We first looked into having tungsten jigs made in 2020 when it became apparent that jigs matching very small bait fish would get bitten better than larger, slower falling jigs. Vertical and slow pitch jigs were still catching on in the US, and interest in our compact tungsten jigs didn’t take off until 2023.

Then, the Southern Cal sportboat guys fishing for bluefin tuna at night discovered that the normally wary fish were suckers for heavy 3 inch jigs dropped 200ft under the boat, and demand for those jigs sky rocketed. Guys were spending more than $40 on a glowing 180g tungsten jig. I found out about this when the guys started asking me if I could get heavier jigs in. No one in the US had these sized jigs and soon the Japan-based stores raised their prices and ran out of inventory.

I reached out to the company that had made jigs for me in the past and they informed me that the price of tungsten powder was at a 10 yr high because China placed safety restrictions on the manufacturing of tungsten products, and the demand for tungsten products (not just fishing jigs) had spiked. In order to have more jigs made I would have to place a large order, and pay a significantly greater price than in the past. My little business didn’t have the capital for that so I reached out to a US distributor of Japanese fishing lures. He said that the Japanese jig companies are charging so much for tungsten jigs now, he’d have to charge a price for them that no dealer would want to pay.

Similar to buying gold at an all time high, this doesn’t look like an opportune time to buy more tungsten jigs.

I wanna thank the SoCal guys who helped me understand how they are brazing solid rings and assembling very strong assist hooks to land 100lb plus fish. Hopefully I can procure some heavy compact jigs that work for you.