Livebaiting in Deepwater 80-100m+

[WildFisHbOy]

G'day all,

I have never fished in water deeper than about the 45m mark and was curious about the livebaiting rigs ppl use in the deep water. With all the weight you'd need, the old running sinker above the hook seems a bit out of place.
What rigs do you use and what bait and target species do you use them for?

Keen to here ppl's thoughts,

Cheers,

[Noelm]

I have never been a fan of the sinker running right to the hook for live baiting, might work where the Fish are starving, but when the going gets tough it is a different story, for deep water, some use a two swivel setup, all you need is a good sized sinker and run it between two swivels about 30 to 60CM apart, that way you know your bait is near the bottom and not swimming half way with a big loop in the line (it happens) others use a long trace Paternoster setup, that works as well, but not my preferred method, seems to work better when there is a bit of current.

[GBC]

10 ball running between swivel and hook/s - normal trace length.
I'm a simple type.

[WildFisHbOy]

Cool, thanks guys. So it looks like the rigs are fairly basic. I hadn't really thought about the line looping and keeping the sinker locked down. Thats something I'll start doing in the shallower reefs too.

Cheers,

[BigE]

downrigger!

[dog tooth]

Big E
i hope you have an electric down rigger, because it would be prettie hard pulling it up from 80 m.
as for live baiting
if the current is not running bring a couple of bricks out and attach them to your swivle via 3 life savers (OR MORE DEPENDING ON THE WEIGHT).
after a couple of minuets they would of desolved and your live dait will be down swiming around with the sambos.

cheers

[Noelm]

in most cases if there is Fish "on the chew" then a temporary "sinker" may be OK, but as soon as the lifesavers disolve, if the Bait has not been eaten, your livie will get out of there quick smart, I don't want to knock anyone's fishing method because I am a firm believer in if it works for you and you are confident with your setup then so be it, BUT a big sinker right on top of a live bait will deter big fish, they got big by being smart!!! move the sinker away from the bait above the swivel and your big fish live baiting catches will increase, it might be a different story up in the Tropics where fish may be competing furiously for a feed, but when the going gets tough, they will shy away from a big sinker right on a bait, that seems to be a QLD thing only, when really tricky Fish are targeting, and by that I mean big Tuna (and I mean big, not 30KG or so) they will even shy away from a swivel or heavy trace and no sinker at all! remember we use live baits to make it look as natural as we can, that's why it works, and I have yet to see a Slimey or Yakka swimming around in the wild with a half kilo of lead on it's back!