The Complete Guide to Light Game Fishing: Technique, Rig, and Style Explained
- Ajing Store
- Jul 31
- 17 min read
If you've spent any time around harbor walls, breakwaters, or rocky shorelines in Japan, Portugal, Spain, or increasingly anywhere with saltwater and a bit of structure, you've probably noticed something: a growing number of anglers carrying rods that look almost too delicate to be real fishing gear, casting lures you can barely see, and grinning like idiots every time the rod tip twitches.
That's Light Game fishing.
And it's not one technique. It's a whole family of them.
I want to use this article to properly map out that family for you: Ajing, LRF, microjigging, jigging, the splitshot rig, the dropshot rig and the more advanced Arukazik float and slow-sinking systems that most beginners never even hear about until months in.
By the end, you should know exactly which technique fits which situation, and, just as importantly, why each one exists in the first place.
Let's go through them one by one.
What "Light Game" actually means
"Light Game" is the umbrella term for any fishing style built around ultralight tackle, tiny lures, and maximum sensitivity rather than raw casting weight or power. It originated in Japan, where limited access to open coastline pushed anglers toward harbors, piers, and rocky ledges, places where finesse beats force.
The philosophy across every technique in this article is the same: use the lightest possible gear that still lets you present a lure naturally and feel what's happening at the other end of the line. Everything else, the specific rig, the lure type, the retrieve, is just a variation on that one idea.
Ajing
Ajing (アジング) comes from "Aji," the Japanese word for horse mackerel, and "-ing," simply meaning "the act of." It's the technique of targeting Aji (and by extension, a huge range of other light-biting species) using tiny jigheads paired with small soft plastics, fished on extremely thin, low-stretch line.
The core setup
Rod: 5 to 6.5 feet, ultralight to light power, with either a solid tip (better for beginners - you feel and see every knock) or a tubular tip (better vibration transmission once you know what you're feeling for)
Reel: a compact 500–2000 size spinning reel
Line: either ester line (the best option) or PE braid in the PE #0.2–#0.4 range, paired with a fluorocarbon leader of roughly 60cm to 1m.
Jighead: 0.2g to 1g for most situations, occasionally up to 3-5g in wind or current
Lure: a slim 1.5–2 inch soft plastic, usually in natural or translucent colors
How it's actually fished
Cast out, let the jighead sink on a semi-slack line while watching your line tip or feeling for the "tick" of a bite on the fall (most Aji bites happen while the lure is sinking, not on the retrieve), then work it back with a slow, steady retrieve or gentle twitches. The take is often nothing more than the faintest change in tension, this is why ultra-sensitive rods and zero-stretch lines exist in the first place.
Ajing rewards patience and attention to tiny details: jighead weight, retrieve speed, and depth all matter far more than lure color or brand. Start light (around 0.5g in calm water) and only go heavier when wind or current forces you to.
I'll be honest with you, out of everything in this article, Ajing is the one I love most. I've fished plenty of the other techniques below, and I respect all of them, but Ajing is the one I keep coming back to, the one I'm never quite satisfied with, the one I'm always trying to get a little better at.
There's always another detail to refine. A lighter jighead, a slightly different fall, a rig you haven't tried yet in a spot you thought you already knew.
A few days ago I was fishing Boca do Inferno in Cascais, a spot so close to shore that my 7-year-old son regularly pulls Horse Mackerel and Mackerel out of it standing right next to me. We're talking less than 5 meters from the rocks. It's also a spot with real waves and surprising depth right at your feet, and the fish there tend to feed low, near the bottom, in that churn.
I wanted to try something different: a small sinker rigged ahead of a ClearBlue jighead, instead of just the jighead on its own. 2g on the sinker, 0.4g on the jighead. The idea was simple. I wanted the natural, slow-falling movement of a proper Ajing soft plastic on a tiny head, but I needed enough weight ahead of it to actually get down through the waves and hold near the bottom where the fish were sitting, instead of the whole rig just getting tossed around in the surface chop.
The difference in feel was honestly night and day compared to fishing the jighead alone. The bites came differently, the fall felt different, everything about how the rig moved through that specific water changed. That's the whole reason I keep tinkering with this technique after all this time.
A spot I already know well, five meters from where my son fishes with a simple setup, still had something new to teach me the moment I changed one detail in the rig.
