Five reason to use overhead reel for slow pitch jigging

Slow pitch jigging is a technique requires great understanding to choose the setup. I found upgrading to and overhead reel is the best decision. Below five reasons are a benefit of using it.

1. Snagging: when we drop a jig with assist hooks both on top and bottom, we get snagged. The jig is heavy, and it touches the ground first. Hooks are lighter so they have a lag in touching the ground. We need to lift the jig before the hooks touch the ground. In an overhead reel you can feel it immediately when the jig touches ground than a spinning reel. This sensitivity is the biggest advantage.

2. Fighting: the slow pitch jigging rod are special rods with spring action tips. They are meant to flip or pitch the jigs. They are not to be used for fighting fish. The reel is used to fight fish. In fact, when you use the reel you walk the fish calmly. Point down fighting is convenient on an overhead reel because PE line is wound in the same direction. In spinning reel because the line is wound perpendicular high torque is required on the handle. To reduce the torque, we need to pull the rod to create a slack to start the rotation. Here the rod and fish go to stress. Also, we use light line during deep jigging. We cannot apply too much force to pull the fish when we fight with the rod.

3. Fish on the fall: Many times, we can get the fish on the fall. Sometimes I have a got a fish just in 30 meters when the total depth is 200m. when you use an overhead reel you can feel the jig eaten immediately. Say on Ocea jigger you just need to wind the reel to set the hooks. On a spinning reel it is difficult to make out if the fish has taken you your jig. Again, this sensitivity will increase the catch rate. It is heart breaking to lose any fish after it takes the jig.

4. Line capacity: slow pitch jigging uses light line and drag. So, when we get big fish, we need to slowly fight the fish. large fish may take much line. We need to have good line capacity to let the fish run until it is tired.

5. Higher gear ratio: overhead reels have high gear ratio which allows to retrieve line at a higher rate than a spinning reel. Gear ratio is how many times the reel rotates for once rotation of handle.