Snapper Rig??

[MY-TopEnder]

Hey Guys,

Never really chased any nobbies before seeing as i was a land lover till this year. I'm keen to go and buy a new rig suitable for snapper or generally bigger stuff from around Peel, Mud and the bay in general.

I'll be completely honest... i know bugger all about what gear i should be getting for this. Ask me about a bream rig and i'm ok but not for snapper and stuff.

Any suggestions?

[fisho]

Baitrunner reel and spinstick - add ganged hooks and some braid up to 20lb and you're away - fish as light as possible ;)

[MY-TopEnder]

So an overhead rod with a barrel style bait runner would be good loaded up with 20lb fireline?

[SeaSaw]

Mytopender

As Fisho says, a baitrunner and spin stick is the best for larger snapper. I use a 8-10kg live fibre spin stick, 8 feet long. I prefer a good length rod as it keeps the line out the back of the boat not interfering with and bottom rigs. Get yourself a good baitrunner such as a shimano 6500 or Thunnus. I prefer mono on my bait runner as I have found it gets more hook ups. With braid, when you flick it into gear on a big run, the no stretch in the braid tends to pull the hooks. I have a mate that uses braid and he is always having this problem.

As far as tactics go, fish no sinker if you can and regularly pull out a couple of metres of line and let the bait drift. You will find that the hits quite often occur just after you let out the line. I also use a gang of three True Turn hooks joined togehther with swivels. This allows the bait to be presented naturally, rather than normally ganged hooks which make the bait very rigid.

This seems to work for me, although my experience in on the offshore reefs rather than in the bay, but I expects the approach would be similar.

Good luck,

Mark

[MY-TopEnder]

:o HOLY CRAP...

Baitrunners aren't a cheap reel. ####### ######### quoted me $260 just for the reel... gees

[Tony_N]

SeaSaw

could you explain that 3 hook rig and how you put it together?? I've been trying to figure something like that for some time.

thanks

Tony

[BladeRunner]

Hi Topender
I was at a tackle shop today lost the screw to the handle lock on my Abu 7000 got the screw ok asked how much the new real was still under $200 with some 22k platerpus pink line you can stop most anthing in its tracks especially SNAPPER with this over head reel. I also have a leaver drag just saves using the wheel tension more control ay
Food for thought
BladeRunner [smiley=bandana.gif]

[MY-TopEnder]

Yeah i'm a bit of a fan of the Abu gear... i inherited an Abu Cardinal 3500 and it seems alright.

I'm goin to have a look at Amart ######### tonight as they seem to have a bit of gear there. I always thought overhead gear was better for the likes of snapper and so on.

[charleville]

Gee I wonder who company name auto removed by filter ######### are?

hahaha!

[BladeRunner]

whats wrong with a good old Bait &tackle shop
B R [smiley=bandana.gif]

[SeaSaw]

Tony,

Here is a picture of the rig I use. Basically it is just a matter of opening the eyes and adding in the right size swivel. The hardest bit is finding the right sized swivel as it has to be small enough to not fit over the hook barb but you need it at least rated to 50lb.

Cheers

Mark

[MY-TopEnder]

Ooops..

Ah well anyway i grabbed a basic overhead reel and a Silstar 6'6" overhead rod. The reel is an Okuma Convector CN-45L on a Silstar "Crystal PowerTip" rod as mentioned... the tag on it was $299 but i got it for $129 because of a mistake someone had made by putting that price tag on it.. the have a policy of selling at whats marked. Needless to say they weren't happy.

And i grabbed some good Berkley mono to spool it up with.

[SeaHunt]

Hi SeaSaw, other than a Pilchard , what bait do you put on that rig.?

MY-TopEnder , "someone" wouldn't be you would it? ::) :D :D ;D

[MY-TopEnder]

hahaha me? rip them off?? nooo never.

hahaha hey it had that price on it, they have that policy so bugger it they have to sell it to me for that price.

[SeaSaw]

SeaHunt,

You can't go past the good old pilly. I have at times put whole squid and whole cuttlefish on it as well. They all work fairly well. The aim is to present a dead bait as naturally as possible, therefore it must be whole and must be fished with no sinker or as little weight as possible in a stronger current.

I also like to leave the rod in a rod holder. That way the movement of the boat causes the bait to rise up and fall as through the fish is injured in some way. I also let liine out every now and then to cover various depths and cause the bait to free fall for a period of time - this often brings on a strike.

My-Topender, you gotto love those 'pricing mistakes' :D made by store staff, no doubt ;). Wouldn't it be great it that happened more often

Mark

[SeaHunt]

Hi SeaSaw,
Someone once told me to use whiting heads, don't know how natural they would look floating in the current.
Anyway his reasoning was that you don't get picked off by little shit fish, said snapper is basically a scavanger. I havn't tried them yet myself, but I might give them a go, my pillies don't last too long in the water. :P

[SeaSaw]

Seahunt,

I have also heard whiting heads are good, but I imagine a single hook rig for that. I have actually fished this gang rig with whole winter whiting and that worked really well - caught some good snapper and spangled emporer.

