Can't help you with the jigs Mick, but the whales are just bloody awesome.  We had two do synchronised jumps about 20m from the boat yesterday with the whole body out of the water, made my day considering the fishing was s^&t.

Nice cetacean pics.

With the jigs, did you loose any of the skirt? Sometimes little fish pick at it (some nip the skirt, and some leave it mostly intact). After a while, you can kind of feel if they are tiny bites from wrasse and the like, or more tentative inquisitive bites from bigger fish (less 'sharp' but still softish). Try either slowly lifting the rod tip up, or slowly winding in a meter or so. The big fish tend to nibble up the skirt, so if you slowly pull it away from them, they take a slightly bigger bite and get hooked. Pulling it away from the wrasse stop them biting it as well (a little :p). When they do hook up, just gently lift the rod and wind in a little as it loads up. Gentle works better than a shark tug because of how the hookup usually works. 

Also, did you change the hooks, or just use the default ones? (No need to change on most jigs, as long as you arent locking drag down in 50lb+). Using too big a hooks can mean missed strikes (unless the fish are really big), seeing as they tend to nibble, not engulf. The lucanus ones are fine, though the octos I have have pretty small hooks (so people might be tempted to replace).

They are a jig (both of them ) designed to be worked slow. Sort of should look like a stupid resting squid in the water. If its worked to hard I dont seem to have much luck (Actually havent had much luck lately trying all sorts of tricks).

Sometimes if there is a bit of sea or swell just stick the rod in a holder and let the boat do the work, on a glass day a gentle rise and fall of the rod tip should do the trick. I think if it moved to fast the fish are a bit tentative and tests the ground rather than attack to kill with the slower moving jig.

Hopes this helps.

Neels

Cheers for the reply guys. Hooks are originals, skirts all intact, rod in rod holder. No small nibbles just big hits and a run only to spit it. We were picking up pinkies in the shallows ( on bait ) and they were hitting really hard so I assumed that it was pinkies hitting the jig. They were pulling 30lb braid off my sustain 8000/kingmack combo with a moderate drag. The jigs got hit at least 12 times in a pretty fierce manner but still " No Bingo". Oh well next time

Cheers Mick

Just a guess, were you at anchor or have a low drift speed?

20kn easterly pushing us offshore from 7-8m of water. Was a nice drift in close but as we got further out was quite quick. And it was on both jigs. Got me a little confused to be honest.

i just got back from abrohlos and used jigs for the first 2 days

i found the octo jig the least affective the lucanus was ok also used the big white jig not sure what they are called and also a bright orange squid shapedjig this was the best  and a pilchard shaped jig from the tackle shack

i got the most fish on day 1 but not huge fish average day 2 i lost 4 jigs they just smashed the jig hard and ping even on 60lb braid it  was expensive

for your problem just put a bit of bait on the hooks it  will make them bite the right spot 

Hmmm, interesting. If the lures arent moving much, then they could be hitting it from the wrong side and/or taking the whole thing instead of nibbling up the tail. Perhaps with the speed though, they are moving too fast which makes the fish more aggressive, instead of nibbling the tail again?

Bit stumped now. I've dropped fish on the octas, but usually when i start retreiving line, not on the first run. Usually nibble/tap/gentle sucking, then slow lift and they load on.

You said you had the rods in the rod holder, was it just the rod holder or were you holding them some of the time as well? When fishing octas, the classic action is to load up slowly, and a softer rod, with a fair bit of bend is preferable to a stiff rod. The rod doesnt seem overly stiff on paper, how is it in practice? Maybe in the rod holders there wasnt enough give for the situation (should be fine normally though).

Three guesses to what it could be:
1. Fish are hitting the jighead, not the hooks and running with it
2. Hooks arent being set for some reason
3. Hooks are tearing out

Which one, I have no idea. Someone else might have a better idea (wheres Ryan? :p). Good to experiment it up a bit. If you're getting 10's of runs and have two rods, it might allow for a bit of variety. It might be that the situation is just not suitable for the octas though (too fast perhaps?). Knife jigs or SP's with heavy jigheads might work better in that situation? Keep trying them, and in different situations though.

i've used them before caught a few dhuys on them i prefer soft plastics. my cousin swears by them and always produces nice sized dhuys with them. they need to be worked slow hense the small hooks

Putting bait on the hooks is cheating though, you may as well just use a normal hook with bait and save your self $15 when you loose the jig to a good fish, well, thats my thoughts anyway.

Try tellin that to the person next to you with a big expensive chunk of occy only to see it nibbled away by wrasse. 

Whats the point of spraying scent on lures then?

*heres comes another 4 page GULP debate

If your catching them to eat who cares