LRF - Light Rock Fishing, the broader family
If Ajing is one very specific technique aimed mostly at Aji, LRF (Light Rock Fishing) is the wider umbrella it sits inside. LRF is about fishing light tackle for any small-to-medium species living around rocky structure, harbor walls, and piers. Mackerel, wrasse, gobies, bass, blennies, scorpionfish, bream, and dozens of others, alongside the same Aji that Ajing specifically targets.
Ajing rods vs. LRF rods: the overlap myth
I get why. On paper, both use light rods, small reels, thin line, tiny lures, so it looks like one setup should just handle both. In practice, the difference couldn't be further apart, and it took me a while to really understand why.
A rod that genuinely does everything well is rare, and it's almost never a cheap one. A budget rod might technically let you cast a small jighead, but it won't let you experience what Ajing actually is. That razor-thin sensitivity, the ability to feel a fish barely think about touching your lure. It'll get you a fish here and there, sure, but it won't get you Ajing, not really.
A dedicated LRF rod, by contrast, is usually built with a wider working range, often 1g up to 10-15g or more, with a stiffer overall blank designed to comfortably handle metal jigs, splitshot rigs, heavier setups, and a much broader mix of species and rig types. It trades away some of that ultra-fine tip sensitivity in exchange for versatility and backbone.
Put an Ajing rod to LRF work and it'll do a fine job. Jigheads, splitshot rigs, small metal jigs, all of it, but usually at a noticeably lower gram rating than a rod built specifically for general LRF, because you're borrowing a blank tuned for finesse rather than range. Put an LRF rod to Ajing work and you'll catch fish too, but you'll lose exactly the kind of ultra-subtle bite detection that makes Ajing what it is in the first place.
So yes, the two techniques share a family resemblance on paper. In your hands, on the water, they feel like completely different sports.
Microjigging - bringing metal into the light game
Microjigging takes the small-lure philosophy of Ajing and LRF and applies it to metal jigs instead of soft plastics on a jighead. Instead of a lead or tungsten head with a soft plastic body, you're casting a small, flat metal lure — often between 0.4g and 3g for the true "micro" range, that flutters and wobbles as it falls, imitating an injured baitfish.
Why use a metal jig instead of a jighead-and-softbait combo?
Metal jigs cast further for their weight, which helps when you need to reach fish that a jighead can't
The flutter action on the fall is a different, often more erratic, triggering movement than a soft plastic's tail kick
They excel in current and deeper water, where jigheads alone can struggle to stay in the strike zone
How it's fished
Cast out, let the jig sink to the target depth (or the bottom), then work it back with a lift-and-drop retrieve. I had more luck when I raise the rod tip sharply, let the jig flutter back down on a controlled semi-slack line, repeat. Most bites come on the fall, exactly like Ajing, so staying in contact with the lure as it sinks is everything.
Vary your cadence: fast lifts and long pauses one cast, short twitchy hops the next, until you find what the fish want that day.
Jigging - casting metal from the shore
"Jigging," in the context of this article, means working small metal jigs from the shore. Cast out, worked back through the water column, covering ground horizontally rather than probing a single vertical drop.
Think of it as the more mobile, more searching cousin of microjigging: instead of dropping a jig into a specific spot and working the fall, you're casting out and sweeping the retrieve to actively hunt for where the fish are holding.
The core setup
Jig weight: 3g to 10g — light enough to stay firmly in light game territory, heavy enough to cast real distance and cut through wind
Rod: the same light/LRF-class rod you'd use for microjigging or general LRF, rated comfortably up to at least 10g
Line: thin braid (PE #0.2–#0.6) with a fluorocarbon leader, exactly as with the rest of your light game setup
How it's fished
Cast out as far as the conditions and your gear allow, let the jig sink to your intended depth (counting it down so you can repeat a productive depth on the next cast), then retrieve with a steady wind mixed with occasional sharp rod-tip lifts to make the jig kick and flutter off its straight line. Vary retrieve speed and depth methodically on each cast.
Shore jigging like this is as much about covering water and finding fish as it is about any single perfect presentation.
Why it earns its own place next to microjigging
Where microjigging tends to be about working one specific fall or one specific piece of structure with real finesse, shore jigging in the 3-10g range is your search tool.
The technique you reach for when you don't yet know where the fish are holding and need to cover a stretch of water methodically, casting fan-wise across a mark until you find a response.
Once you get a hit, that's usually your cue to slow down, go lighter, and switch back into a more finesse-focused technique like microjigging or Ajing to work that spot properly.
The Splitshot - the simplest LRF setup that exists
If jigheads are the default starting point for most light game anglers, the splitshot rig is arguably even simpler, and in specific situations, more effective.