I have to admitt to never having trouble with pickers when using pillies as the bait doesn't usually reach the bottom where the pickers are. I am basically fishing in mid water. This might be more of a problem for those fishing for snapper in the bay in very shallow water where mid water is within 5 metres of the bottom (to me shallow is anything less than about 25m).

Cheers,

Mark

[Tony_N]

OK thanks for the pic SeaSaw

I figured it out myself overnight. Its a long time since I have made up my own gangs and I couldn't figure out how you could pull it over the barb without it slipping off at a bad time for it. Duh!! Woke up in the middle of the night with the picture of an open hook eye in my mind. Ahh, the benefits of a university education!!

[Tony_N]

Oh!! and I forgot to mention to SeaHunt that he might like to try this stuff called Baitmate which is REALLY fine elastic, used in the milinary trade I think, The mag where I saw it used had it crisscrossed over the wholw pilchard. i use it on froggies a bit more sparingly thatn that - but it does help losing it quickly to pickers if i am fishing off the wall for tailor.

[MY-TopEnder]

Yeah i've heard all about this Bait Mate stuff... where do ya get it?

[Tony_N]

Sorry, should have said

I got mine from bait/tackle shop in Ballina - I think it comes from way down south - Vic or maybe SA. I just asked in the shop a couple of times and they must have got it in on the basis of that.

[MY-TopEnder]

Hey guys the new reel... i must be doing something wrong in a big way cos i've made a complete rats nest of the line on it.

Casting it out worked fine but i look down and its just wound a heap of line off the spool and shit itself.

My nice new Berkley Sensation line is now a mess.

Any suggestions? ???

[mackmauler]

spool all the line out behind the boat, troll for a few minutes at about 6 knots with nothing attached to it, thatll get the twist out, then crank it back on ####in tight ;D

[MY-TopEnder]

Hey good idea Rob... i'll give it a go down the brissie river once i work out all the knots and twists in it. I might just yank the spool out out of it, clean up the mess and chuck it back on.

The main problem is that it was wound on with no tension isn't it?

[Cheech]

Have had problems myself with new reels and even new line on old reels. Seems that the longer line is on a reel the better it behaves. I once had some line that was really twisted so did what rob said and went out (without anything on it) in the bay and slowly let it all out, puttered around for a while and then wound it in. Seemed to be better after that.

Cheech

[MY-TopEnder]

Its more than likely something i did being inexperienced with overhead/baitcaster reels. Spinning reels i'm fine but yeah never had much luck with the others.

I'll give it a go... it was all brand new line and a brand new reel so it may no have settled properly.

[Jeremy]

What you have done is called a birdsnest which results from the spool spinning when no line is going out. Most larger overhead reels - most probably including the Okuma you bought - are not casting reels. You can lob them a bit, but don't expect to be able to get a decent cast. You MUST lock your thumb down tight on the spool as soon as your bait hits the water to stop the spool spinning and creating the birdsnest.

Lots to learn.....have fun!

Jeremy

[MY-TopEnder]

Cheers Jeremy... thats exactly what it was doing... happened every time i'd cast and with the ratchet switched on you could hear it spinning the spool after the bait had hit the water and it made the birds nest. I'll pull all the line off it and ditch it for some fireline and just let it sink by letting it out slowly.

Would it be more suited to setting up downriggers and using it that way?

[Jeremy]

Don't ditch all your new line unless it is rooted. Like Mack said, just run it out behind your boat at 6 knots to get the tangles and twists out then wind it back on nice and tight.

I think you are much better off sticking with mono unless you are bottom bashing in deep water.

You WILL catch much better quality snapper by floating baits out with minimal lead in a burley trail. You need to continuously feed line out slowly with the current in your burley trail. Keep the ratchet on the reel to avoid birdsnests when the snapper hits. Let out up to 100 m of line or more in water 20 - 30 m deep. Snapper usually hit the bait very hard and steam off with it. Give it 3-4 seconds to get the bait dwon and then engage the gears on your reel and lean back to set the hook.

Don't understand the last bit you wrote about downriggers, but I think your reel will be fine for a snapper rig used in the way described.

Cheers,

Jeremy

[MY-TopEnder]

Yeah i may just ditch it hey... of the 300m odd that i wound on theres probably only half of that worth saving. I'll just get some more and save any dramas.

The bit about the downriggers was more just to get it down to the right height quicker but yeah i can see what ya mean.

I'm aiming to give it a go some time this week or maybe next weekend depending on my license.