Lure of the Month September 2013: The Diamond Jig

“Do you want to try something different?” asked the mate aboard the Sea Isle City party boat, Captain Robbin’s.

I did. My chunk of mackerel sitting 20 feet below the surface had yet to be noticed by any of the bluefish the captain claimed to be seeing on his fishfinder. After I reeled up, the mate on the “All night blues” trip swapped out my egg sinker and big o’Shaughnessy hook for a wire leader and a slender, four-sided slab of metal with a big hook attached.

“Try this, kid,” the mate said as he dropped the lure into the chum slick and began lifting and dropping the rod. When he handed it over I only had to give the rod a few sweeps before a slammer blue latched on. Since then, I’ ve rarely been without a diamond jig while fishing in saltwater.

These days, several lure manufacturers make diamond jigs. Standard Issue Tackle, Run-Off Lures, Ahi and Marathon Lures all make diamond jigs, but the company that brought these lures to light was AVA tackle in North Babylon, New York. though AVA Tackle is no longer in business, many anglers still refer to diamond jigs as AVAs, regardless of the actual luremaker.

Lures don’t get much simpler than the diamond jig. The four-sided jigs are long and slender slabs of metal, either chrome-plated lead, tin or even brass on some older models, with the hook attached via a swivel to the bottom hook hanger. The swivel allows the hook to spin freely, preventing hooked fish from bending the hook or hook hanger out of shape, and while adding action to the dressed stinger hook. Like bucktail jigs, diamond jigs are versatile lures that, fished properly, can catch just about any fish that swims in the waters of the Northeast.

Diamond jigs are effective for both boat anglers and surfcasters. Rigged with a surgical-tube-dressed stinger hook, they are deadly imitations of sand eels. You’d be hard pressed to find a single boat in the massive fleet that forms off Chatham, Massachusetts during the commercial rod-and-reel striped bass season that doesn’t have multiple rods rigged with diamond jigs. The same goes for the beach buggies on Island Beach State Park in November. Even the monster stripers that do their summer feeding off Block Island can’t resist a well placed diamond jig.

These jigs are a staple aboard party boats from Montauk to LBI as well, where patrons use them to catch bluefish, weakfish, fluke, stripers, cod and sea bass.

Even keen-eyed tuna are suckers for the simple diamond jig. Instead of a surgical tube, or bucktail-dressed hook, a plain, heavy-duty single hook does the trick for tuna. Anglers need not even hold the rod to hook a tuna on a diamond jig. Simply drop the jig to the desired depth, place the line in an outrigger, and let the rocking boat do the work.

Diamond jigs sink quickly and don’t have much action on their own, but their shape, flash and a lifting- and-dropping retrieve is all it takes to trigger fish to attack. A yo-yo retrieve is the most popular tactic among boat anglers. Fish almost always hit the jig as it falls. “Squidding” is another deadly diamond jig tactic. This technique involves dropping the jig to the bottom and slowly reeling it to the surface.

In the surf, like in the boat, a lift-and-drop retrieve works very well. Anglers also do well dragging diamond jigs along the sand. A faster, steady retrieve will keep the jig higher in the water column and tempt active bluefish and stripers.

Not only will diamond jigs be one of the most effective lures in your tackle box, they’ll be one of the least expensive. The 2-ounce Standard Issue Tackle Diamond Jig sells for $2.50, unrigged. The Marathon Diamond Jig ranges comes rigged in sizes from 2 to 6 ounces at $3.99 to $10.49. At such a reasonable price, you’ll want to stock up on a number 1⁄2- to 8-ounce diamond jigs and keep these classic fish-killers handy whenever you are fishing the salt.