The Tamure Kid wrote: great advice, right there - to Smudge's points i'd add that the way I think of it when using a biggish bait such as most of a jack mackerel, you "scoop" to embed the hook, say in the shoulder, then kind of "roll" it in place. That way you end up, as Smudge emphasised, the hook point should be well clear of the bait and the shank lies flat against the body (with the hook eye pointing back towards the head of the mackie). For a half jack mackerel I use a two hook rig - as above, one scooped well back, and the other up through the chin. The one at the rear is usually about a 6/0 and a 4/0 in the front.
If you can find a copy, I'd highly recommend one of Mark Kitteridge's older snapper fishing books, which have excellent sketches of suggested circle hook rigs. Or you might find one of his NZ Fishing News articles on this site. He's a big fan of circle hooks. I copied his methods and they work well for snapper straylining. Kev's points re the way to tie them on is critical if you ledger/flasher rig for bottom bouncing or surfcasting.
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Fishb8 wrote: I have a 'lazy' style of bait snapper fishing with circle hooks. Mostly use 8/0 and either steamed mussel or squid and I have a rod holder with goes into a vertical rod holder and keeps the rod at a near horizontal plane to the sea. Drop to the bottom and leave rod in holder and keep hands off until rod starts bouncing, indicating a fish is hooked. No striking, just let the fish hook themselves - simple, eh? |
JollyRaja wrote: Thx Fishb8, what setting on the drag do you use for this? i have tried doing the same by chucking the line way back of the boat into the burley trail but nil hookups. |
Steps wrote: Drifting with berley, berley drifts back from the boat while the boat drifts away from the berley Yes.. the burly drifts a little fast than the boat.. picks up the fish going to go over and holds them, also the bigger chunks drop and leave a trail behind, which the traces are in.. Its about drawing ones self a picture. how do you know if your baits are in the berley trail. Because we catch far more fish doing so than not doing so.. We may not catch the big show off fish, as we do not target as such. Our fishing is out for good company and a feed, with big fish a common bonus, and the logs show we are damn good at it...being doing ity since the late 1950s. |
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