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Best way to avoid losing rigs in rocky spots?


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I'm about to head back to a favourite spot of mine to start my land based snapper mission due to the reports that have been coming in lately. It's a spot where I lose lots of rigs.

 

I have always used a peternoster rig, a 3oz or more bomb sinker on the bottom and roughly 30cm up a dropper loop leading to 2 snoozed 6/0 circles.

 

When I reel in I give the line a good whack before winding in hoping it doesn't get snagged on the rocks and pulls through tough weed.

 

It's pretty good rig that has worked well but I still lose heaps of sinkers and hooks so.... any suggestions what I can do to save a few more rigs?

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Most of the snags are due to the hooks catching bottom.

For my landbased work I use 20lb braid and 30lb trace and keep to a single 3/0 or 4/0 circle hook. The single smaller circle seems to snag less. Also using heavier braid and trace, I can sometimes give a slow pull when snagged and straighten the hook a bit and get my rig back.

Also using smaller hooks and smaller bait I can get more distance on the cast.

 

Is your spot Metro?

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Thanks kelvin, yeah it's metro.

 

I reckon I could definitely go smaller hooks, I've only ever caught two snapper from that spot and they were just over legal. Other fish around the place like salmon, wrasse and leatheries I could catch on smaller hooks too so makes sense. I think I might have been setting my expectations too high in the past from this spot.

 

Also keen to try singles too. I guess if I still lose hooks I'll lose half as many with a single hook.

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I've always used a 3-way Shogun swivel like the one blelow. Only been able to find them on Mo.

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Running a 50-60cm sacrificial line of softish mono (roughly 50% mainline breaking strain) from the swivel to a 3-4oz snapper lead.

 

Alas you're still going to lose leads this way tho.

 

usually 2 snooded 4/0 suicides but i'd like to go Kelvin's way with circles if i could confidently hold a bait on them .

 

As you say; take in all the slack on the line, give it a good heave to lift everything of the reefy stuff and wind like crazy to start with untill you're happy it's all clear.

 

Never actually caught any on this rig :facepalm: .....but im coppying my 'LB metro snapper expert mate' who has caught dozens on this at the same spot. I just cant put in the hours he does.

 

 

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when in the fishing club years ago, on the rocks i would use spark plugs as sinkers, they open up when caught and 90% of the time you get your hooks back, just hook another spark plug to the loop and go again. You will be surprised how they don't get snagged as much too, must be there shape! i also used to have the hook at least a meter off the bottom to try and keep it out of the weed.

 

But most of the time we float fished, use one of those snapper style floats with the lead on the bottom squidder_float_weighted__30418__44104.13 tie a bit of wool on the main line to set the depth, check a knot site how to tie it. Let the float sit on a swivel to cast then tie ya leader to the swivel with a hook on it, a foot leader should do and it's then like having an un-weighted bait sitting in the water 

 

best of luck mate

 

cheers chuck

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use one of those snapper style floats with the lead on the bottom squidder_float_weighted__30418__44104.13 tie a bit of wool on the main line to set the depth, check a knot site how to tie it. Let the float sit on a swivel to cast then tie ya leader to the swivel with a hook on it, a foot leader should do and it's then like having an un-weighted bait sitting in the water 

 

best of luck mate

 

cheers chuck

 

I have heard that is a good way to fish Goolwa for mullies  ;)

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I'm about to head back to a favourite spot of mine to start my land based snapper mission due to the reports that have been coming in lately. It's a spot where I lose lots of rigs.

 

I have always used a peternoster rig, a 3oz or more bomb sinker on the bottom and roughly 30cm up a dropper loop leading to 2 snoozed 6/0 circles.

 

When I reel in I give the line a good whack before winding in hoping it doesn't get snagged on the rocks and pulls through tough weed.

 

It's pretty good rig that has worked well but I still lose heaps of sinkers and hooks so.... any suggestions what I can do to save a few more rigs?

I've always gone a running sinker rig, whatever size sinker you need tied to 10lb mono with a swivel on the end which I place on my mainline before i place the swivel for the rig on, 10lb will allow the sinker to breakaway without losing the rig itself. 

 

As long as you cast with a smooth even effort and no sudden jerks the sinker stays on fine although it can take a little practice at first to keep the smooth momentum going.

 

 

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  • 1 month later...

For the sinker snagging? You could use a "rotten bottom" rig:

 

 

http://www.whitbyseaanglers.co.uk/rotten-bottom-rig

 

When fishing for snapper landbased on rocky areas such as Point Lowly, I like to use a pulley rig with a long sinker trace and a short hook trace. This keeps the hooks off the rocks. As has been mentioned previously, on the retrieve, wind as fast as possible to lift the lead up off the bottom. Favourite hook size for LB snapper is triple 3/0 Owners with a couple of small pieces of bait on each hook. This method works well for me.

 

Regards,

 

SB

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  • 2 years later...

An old timer who grew up fishing your spot ABBA rekns theres monster tommies and squid there also...3 years ago I saw a meter long mully chasing bait fish at the beach end of your spot...that day there was a zillion silver whiting around....I thought these whiting are a bit small...better throw em back :lol:  :lol:  :lol:  :lol:  :lol: 

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