Bait clips

Bait clips are something that come up in the shop on an almost daily basis so I thought it would be well worth an hour to write up my findings on them. There are several on the market and having tried them all I will do my best to give you, what I think, are there pro's and con's of each.


Why use bait clips?

Bait clips are designed as a device to that goes onto your rig to clip your baited hook onto. The idea is that they release the baited hook on contact with the water. This helps you in several ways.

The first is that it protects delicate baits like worm and crab as the bait doesn't take any of the massive pressure of the cast and stops the splatter of the precious juice.

The next is that it streamlines your rig. Because your bait is tucked in and not flapping about it is going to aid your distance and by a good amount.

It will also add massively to your bait and rig presentation. As I mentioned before, your bait doesn't take any of the pressure of the cast so not only do you not bust the bait up but it also stays put on the hook and doesn't slide round. It also keeps your rig body and snood tight so your snood doesn't spin around. When your rig hit's the water you can be pretty certain that it's not going to be tangled and spun up. This then gives you the confidence to leave your baits out a little longer.

There are of course many occasions when your not going to need to consider using a bait clip. If your fishing close in and not casting too hard then it's just an extra component on the rig that you don't need. I personally don't clip my live eel baits down either as I tail hook them so the main part of there body is below the hook so the eel just doubles back on itself and it kills them.

Rigs for bait clips

I will leave the intricacies of different rigs for a different blog but for now i will say that certain rig's are suitable for incorporating bait clips into and others aren't. This is because you are going to need tension on your hook length to keep it in the clip. I have mentioned in previous blog's that the mainstay of my fishing is done with pulley rigs. This rig work's beautifully with a bait clip because of the sliding nature of the main swivel. It keeps a nice even tension on your snood and spreads the load of the cast equally throughout the rig.

You can also use a bit clip with a paternoster but the issue you will find is that the snood and the rig body stretches so your snood will not be under the correct tension. You can get around this by making an adjustable paternoster (a rig I tried for several month's) and adjusting the tension for every cast but I have found this to be a pain in the arse so I don't bother.

There are of course many different rig's and hundreds of slight variations of these but I have definitely found that bait clips work best with pulley rigs.

Types of bait clips

There are plenty of different ways of clipping down your bait. Here is a run down of the most popular.

Breakaway impact leads are a good please to start. These have a bait release system built into the lead itself. You hook clips onto the bent piece of wire on the top part of the lead which has grooves in it to allow the water the push the red piece of plastic up which will slide the hook off of the clip. I have found these to be reasonably good but there are several issues that I have with them. The first is that you sometimes get the hook releasing prematurely as the clip isn't at enough of an angle. The next is the cost. They typically cost 60-70p more per lead then a standard one, not much in one sense but if you lose plenty of leads in a year then it all adds up. You would also need to use a lead clip to attach the weight itself. That said though these are minor niggles and the product itself isn't that bad but for me I prefer the flexibility of being able to change the shape and weight of standard leads without having to use the only shapes they do. Gemini also make a version of this lead called a splash down but not having tried them it would be unfair of me to make any comment.

These little clips are called breakaway Imps. They are a dual purpose lead clip and bait release system. You can see in the picture that you attach the lead to the metal clip and your hook goes on the little plastic grey hook. When your rig hits the water the plastic flap on the bottom of the plastic hook is pushed upwards which spins the clip around and releases your hook. These are the clips that I use myself. They are very streamlined and tuck in behind your lead very nicely giving you an aerodynamic rig. It's very rare that these don't release and they don't seem to eject the bait prematurely. Recently though, Breakaway changed the design of these (pictured) as apparently people were complaining that they were difficult to put together. They basically elongated the wire lead clip which made the clip easier to open up and put the plastic bit on. But an effect of this was that folk were losing the plastic part. But you will all be glad to know that they have reverted to the original design now, so no more problems.

These are Breakaway impact shields. They are threaded onto your rig body, above your lead clip. They need a stopper of some kind to work but all of the bits are included in the box when you buy them. Your bait is clipped in behind the cone section and when the clip hits the water it is pushed upwards towards the stopper which slides the clip at an angle and pushes your hook off. I have found that although these work fairly well they are big and bulky and also take a bit of extra time and patience when rig tying. As the stopper you tie is adjustable these do work well on a fixed paternoster rig as you can adjust the clip and not the snood.

The easiest and cheapest way to clip down your baits is to use a rig/bait clip. The rig body is tied to the eye of the clip and your weight just slides onto it. Your hook then tucks under the bent piece and releases when it hits the water. using these clips will by no means give you a fail safe release but they do the job. I tend to carry a pack in my box for emergencies. A little tip though is that these clips make brilliant rotten bottom clips for fishing rough ground when used upside down. You tie your mainline to bottom of the clip and your weak link to eye and the lead. Then you just hook the eye of the lead over the upturned clip and cast it out and your lead will come straight off of the clip and your lead is then only attached to your rig via your weak link.

I mentioned previously that Gemini make a splashdown lead but I have not tried it yet. Whilst putting this blog together I had a letter from Gemini with this flyer in it. They are producing a stand alone lead / bait clip which will come in packs of 5. I'm not certain that I like the look of them but they are due to be sending me some out by the end of the week to try out so I'll give them a try over the coming weeks and will update this blog as to my findings. I'll also have a few packets for sale in the shop if anyone else fancies giving them a go?








On a slightly different note I had my first Bass blank for many a month last week. We were kept very busy on the night catching plenty of whiting (up to 1 1/2lb) some big dog's and some reasonable codling so it wasn't the end of the world. I put it down to the fact that the sea just wasn't quite big enough and the tides were the neapest of the neaps. But things are looking up for the weekend with a 10-15ft ground sea coming in on the back of big springs so we are expecting to catch a few fish. Hopefully then, my next blog will be a report of that session.

As always I welcome any feedback on this blog or any other. Please feel free to add any comments on what you think and your own experiences of what I have to say. After all, I can only report on what I have found and everyone is different.

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