What it is
Literally just a hook tied to the end of your fluorocarbon leader, with one or more small splitshot weights pinched onto the line a few inches above it. That's the entire rig.
Why use it instead of a jighead:
It gives your bait completely unweighted, natural movement. There's no jighead pulling it nose-first, so it drifts and falls far more subtly
It's the go-to choice for finicky species like gobies, small wrasse, sea bream, and blennies that prefer a bait sitting still or moving with almost no resistance
It works exceptionally well with scented baits like Bait Breath U30 Rush Craw or Mosya U30 1.5, which don't need action from a jighead to be effective, the material does the work itself
How to set it up
Tie on a hook (like an Arukazik Japan Ar.Hook Round Rock works well), then pinch a small coarse splitshot onto the leader roughly 3 inches above the hook. Closer for more feel, further for more natural drift. Increase the shot distance if you want the bait to move more freely, decrease it if you're losing sensitivity.
It's not glamorous, and it won't win any casting-distance contests, but for pure finesse presentation in calm water, especially around harbor walls with structure right at your feet, nothing beats it for sheer simplicity and effectiveness.
The Dropshot Rig - precision at a fixed depth
If the splitshot rig is about maximum freedom and minimum weight, the dropshot rig is its more controlled, more versatile cousin. It's one of the most-used setups in the entire LRF toolbox.
What it is
A hook tied mid-leader (usually with a knot, leaving the hook standing off at roughly 90 degrees from the line), with a dedicated dropshot weight clipped to the tag end below it.
Unlike the splitshot rig, where the weight sits above a terminal hook, the dropshot flips that order. The weight anchors the very bottom of the rig, and the lure sits suspended above it, hovering at a fixed, repeatable depth.
Why it earns a permanent spot in your rig arsenal
It anchors your lure precisely off the bottom, over structure or rough ground, exactly where a jighead would be far less accurate
You can go noticeably heavier than a splitshot (commonly 3g to 7g, occasionally more) to fight wind, tide, and depth, without losing the finesse presentation of the lure itself. The weight does the work, the lure stays free
It's just as effective vertically, straight down a harbor wall, as it is cast-and-retrieve over sand or mud, which makes it one of the most genuinely multi-purpose rigs in light game fishing.
How to fish it
Drop the rig down beside structure and let the weight settle on the bottom, then work the rod tip gently to make the lure dance at that fixed depth without moving the weight itself, or cast it out and slow-retrieve for species that sit just off the seabed, like flounder or gurnard. Vary the distance between hook and weight depending on your target: shorter (a couple of inches) if you want the lure hugging the bottom, longer (up to a couple of feet) if you want it drifting more naturally through the lower water column.
There's also a variation worth knowing
Instead of tying the hook directly in-line on the main leader (standing off at roughly 90 degrees, as described above), you can rig it on a separate dropper line. A short length of line branching off from a three-way swivel or a dropper loop, fully independent from the main leader running down to the weight.
This gives the lure even more freedom of movement, since it's no longer constrained by the stiffness or angle of the main line at all. It floats and drifts almost entirely on its own, which can be the difference-maker on days when fish want a genuinely natural, untethered presentation rather than one that's still subtly influenced by the leader it's tied off.
Topwater - when the fish come up to meet you
Every technique so far has been about getting a tiny lure down to where the fish are holding. Topwater flips that logic completely: instead of chasing fish through the water column, you make them come up and commit on the surface, in full view, in what is, for a lot of anglers, genuinely the most exciting way to catch anything on light tackle.
The lures
Micro poppers and small walk-the-dog style stickbaits, typically in the 30-55mm range and just a few grams, scaled right down from their bass and saltwater-predator sized cousins to match light game rods and line classes.
How it's fished:
Poppers are worked with sharp, short rod-tip snaps that make the cupped face "pop" and spit water, pausing between pops to let the disturbance draw fish in from a distance
Walk-the-dog stickbaits are fished with a rhythmic side-to-side twitch of the rod tip combined with a steady retrieve, making the lure zig-zag across the surface like a fleeing baitfish
When to reach for it
Low light (dawn, dusk, or under harbor lights at night), calm water, and any time you can see surface activity (dimples, splashes, baitfish scattering).
Topwater rewards observation more than any other technique on this list.
You're fishing for a reaction, not a subtle take, so watching the water for signs of feeding activity before you even cast matters enormously.
It's worth saying, nothing in light game fishing beats watching a fish explode on a lure you can actually see, three meters from where you're standing. If you've only ever fished sinking presentations, topwater is worth trying purely for how different that visual strike feels.
