Belitronic’s jigging machine has hardly changed for years – until now. According to brothers Thomas and Patrik Neuendorf who run the Lunde-based company, the BJ5000 jigging machine that has been in service since 1994 has just had its first major upgrade.

There are minor changes, such as the brackets on both sides of the casing that mean the upgraded BJ5000EX can be fitted to a 40mm or 50mm upright pole on either side, plus there are some major changes inside.

“From 1994 when the machine was launched to 2015, we only made small changes,” Thomas Neuendorf explained.

“There are more than 10,000 of these machines out there. Around 60% are in Norway, and the rest are spread over the UK, Iceland, the Faroe Islands and other countries.”

He commented that the BJ5000EX has a new brushless motor that has a significantly lower energy consumption while also having more power available.

“It reduces the energy requirement, and as this is a more efficient machine, we can say that the BJ5000EX is four times as effective as the older version,” he said, adding that the brushless motor has a higher torque and adjustable acceleration, plus it holds the line more securely, senses slip, and pulls back to keep it steady.

It also calculates line length with greater precision than older generation of machines were capable of doing, and has a soft brake for hitting the surface so as not to lose fish, and the soft brake is also applied for when the gear reaches fishing depth.

In addition to the hardware upgrades, the BJ5000EX has a larger display than the older machine, as well as six integral fishing programmes.

“We started to test this new machine two years ago after working on developing it for some time. Then last year we finally stopped selling the older machines that had been part of the Belitronic range since 1994 and which hadn’t seen all that many changes over the years,” he said.