Scratching rig's

It's that time of year again where is decent scratching rig is invaluable so this is how I make mine....

Here's the components I use and why I use them:

Rig body-Black amnesia 40lb. I'm not sure why but i prefer the black in 40lb. It's a toch softer and less wirey then the clear.

Traces- 30lb amnesia. It might be overkill breaking strain wise but it's that much stiffer then the lower breaking strains which gives you a boom type effect-simply it just doesn't tangle as much.

Hooks- Sakuma 540 manta 1/0's. Strong enough to land a decent fish, a decent gape for a small hook and very sharp. I've never had one let me down yet.

Crimps- gemini micro crimps.

Snood swivels- breakaway swivel T's. Again, these give you a boom effect and help stop tangles

Beads- Sakuma 5mm rig breads and Gemini lumi rig beads for the snoods

Main swivel- Sakuma round eye rolling swivels size 1

Lead clip- Breakaway fastlinks.

2 hook or 3 hook? For me it depends on a few different factors. How big the sea is, the wind, the swell, the tide,how busy a mark is and how lazy I'm feeling. Where possible I always fish 2 rods as you can have a scratching rig out and a big bait but there are plenty times when it's just not practical so I do like to have a 3 hook rig in the armoury.

So here is how I set up for each of my snoods. Crimp, bead, swivel T, bead, crimp. I don't use a crimping tool but just a small pair of pliers. I keep the distance down in between each of my snoods as I'm not a fan of gurt great long rigs. With a 15" spacing between your snoods and 8" between your snoods and a 8" space between the traces and the top/bottom (the swivel and the lead clip) you end up with a rig a little over 4', which for 3 hook rig isn't too bad.

I like to keep the traces nice and short. Somewhere between 3" and 6". It ensures your baits are hard on the bottom and the less line you have, the less likely to tangle you are. With the spacing that I use there is also no chance of the snoods tangling with each other. I also tend to put a single luminous bead on. Does it make a difference? I don't know to be honest but I do know that it definitely doesn't do any harm.

My rig's are then finished off with a decent quality swivel on the top and a good lead clip on the bottom. I wrap the whole rig around my fingers and pop them in a little 3"x4" bag and I'm ready to go. And that's about it, It's as simple as that. Tight lines.....










EDIT: I nearly forgot bout this. How can I post about scratching rigs without showing you the gayest rig that I've ever seen. And he was honestly going to cast this monstrosity out.

A new year, some new targets.

The new year is a bit of a funny one for sea anglers. It's not really a new year as such. Certainly i never see it that way. My fishing year starts sometime in March when the mackerel turn up in decent numbers and ends sometime in February when I've had enough of blanking in the cold.

Naturally, it's a good time for many clubs to start there new years and for everyone to renew there subscriptions but I've always wondered why none follow the seasons rather then the calender? I suppose the tail end of the winter gives the competitive anglers a month or so's good fishing to get a good start in for their club and county championships?

On that note, I'm sure that most of you are aware that the CFSA and it's member clubs are taking a step into the unknown and introducing  catch a release championship. Details are available but it's pretty straight forward. I just hope that we get enough anglers sign up to make it worthwhile. I'm 99% we will be starting it on 1st of February but I'll confirm that in the next week or so.

My own fishing has suffered in recent years. I've just struggled to get the motivation. Most of you look forward to your night fishing whilst your stuck at work but obviously i'm surrounded by it 24/7. Not that I'm complaining. I love fishing. I'm just hoping i can keep the enthusiasm up this year.

This year I'm going to spend a lot more time on the estuaries so I'm going to base my targets around them. I've really gotten into my floundering this year so on the front, my first target for the year is a specimen flounder. Not too many 3lb flounders get caught but you might as well set your targets high. I guess i'd be happy with one over 2 1/2 though. I've go a good month to go now so it'd be nice to get that one ticked off the list this winter.

Next one my list is bream. I've spend a reasonable amount of time breaming over the last few years but only ever in fits and starts. This year I'm going to try a bit harder. Only part of my goal is fish size-obviously another specimen would be nice but I'm going to set my target at 5lb. The other part is to spend a bit more time on new marks rather then fishing the same old marks on the Fal. Marks that don't get fished as often. I've also never had a single session on the Camel targeting bream so there's a good place to start.

Those are my 2 main targets but I'm sure things will change throughout the year. If I'm going to be spending more time on the rivers then there will be plenty of other fish to target. Both of my PB Huss and Eel's came from the rivers (Fal and Fowey respectively) and it'd be nice to have a few more rays this year.

So there you have it. That's my targets for the year set. A decent flounder and a decent bream. Hopefully I'll have them both ticked off by the end of April. 

Tight lines

P.S I'll try a bit harder to keep up with my blog this year. Expect a few more reviews and tutorials over then next few months.