A few things worth knowing before your first topwater session, courtesy of a friend who fishes it far more than I do
The real skill in topwater isn't the cast, it's finding the sweet spot between retrieve speed and lure operability. The exact cadence where a specific lure actually comes alive. That sweet spot isn't universal.
Different lures work on completely different cadences: some want a genuinely steady retrieve, others want to be worked subtly or paused dead still (which is often what actually triggers a walk-the-dog action), and versatile lures can be coaxed into a pop, a walk-the-dog, or a subtle sub-surface wobble depending entirely on how you work the rod tip and how much force you put into each twitch.
Because of that, don't just tie a topwater lure on and start blind-casting on your first session. Go somewhere you can actually see the lure working in the water. A calm harbor, a clear pool off a pier, anywhere you can watch it, and spend time purely learning how that specific lure responds to your rod tip before you ever expect a fish to eat it.
Only once you know what it's doing under the water is it worth actually fishing it seriously.
Saltwater topwater is also a genuinely different discipline from freshwater. Fishing a popper or stickbait in a lake or river is nowhere near the same as working one in the sea, and shore/beach topwater in particular demands real synchronization between your retrieve and the rod-tip action. It's a technical skill in its own right, not just casting and winding.
Lure size matters more than most beginners expect, too. Smaller lures, sub-50mm, even 70mm, can be genuinely difficult to work with proper action and control.
Hard baits - small, rigid lures with their own built-in action
The last major category worth knowing is hard baits (sometimes called "hardbaits" or, in Portuguese, "iscas rígidas"). Small, rigid lures made from resin, ABS plastic, or wood, as opposed to the soft plastics used with jigheads throughout most of this article. Unlike a soft plastic, which relies on the angler and the water to give it life, a hard bait has its action built directly into its shape.
The main types you'll come across in light game sizes
Micro minnows / jerkbaits — slim, torpedo-shaped lures with a subtle built-in wobble, available floating, sinking, or suspending (staying at a fixed depth when you pause the retrieve — often exactly where a hesitant fish finally commits)
Blade baits — small flat metal lures that vibrate tightly as they fall or are retrieved, excellent for covering depth quickly and triggering reaction bites
Micro crankbaits — short-bodied lures with a small diving lip, used to work a specific, repeatable depth band with almost no input needed from the angler
Why reach for a hard bait instead of a soft plastic on a jighead
Consistency and a completely different type of action.
A hard bait swims the same way every single cast, which makes it excellent for "search" fishing. Working through an area methodically until you find where the fish are holding.
It's also a different visual and vibration signature in the water than a soft plastic tail kick, which matters on pressured, well-fished marks where the fish have seen the same jigheads all season.
How to fish them
Count the lure down after casting to control depth, then retrieve with a mix of steady winding and pauses. For suspending minnows especially, the pause is often where the strike happens, as the lure hangs motionless exactly like a stunned baitfish.
Match the retrieve to conditions: faster and more erratic for active, chasing fish. Slow and twitchy with long pauses when the bite is tougher.
Ajing with an Arukazik float - the "F-System"
Here's where things get genuinely advanced, and where a lot of anglers who've mastered basic Ajing hit a wall: what do you do when the fish are feeding well beyond the casting range of a 0.5g jighead?
This is exactly the problem Arukazik Japan's "F-System" (Float System) was built to solve, using purpose-made floats like the Shallow Freak and its sinking counterpart, the Shallow Freak Dive.
How it works
The float is rigged on the tag end of your leader knot, well above your jighead. Its weight — not the jighead's — does the work of casting, letting you launch a sub-gram jig an enormous distance that would be physically impossible to cast on its own. Once it lands, the float's calibrated buoyancy takes over:
The Shallow Freak (floating / slow-sinking) holds your lure up in the shallow strike zone, letting it drift naturally at a shallow depth for extended periods — ideal when fish are feeding higher in the water column, further out than you can reach with a jighead alone
The Shallow Freak Dive (sinking) does the same long-range casting job, but then slowly sinks, letting you probe the mid-to-bottom depths at distance — perfect for deep harbors, strong currents, or steep drop-offs where the biggest fish tend to hold
Because the rig is set up on a dropper line, your main line runs straight down to the jighead rather than through the float itself, which means you still feel bites with almost zero drag or delay — a genuine, direct connection despite the extra 30-60 meters of casting distance the float just bought you.
