The futuristic and highly successful Sea Waver Giant Jighead lures are designed and perfected by German angling journalist Volker Dapoz. I was fortunate enough to fish with Volker in Norway during 2007 and learnt the history behind the development of this lure, plus witnessed first hand how amazingly effective they are seeing cod over 30lbs taken on these lures.

Volker has fished extensively throughout Norway during the past 15-years or so, and started like the rest of us using standard pirks and pilks fished vertically catching loads of fish, especially cod. Volker very quickly, became interested in halibut and realised that standard pirking was not the best method to catch these rare and powerful fish.

Thinking about how the halibut sits on the seabed and then accelerates to attack cod, haddock and other bottom feeding fish that venture within range, it was obvious he needed a lure that would imitate a fish swimming along the seabed as the boat drifted along.

He came up with a fish head shaped lead weight, but with provision inside the rear of the head via two moulded in grip bars to take medium and large sized plastic shads. This combination, armed with two big treble hooks, instantly increased his halibut catch ratio and also started to see more and bigger cod caught by percentage than was the case with standard pirks.

To work the Sea Waver Jighead you need a rod with a slightly supple tip but powerful mid section and butt, ideally 20/30lb class and designed specifically for use with braided line. The idea is to only use minimal rod tip movement up and down, often the simple lift and fall of the boat is enough to make the tail of the shad “wag” providing both visual movement and vibration with the lure working within 2 to 3-metres of the seabed. That said the Sea Waver is effective right through the water column and can also be worked like a conventional pirk.

The lure carries two hook connection rings, one on top of the head for vertical jigging, and a second connector ring right on the tip of the nose designed for when you use the lure during very fast drift conditions and fast tides.

The addition of the two treble hooks may look over the top, but it has been proven that these two trebles give a far greater hook up ratio, especially with halibut. When using the shads, or for that matter whole small deadbaits such as coalfish, the lower treble underneath the head has one hook of the treble pushed in to the front belly of the shad, and the top hook rear of the head has one treble hook pushed in to the upper back of the shad. This gives far greater coverage which ever way a predator may attack the lure.

With the hooks so positioned, I also found that losses were minimal as the nose of the lure hits snags head on, way before the hooks get near them.

Having seen and used these lures I feel that they are also ideal for use in the UK over reefs and especially wrecks for targeting big cod, pollack, coalfish and ling, as well as other passing predators, and may well prove successful with deep water turbot around the periphery of wrecks.

I found that being able to use just the lift of the boat, or minimum rod tip movement to work the lure and shad, I was able to fish without fatigue for hour after hour. Normal pirking does sap your energy after a few hours making you less efficient in time with fewer fish caught.

It’s also important to mention that all these lures are beautifully made and finished and incorporate top quality hooks and components.

The Sea Waver Giant Jighead is available in sizes 130g, 200g, 300g, 400g and 500g, and in three colour combinations, Black/Red, Red/Pearl and Orange/Yellow. I found the Black/Red combo very effective, though the other two combos’ are close behind. The lures are hand made in Germany with a patent pending.


Prices start at £4.94 for the 130g Jig Head

North East Tackle Supplies Ltd - 01429-272581

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