Daiwa’s take on the Premium Saltwater Rubber Jig, the Daiwa Conch

Total Score: 7.91 - GOOD

Introduction: Last year Daiwa introduced two new saltwater jigs that were aimed directly against Shimano’s popular Lucanus jigs, the Bala and Conch. The Bala features a sleek design combined with a squid hoochie styled bait while the Conch is a one piece nautilus styled lure. Both jigs are designed to target a wide range of saltwater species including Cod and Grouper.

Daiwa's take on the Saltwater rubber jig, meet the Daiwa Conch

Impressions: Originally I had planned to test and review both of the new Daiwa jigs in a single write-up but after fishing the two of them I found that though they were designed for basically the same application they fished dissimilar enough to warrant individual reviews. Those of you who read our Lucanus review last year will remember that the lures performed well in our tests and there were days when these small beetle shaped lures easily outfished traditional diamonds and bars.

The Conch jigs are available in five colors/patterns and five sizes/weights

Though the Lucanus jig wasn’t the first rubber jig it was extremely well marketed here in the U.S. and it isn’t a surprise that there are now a ton (and I mean a TON) of other manufacturers offering their own interpretation of these compact premium jigs. One of the biggest plus’s about these lures is that they help make what is traditionally thought of as “meat” fishing into an activity more like sport fishing.

The classic Daiwa logo is employed as part of the lure's design

In profile the Conch looks like a Nautilus or if you turn it downwards it could possibly resemble a small octopus. The huge Daiwa logo on the side of the bait adds to the snail shell effect and the lure is available in a variety of colors/patterns including Pearl, Peach, Burning Red, Pink Ice (a blue, white and pink combo) and Green Mango (green and yellow). Each lure is armed with two 1/0 or 2/0 stinger hooks depending on the size of the jig.

The back of the lure features cuts that extend the lure's nautilus-style design

Real World Tests: To test the Daiwa Conch jigs we fished them alongside both traditional diamonds and bars as well as head to head against the Shimano Lucanus jigs. We fished all these lures on the same Shimano Tescata rods with braided line and Seaguar fluorocarbon leaders targeting rockfish on the Northern California coast just West of the Bay Area.

The lure's eyes make use of slices from abalone shells

Casting: Though compact these jigs weigh quite a bit and are available in weights ranging from 3 to 7oz. so casting them really is a no brainer. Simply lob them and they cast just fine and because you are most likely fishing vertically off a boat a long distance cast isn’t even necessary, as long as you clear the side of the boat you should be in good shape.

These lures cast extremely well, not that you really need to toss them very far from the boat...

Retrieving: The Daiwa Conch, like the Lucanus jigs, features two anchor points in which to tie on to. In normal and shallow water conditions tying directly onto the top anchor works just fine but in strong currents the second anchor can be used to tie on another leader connected to a second weight. This helps the Conch hold in position and gives the lure a very horizontal drop-shot like presentation. We tried both these styles and whenever the current was not too strong preferred the more simple and straightforward first method.

The lure features two points to tie to for a standard or drop-shot style presentation when you want to fish off the bottom or in stronger current when more weight is needed