feel extremely lucky to have a married into a family that loves the water & fishing as much I do. So family reunions never suck as boat days are always factored in. So with all 7 of us loaded up and plenty of provisions, we headed out for a day of fun offshore.…

No Love from the Blue Tuna But Plenty of Yellowtail Tuna Fun Oh, bluefin…… I don’t claim to be a bluefin tuna aficionado by any stretch but, I have at least spent enough days chasing them within our current local cycle to fully know the feeling of “bluefin being bluefin”. So before you read on, here’s your spoiler alert. This is not a tale or log of stacking the deck with tuna. Preface and borderline still slightly bitter rant over. For a myriad of reasons (largely the wind – which I’m sure we all want to give a collective “BD…

Video Breakdown On the hunt for rockfish, lingcod, and other bottom feeders with Seasons SportfishingLive bait tips from Captain Jamie: Dropper Loop Rigging + Live Bait Selection + Hooking & HandlingMixed Bag rockfish action outside of Coronados Islands! Quick Trip Recap Oh how good it feels to be back!! Springtime in Southern California and while we wait for some of the pelagic species to move up the coast, one of our tastiest fisheries is in full swing. Rockfishing! These bottom-feeders present anglers with an opportunity to procure some freshly caught fish-taco meat. So to really kick things off for my…

“If I fished only to capture fish, my fishing trips would have ended long ago.” – Zane Grey. A quote I had not previously been familiar with but after a quick search on the ever-trusty interwebs, stumbled upon it and immediately connected with its simple meaning. Especially as it applies to this trip and even more so, this particular fishery. Swordfishing. For those hoping to read a story of another epic fishing trip, unfortunately, like most good things, the hot streak on these Student of Slay trips has ended. Beginner’s luck can only stretch so far right? This one was definitely not…

Despite the onslaught of summer traffic and local beaches being infiltrated by the many summer visitors, July is one of my favorite months in San Diego. The stereotypical 70-something and sunny weather become a day in day out consistent and longer days make for superb summertime fishing. For those of us lucky enough to call San Diego our home waters, I will sound like a broken record here, but these are undoubtedly the “good ole days” of tuna fishing. So, I feel that I may run the risk of some redundancy in storytelling, but I just can’t help myself. I’m…

My progression as an angler shouldn’t just start and stop at saltwater sportfishing, my primary pursuit of late. As important, if not even more importantly it’s about becoming a well-rounded fisherman. Constantly pursuing and experiencing new waters. New species. New techniques. New destinations. Allowing fishing to push me out of my comfort zone and truly embracing the ride along the way. Fly fishing feels the epitome of all these for me and the ultimate platform to balance my love of the mountains for my love of the ocean. But with very limited experience in this realm, I would need some…

“Never Give Up.” “Don’t Get Skunked.” Two short mantras that will likely resonate with any serious angler. In itself, they both seem a bit obvious and simple but in reality, when the fishing isn’t easy or especially when chasing an apex predator like bluefin tuna – this mindset can completely make the difference. For this month’s trip, I decided to get a change of pace and a fresh perspective. Not a change in the waters I would be fishing or the species I was fishing for, but in the environment and way, I would be. I noticed those two short,…