The 100kg Bluefin Club: 26 Years of Fishing with Justin Corric | Daiwa Quick Casts

In Japan, jig anglers have an unofficial benchmark. It isn’t a club with a membership card. It’s a bluefin tuna over 100 kilos, caught on the jig. You can’t plan for one or buy your way into it. You just keep dropping. Justin Corric had chased that fish for years. A little over four weeks ago, on the final morning of one of the toughest trips of his life, he finally got one.

Justin is Daiwa’s Upper North Island Territory Manager, with 26 years in the fishing industry behind him. He started out sweeping the floor of a tackle shop. When he told his dad he didn’t want to sell cars, his dad told him to find something he loved and work out how to make money from it. His dad also flew to Japan every month for 20 years, and every trip home came with lures, soft baits and jigs nobody in New Zealand had seen yet. That started a lifelong obsession with lure fishing and Japanese technique. It’s put Justin onto plenty of big snapper and serious kingfish, including a 38kg king on the jig at Ranfurly Banks, and now a 100kg+ bluefin.

In this Quick Cast, Justin tells the whole bluefin story. There were long nights on two hours’ sleep, a 100kg+ fish lost at the boat, a dead trolling motor and a last-night gamble when skipper Ben “Brownie” Brown of Built to Fish decided to punch out to where the fish actually were. Then, after an hour and 45 minutes of sleep, the alarm went off and there were bluefin everywhere. Justin dropped to 60 metres, felt that little bump, and the rest is history.

He also explains why the humble slider jig is more than a century old and why braid changed everything. He covers the bent-knee, short-stroke technique Japanese anglers use to stop big fish without muscling them, and the one-second stall on the drop where he reckons most bluefin bites happen. Then there are the early days of jigging, when you’d get a hit on almost every drop on the local reefs off Cuvier and Little Barrier. Justin also gives his advice for anyone chasing kingfish on topwater (pick your plan, stick to it and be ready to come home with nothing) and shares the bluefin sashimi tacos his missus makes, which he could eat all day.

Tight Lines, Loose Lips.

Guest @Justincorric

Chapters:(00:00) [Japan in a Suitcase] Dad’s monthly Japan trips, the first rod and reel, and 26 years in the industry. (05:00) [The 100kg Club] Long nights, a lost fish at the boat, and Brownie’s last-night gamble. (11:50) [Older Than You Think] The slider is 120-year-old Japanese tech, and braid changed everything. (17:00) [Fight Like the Japanese] Bent knees, short strokes and keeping the pressure on. (18:30) [The Stall Is Everything] The tiny tap on the drop most bluefin anglers miss. (21:00) [Topwater, Patience & Tuna Tacos] The 38kg king, sticking to the plan, and Justin’s favourite feed.