When to reach for this system
Wind-affected sessions, wide-open harbors or beaches where the fish simply sit further out than any unweighted jighead can reach, or any time you can visibly see feeding activity that's just out of casting range with your normal setup.
Ajing with the Arukazik Japan Follow Shot
Remember the splitshot rig from earlier in this article, hook on the end, a pinch of shot a few inches above it, about as simple as a rig gets? The Arukazik Japan Follow Shot takes that exact same simple idea and turns it into a proper piece of engineered Ajing tackle.
What it actually is
A small, removable sinking float made from a special resin (specific gravity 1.41, so it sinks, deliberately, and at a very specific, calibrated rate), designed to sit on your leader in place of a standard splitshot. It has a slit running through its center, which does two things at once: it keeps the rig from sagging so a bite transmits more directly to your hand, and it reduces line damage compared to a pinched-on lead shot that can crimp and weaken your leader over repeated use.
Why it's a genuine upgrade over a plain splitshot:
Because it's removable and interchangeable, you can quickly swap Follow Shot weights, or drop back down to a standard split sinker, to change your fall rate on the fly without re-tying anything
Combined with different jighead weights below it, the Follow Shot lets you dial in a huge range of fall speeds and casting distances from a single rig concept. Heavier Follow Shot with a feather-light jighead for a long cast that still finishes with a natural, slow fall, or a lighter Follow Shot when you want the jighead itself doing more of the work
The direct-transmission slit design means you keep genuine bite sensitivity even with a weight sitting above your lure. Something a lot of anglers assume you have to sacrifice the moment you add any casting weight to a splitshot-style rig
When to reach for it
Basically any time you'd normally reach for a splitshot rig, but want more control and more casting distance out of it. Wind-affected sessions, spots where a plain pinched shot just doesn't cast far enough, or whenever you want to fine-tune fall rate independently of jighead weight rather than being locked into whatever a single jighead's own weight gives you.
It's a small piece of tackle, but it's a genuinely clever one. Exactly the kind of detail-obsessed engineering that Japanese light game tackle does better than almost anyone else.
Which technique should you actually use?
Here's the honest, practical breakdown:
Situation | Best technique |
Horse Mackerel is the target and they are close to shore | Ajing with a standard jighead |
Wide variety of small species, structure at your feet | LRF Jighead or splitshot rig |
Bites are finicky, fish want stillness and scent | |
Need a precise, repeatable depth over structure or rough ground | Dropshot rig |
Need extra casting distance/power, deeper water | Microjigging |
Fish visibly feeding or active on the surface | Topwater |
Pressured, heavily-fished marks that have seen every jighead in the box | Hard bait |
Fish feeding well beyond normal jighead casting range | Arukazik F-System float (Shallow Freak / Dive) |
Fish are sluggish, cold water, or heavily pressured, or you want fine control over fall rate and casting distance together | Splitshot rig upgraded with an Arukazik Follow Shot or Clear Blue Sinker |
Don't know where the fish are holding, need to search a mark | Shore jigging with a 3-10g metal jig |
None of these techniques are better than the others in any absolute sense.
They're tools, and the entire sport of light game fishing is really about learning to read a situation and reach for the right one.
A angler who only ever throws a standard jighead will always be leaving fish behind on the days when the bite calls for a microjig, a float, or a slow-sinking head instead.
Final thoughts
What ties Ajing, LRF, microjigging, jigging, splitshot rigs, and the more advanced Arukazik systems together isn't the gear, it's the mindset.
Every one of these techniques exists because someone, somewhere, decided that catching more fish, more consistently, was worth the extra finesse.
That's the whole philosophy of light game fishing: less brute force, more precision, and a rod in your hand sensitive enough to feel the difference.
Start with the basics, a simple jighead or splitshot rig in a calm harbor. Let your technique grow from there. The float systems and slow-sinking heads will make a lot more sense once you've felt what a normal bite feels like first.
There's a phrase I find myself repeating more than any other, on the water and off it:
There's no right or wrong technique, no right or wrong color. In every moment, fishing makes us adapt. The color, the weight, the rock, the cast, the retrieve. What's right now can be wrong in 10 minutes.
If you want help picking gear for any of these techniques specifically, message us. We're always happy to talk through what fits your local spots.
Where to find the gear
Every technique in this guide (Ajing jigheads, splitshot and dropshot components, micro metal jigs, topwater lures, hard baits, and the Arukazik F-System and Follow Shot) is available through Ajing Store, with fast shipping across the EU and no customs fees to worry about.
Tight lines,
Ajing Store
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