About Jinkai
(kindly provided by John Bryant the founder and managing director of
Osaka Tackle, the Australian distributor of Jinkai.)
In 2007 Jinkai Plus was officially launched in Australia. Jinkai first hit the market
21 years ago and has become a legend in its own right. 21 years ago leader in Australia
were based on pink ANDE and 040 gal wire in far North Queensland. (At that time
we were using single strand and stranded wire for our barra leaders. I don’t think barra
were as educated then as now but we still caught heaps of barra but would not now
contemplate using any other leader than mono on barra and many other species,
John Szymanski StrikeBack Tackle)
I personally travelled all over Australia to nearly every fishery to introduce the product.
Out of that we now have such awareness from anglers in general on the value and
necessity of high quality leaders. It has now become an industry within an industry.
A few years ago Bill Classon’s magazine was kind enough to write me up as one of
the two Australians that revolutionized the way we fished in the Pacific Rim, both as
a lure maker and introducing Jinkai whilst at the same time having many roles in
administration of recreational fishing.
The History goes that far back to when Penn Fenwick was changing hands and I
manufactured Seven Strands game fishing lures. Shimano was a new company just
coming into the market and Malcolm Florence were doing unheard of things like;
finding Yellowfin fisheries and blue marlin fisheries out wide from Moreton Bay.
It is a wonderful recollection for me.
Jinkai has been a universal leader aimed and used in trout fisheries, whiting fisheries
and you can take the same leader and go barra fishing. It has spoken for itself for
a generation.
Jinkai as we know it has been rated as the best non-wire leader material. Because
it was a complete system the value of Jinkai is in its suppleness in the following:
- Bait presentation
- The suppleness comes into play in high action trolling lures
- Breaking strain versus any given diameter was outstanding
- Abrasion resistance and low stretch allowed it to fit into all categories of
sport to contend with all species
Five of the greatest examples.
- Townsville with journalist Darryl Steele. A days fishing was ahead of us and
everything was wire based. When I showed him Jinkai he laughed, to wit he
caught 1 mackerel trolling on multiple ganged hooks. We switched to Jinkai,
the bottom fish lit up immediately and we got a feast of coral trout and red
emperor. Whilst the boat was drifting I cast out bait onto the surface with Jinkai,
we got pounded by Spanish mackerel. We had a day of fishing that is still
unequalled. It was also the day of an ANSA convention and none of them
would launch their boats because the water was choppy and there was
15 knots of wind. They had no fish for their presentation barbeque till I
came back.
- Julie McKinnon. Outwide Bermagui, fanatical shark fishing woman, burlied
up a Mako Shark which had a short length of wire trace hanging out of its
mouth, they fed it 800lb wire trace, got bitten off, what they had left was
600lb and 400lb wire tracers, got bitten off, then they fed it 400lb Jinkai
and it bit instantly, and only in the mouth so Julie came home with a
650lb Mako.
- In the early days Dick Hanks who owned Bluefin Tackle in NSW stocked
Jinkai and as always there are critics and some told him Jinkai was shit,
so he went to the banks to fish for Yellowfin. He caught a 78kg Yellowfin
on 150lb Jinkai. There were a couple of marks on the Jinaki but he re-baited
that hook and put it back in the water to catch an 84kg Yellowfin. Not content
with that, he caught a 69kg Yellowfin on the same trace. He hung that trace
up in the shop wall for all to inspect. The same sort of thing happened at
Bowling Green, Cairns and Bermagui, etc.
- Right in the blitz of all this I was to catch more than my fair share of Yellowfin,
black, blue and stripped marlin with the pleasure of Steve Starling on board.
In another story Steve was the person who named the now famous lure “lil jerk”
- There was once a day when the editor of Modern Fishing magazine, Glenn Booth,
was fishing in tropical water and got snagged on the bottom and he huffed and
he pulled until it finally came clear and up came a lump of coral wrapped up
in Jinaki. The Jinkai was sliced vertically in half, so it was round one side and
flat the other. He brought that to a meeting where fishing photographer
David Roach took some fascinating macro photographs.
Jinkai Plus
Jinkai Plus is a new formulation and technology not intended to replace
the existing Jinkai. Jinkai Plus was deliberately manufactured to be exactly
the same diameter in all sizes as the existing Jinkai and therefore we still only
need the same set of pliers, crimps and accessories for both products.
Jinkai Plus is clearer and this becomes more evident as the diameter increases.
Japanese testing specifies an increase in breaking strain for a given diameter.
Australian testing has shown increase in abrasion resistance.
What is evident is that Jinkai Plus it is not as supple as traditional Jinkai and it is both
a plus and a minus, relative to what a fisherperson is doing and he or she will
choose for themselves. Jinkai Plus has shown more improved results in
mangroves, over coral and on those nasty critters like mangrove jacks, barra
and toothies liked spotted and Spanish mackerel. Dropper leads made from
slightly stiffer Jinkai Plus, provide added advantages.
It is an established policy of John Bryant of Osaka Tackle, the Australian distributor
of Jinkai, that it is feedback from the general fishing public, which informs his public
statements of claim regarding the qualities of Jinkai. In supporting this approach
and aiding the continued development of Jinkai, StrikeBack Tackle welcomes
any and all feedback on this great product.
We have been using Jinkai leader for our own barra fishing for just on 20 years.
We had no hesitation in taking up John Bryant's offer to road test Jinkai Plus
while barra fishing at the Arnhemland Barrumundi Nature Lodge. Most other leaders
are porous and absorb water and so become opaque and more buoyant after a short time.
We found Jinkai Plus remained clear long after we needed to change our leaders
We have no hesitation in recommending Jinkai and Jinkai Plus as quality products we use ourselves.
Those who use flurocarbon should seriously consider Jinkai Plus.
To view or Purchase Jinkai click here
