Post by daveedka on Feb 15, 2010 21:46:46 GMT -5
O.k. Part 3 is going to talk about leaders and hooks, setting up the rods, and storage, or at least I hope I get through all of that before I'm tired since I really don't want to do a part four later.
It is amazingly difficult to take a picture of a hook tied to a leader, so forgive me if my pictures don't reveal much.
I generally tie up a lot of leaders in advance with various hooks or hook combinations. My favorite are probably the Team Catfish Jackhammer hooks in 3/0 or 4/0, and/or Eagle Claw Plain Shank in 3/0. I tie two types of combo hook rigs as well, one is simply a double bait hook rig with 9-12" of line between the hooks, the other is a classic Stinger rig with a 3/0 jackhammer and a treble stinger about 5-6 " away. I do keep a few treble hooks tied up as well as a bunch of stink bait worms. essentially, any hook combination I think I might want, I tie up on a 24" leader in advance and take with me. Make sure you check your State laws on hooks and hook combinations so that you don't tie something that isn't legal. Some states don't allow Stingers, and some don't allow treble's period.
I tie all of my leaders the same length from the top hook up that way I Always know what I'm working with when it comes to distances. I use 24" but that really doesn't matter, consistency is the key whether you go short long or something in between.
I store my leaders on Tackle Buddies to prevent them from getting tangled. here are pictures of several hook rigs, and my tackle buddies that I store them on. I get the tackle Buddies at Bass Pro, Lindy makes a similar product, but the lindy leaders holders don't secure the leaders as well, and I hate tangled leaders.
If I'm tying a double hook rig, I snell the top hook but leave a long tail so I can tie another hook on the end of the line with a palomar knot. as pictured below on this double hook rig.
With a double hook rig, we run two types of bait, or sometimes two pieces of the same bait, This gives us more options when trying to find out what is catching fish on a given day. Stingers are designed for the purpose of getting hooks into the mouth of finicky fish The main hook hooks through the bait in the head area, and the stinger hooks in somewhere between the gut and the tail, these are especially nice on days when the channels are just sucking the guts out of the shad and not really eating them well. With dead bait I hook the main hook through the skull and then stick the stinger right into the gut area, with live bait I hook lips or cheek and the stick the stinger through the tail area behind the dorsal fin.
Ok, so now we have the rod with a slip bobber and a swivel already tied on and we have a whole bunch of pre-tied leaders securely wrapped around our tackle buddies, and we are ready to head for the lake, no worries about any hooks on the rods catching anything on the way there, and no need to tie any knots once we get in the boat either.
When we get to our fishing spot, I simply open the snap swivel, hang on an appropriately sized sinker and the hook rig of choice, bait the hook set my bobber depth and cast.
Since we are drifting, depth can and will vary. I try to anticipate a depth that will allow us to fish for a good long drift without needing to monkey around and move bobber stops too much. So if my drift is from 5 feet into deeper water, I'll set my bobber stop at about four and a half feet. This way the sinker never touches the bottom, The sinker depth is really the key to not snagging, if We can keep the sinkers up above the snags, then the bait tends to follow along without too many problems.
As we move into deeper water the bait is still within 5 feet of the bottom. Below is a rough drawing of what the rig will look like in the water.
With a multitude of leaders already tied, I can switch hook types, or bait types at a whim without needing to tie knots, when the occasional fish swallows a hook, we can just unhook him at the swivel and stick him on the stringer and get our hook back when we fillet him etc. There is no limit to the conveniences and it takes no time at all to re-rig a rod if anything goes wrong. When we finish fishing, I have everyone remove their sinkers and leaders and hand them back to me so I can put them away and we don't have to worry about hooks being loose in the boat or the truck.
Dave
It is amazingly difficult to take a picture of a hook tied to a leader, so forgive me if my pictures don't reveal much.
I generally tie up a lot of leaders in advance with various hooks or hook combinations. My favorite are probably the Team Catfish Jackhammer hooks in 3/0 or 4/0, and/or Eagle Claw Plain Shank in 3/0. I tie two types of combo hook rigs as well, one is simply a double bait hook rig with 9-12" of line between the hooks, the other is a classic Stinger rig with a 3/0 jackhammer and a treble stinger about 5-6 " away. I do keep a few treble hooks tied up as well as a bunch of stink bait worms. essentially, any hook combination I think I might want, I tie up on a 24" leader in advance and take with me. Make sure you check your State laws on hooks and hook combinations so that you don't tie something that isn't legal. Some states don't allow Stingers, and some don't allow treble's period.
I tie all of my leaders the same length from the top hook up that way I Always know what I'm working with when it comes to distances. I use 24" but that really doesn't matter, consistency is the key whether you go short long or something in between.
I store my leaders on Tackle Buddies to prevent them from getting tangled. here are pictures of several hook rigs, and my tackle buddies that I store them on. I get the tackle Buddies at Bass Pro, Lindy makes a similar product, but the lindy leaders holders don't secure the leaders as well, and I hate tangled leaders.
If I'm tying a double hook rig, I snell the top hook but leave a long tail so I can tie another hook on the end of the line with a palomar knot. as pictured below on this double hook rig.
With a double hook rig, we run two types of bait, or sometimes two pieces of the same bait, This gives us more options when trying to find out what is catching fish on a given day. Stingers are designed for the purpose of getting hooks into the mouth of finicky fish The main hook hooks through the bait in the head area, and the stinger hooks in somewhere between the gut and the tail, these are especially nice on days when the channels are just sucking the guts out of the shad and not really eating them well. With dead bait I hook the main hook through the skull and then stick the stinger right into the gut area, with live bait I hook lips or cheek and the stick the stinger through the tail area behind the dorsal fin.
Ok, so now we have the rod with a slip bobber and a swivel already tied on and we have a whole bunch of pre-tied leaders securely wrapped around our tackle buddies, and we are ready to head for the lake, no worries about any hooks on the rods catching anything on the way there, and no need to tie any knots once we get in the boat either.
When we get to our fishing spot, I simply open the snap swivel, hang on an appropriately sized sinker and the hook rig of choice, bait the hook set my bobber depth and cast.
Since we are drifting, depth can and will vary. I try to anticipate a depth that will allow us to fish for a good long drift without needing to monkey around and move bobber stops too much. So if my drift is from 5 feet into deeper water, I'll set my bobber stop at about four and a half feet. This way the sinker never touches the bottom, The sinker depth is really the key to not snagging, if We can keep the sinkers up above the snags, then the bait tends to follow along without too many problems.
As we move into deeper water the bait is still within 5 feet of the bottom. Below is a rough drawing of what the rig will look like in the water.
With a multitude of leaders already tied, I can switch hook types, or bait types at a whim without needing to tie knots, when the occasional fish swallows a hook, we can just unhook him at the swivel and stick him on the stringer and get our hook back when we fillet him etc. There is no limit to the conveniences and it takes no time at all to re-rig a rod if anything goes wrong. When we finish fishing, I have everyone remove their sinkers and leaders and hand them back to me so I can put them away and we don't have to worry about hooks being loose in the boat or the truck.
Dave
