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The livebait surface rig
- Category: Technique & strategies
- Published on Monday, 28 December 2009 20:39
- Written by Dan
With the pelagic season almost upon us, rainy periods or blown out days like these are the best time to kit up for the season. In this post I'm going to talk about one of the rigs I'll be using out wide this season, and why.
My 2010 livebait surface rig:
Rod: Custom Dakau Kalia 400
Reel: Shimano Saragosa 18000
Line: 50lb TufLine XP braid
Braid to leader knot: FG Knot or Slim Beauty
Leader: 60lb Jinkai leader
Terminal: 80lb crane swivel clip.
This setup is my surface livebaiter where I generally send out a very lightly weighted livebait on a bridle. The trace portion of this rig is set up to catch spanish mackeral but I've caught kings, cobes, tuna, snapper, shark and all the other regular mackeral on it. This season I'm testing out fluorocarbon traces as opposed to regular mono. I do not like the ridged line lay on the Saragosa reel, the jerky drag (even when cleaned) or the bulk of this reel for the yak. I'm certain a smaller sized 8000 series reel would offer a more pleasant fishing experience. These personal issues aside, in terms of saltwater durability, the Saragosa is a worthy yak reel. Because the rod is derived from a jigging blank its got tons of grunt and is designed for stonker WA Amberjacks off a boat. Mackeral specialists will probably see this rod as complete overkill but I'll also be chasing hoodlum kings and cobes and really hope for wahoo or marlin runs. It's like a multi-purpose heavy spin rig that I slow troll with.
First up, the reason I use a swivel clip to finish the leader is for improved convenience and trace rigging speed. Even though this setup may spook an occasional fish it makes for the quickest possible trace changeovers. I hate muddling with tackle when I'm on the yak. If one trace gets coiled you can have a fresh bait out on a straight trace in less than 30 seconds. The FG knot is my fave braid to leader connection because of its strength but needs to be tied really well. The Slim Beauty is my old faithful if the FG snaps on the yak.
The trace section: From the top there's an 80lb crane swivel. Below that, 70mm of 60lb flourocarbon is connected to 30cm of 58lb single strand brown wire using an albright knot. A 100mm pink squid is inserted into the wire followed by a small barrel sinker. An 8/0 saltwater fly hook is haywire twisted to that wire. Another 200mm wire section is then haywire twisted to the eye of the fly hook and a #4 6x strength VMC treble acts as a stinger.
In less heavily fished spots 60lb traces work for me where 20 to 40lb would be preferred at yak hotspots like Palmy. Maybe it's a case of: The busier the fishery, the clearer the water, the lighter the leader!
Anyway, this rig sits on my left side. Once baited I cast the bridled livey out gently, close the bail arm and set the rod in the rear flushmount. I then check the drag so I can just take line from the spool using one hand to keep the rod in the holder and the other to pull line off the spool. I then open the bail arm to freespool and take 5 paddlestrokes before closing the bail arm. That's my surface trolling distance and is maybe 8-25m from the stern. Some guys go 20-100m from the yak, I personally like my surface baits set close and will be testing areas within 2-10m based on some experiences last autumn. Because I turn the handle of the spin reel with my right hand, it's more sensible to set this bulkier reel on the left. For comfort and reasons previously stated, I'd prefer to use an 8000 series eggbeater on this side of the yak. Because the main target fish is mackeral, fast winds as the fish runs toward the yak are better matched to high speed spin reels. Also, the clean horizontal runs and fights suit spin reels nicely.
The pink squid skirt ahead of the livebait is something I had very good success with last year on the surface, especially in milkier water. I also found the more finicky fish were happier to take a bite in broad daylight when the bait sat about 1.5m below the surface. This season I'll be adopting similar tactics but will be paying more attention to knots and corroded connections because I lost way too many fish last time due to laziness.
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