Big Bend Florida Sportsman Guide

Fishing Tips

Add a Little Color to your Bottom Fishing Rig

 One of the most popular bottom fishing rigs of all is the "Guppy Rig" or "Gannion Rig)  Before tying on your hooks, add a bright colored Bass spinner bait skirt or Hoochie to each dropper. Color fades but bright fluorescent colors remain visible much deeper than the visibility tables show.  

An additional benefit of the skirt is, if your bait is pecked off, you still have some attraction. 

I usually use cut bait with this rig. Cut Remora is head and shoulders above anything else. Remora is bloody, oily, and tough.  Bonita is great but not nearly as tough as Remora.  The rig shown below was tied using 130# test Dacron for photographic purposes.  Droppers were purposely made short to keep the picture smaller.

Slow Tide Rig 

This rig is great for slow tide days or around tide change when the current is weak.  I seldom use more than a one ounce sinker and often use less than a half oz.  This is one of the simplest of all rigs.  Slide a small sinker up your line then tie on a hook. 

This rig works well with strong swimming baitfish like Blue Runners.  Hooked behind the vent, they struggle mightily to get away from the sinker.  As they tire, they are dragged inexorably down.  All of the commotion they make as they tire alerts predators below. 

Grouper often take these baits near the surface.  No other rig is as effective for Cobia.  Unfortunately, Sharks are attracted too.  Sharks account for a lot of the bites on this rig. 

The illustration below was tied with Weed Eater string so it would be more visible.

Bass Pro Shop 150# Test Split Rings

 Bass Pro Shop stocks 150# test split rings. I've been replacing rings on my trolling lures as soon as they need hooks. Today we must've had a double hook-up on one of my lures.  The front hooks were twisted and the factory split ring demolished

When you get two Gags on the same lure, they often break hooks, rip hooks off and destroy split rings. The 150# rings are good insurance.  With Stretch 25’s and 30’s the hook hangers are occasionally broken or ripped out.  This hasn’t happened with a Megabait 25 or 30 yet.

Add an Extra Split Ring for More Action

If you add an extra split ring to your spoon, it will swim a lot better, especially if you

use single strand wire. I've used a spoon loop for years and just one spoon rigged with 2 split rings convinced me that I was onto something better.

Solder Sinker

 Lots of years ago I caught some big Snook very deep under a light by bouncing a 9" Purple Mr. Twister worm down current. I was using a rig that is now called a "DROP SHOT" rig by bass fishermen. I've kinda laughed about this "NEW" rig  for the last few years, every time my new BASSMASTER MAGAZINE arrives. There is nothing much new under the sun.

 At the time, I was using about 18" of heavy gauge solder for a sinker. I flattened one end slightly and drilled a tiny hole for my line. I fished 3 Mr. Twisters about 18" apart.

 Cast up current and allow the current to drift the worms back to you as you take up slack. This is a very natural presentation of an artificial. The worms are "swimming"(facing) into the current but are drifted down current. They appear to be organisms that are in trouble or are too weak to swim up tide like shrimp in heavy current. 

Once you learn the feel of this rig, snags are infrequent.

 This is a very handy rig to fish over super bad bottom like deep oyster bars and fossil Coquina rock bottom. You can add a small float above your top lure (or bait) and keep the rig up above the snags. With multiple lures, you can cover several feet of the water column on the same cast, offering lures to fish both on the bottom and those suspended well above.  

This is also an excellent drift fishing rig. I've enlarged the rig for drift fishing by using a length of brass or stainless rod or even a light chain for a sinker. It rattles and clatters along the bottom but seldom snags.

Make a Mullet Chin Weight out of a Cast Net Lead

Cut a notch in one side of the cast net lead as shown below.  Flatten the cast net lead with a hammer, taking care to center the hook in the lead as shown.  Use larger weights for larger hooks and baits.  This same rig works well with Cigar Minnows and Spanish Sardines as well as Mullet.

Ballyhoo Rigging

First remove the eyes and break the bill back to about ½” long.  Secure the rigging wire to the eye of the hook.  Make a couple of passes of wire through the ‘hoo’s eye sockets and rig as per usual.

Longer lasting Ballyhoo or Bonita Strip

Add a bright colored “Hoochie Skirt” to your leader and, after rigging the bait, slide the Hoochie down over the front end of the bait.  This slows down “wash-out” and serves the additional purpose of making the bait easier to see back in the wake. 

Use Bell Wire for Ballyhoo Rigging

Jack Hexter uses “Bell” wire for Ballyhoo rigging.  This stuff is often discarded by telephone installers.  Pick up a bunch, cut it into useable lengths.  (12” or so works for me)

Bend down Those Barbs

I bend down the barbs on my home made Sabiki Flies. If I manage to get hooked on one of them, it will usually come right out with little pain.  If the barb is still in place, that is an entirely different story. 

Most times, even a barbed hook can be removed with the “Jerk and Scream” method but there are times when the hook is hung in an area of tough skin, dense muscle tissue or even a tendon where it defies easy removal.  A barbless hook can be removed from all but the most delicate places with little pain or difficulty.  If I am fishing with bait for Pinfish, I do not remove the barb.

Breakaway Sinkers

Did you ever want to fight a fish that you hooked on the bottom without a sinker on the line?  Jumping fish like Tarpon use a sinker to help throw the hook. Avoid this problem by rigging a break away sinker. To do this, fold your leader and stick the doubled leader all the way thru the hole in an egg sinker of appropriate weight. Take a piece of #64 rubber band and insert this in the loop protruding from the egg sinker and pull the rubber band part way back into the hole in the weight. When a fish hits, the strain on the line will pull the rubber band back through the hole and the weight will drop off the line.

Snagging Sinker

I use this sinker where I need to cast a long distance over snaggy bottom.  An Egg or Pyramid sinker will hang instantly, resulting in a lost rig.  The “Snagging Sinker” hits bottom and does not move.  The wire hooks in this sinker are made out of #10 single strand leader wire.  These sinkers are poured in a mold made of oak.  Directions for making an oak mold can be found elsewhere in this column.

Non-Snag Sinker

I often use this sinker when drift fishing.  It can be bounced along the bottom with little chance of snagging.  It was poured in a home made oak mold.  I mold several inches of Stainless steel wire into the lead.  After it cools, I wrap an eye for a line tie.

Chain Sinker

Rig your standard 3-hook "Guppy" rig with a length of chain in place of a sinker. A foot or so of light chain makes a lot of noise. I tie my “guppy" rig with about 18" of leader below my bottom hook. This eliminates a lot of snags and allows you to really bang your chain on the bottom. In faster current you may need more chain. Remember steel isn't as dense as Lead so it might take more than you might think.       

Lift rod up as high as possible and let your rig free fall. The clattering of the chain is far louder than a lead sinker and attracts fish from a greater distance. Believe me; Red Grouper are not turned off by this rig. I have watched them come 20 or more feet to eat the baits.

The Castabubble, an old tactic that still works for me.

Lots of years ago, somebody invented a clear plastic bubble to add weight to flies and tiny baits so they can be used on a spinning rod or bait caster.  I used a “Castabubble” to weight McDonald Straw Rigs when I was fishing off Navarre pier. There are several similar casting bubbles, some of which have provisions for adding water for more casting weight.  These bubbles are attached to the line above a leader with 1 or more Straw lures.

I sometimes rig several straw lures as droppers above a sinker making a rig somewhat like a Sabiki Rig.  Yes, I get bit off occasionally but these rigs are cheap, effective and you can cast them a mile.