Live bait

[ChrisM]

Just wondering how other people fish live bait deep from a boat.... I use a sliding sinker rig with about three feet of 6lb floro leader and a smaller Owner hook. I usually let out line until I hit bottom and reel up a little to keep it just off the bottom with the bail open. I always wonder if it's better to be stealthy and keep your bait farther away from the boat, but I worry that the bait is pinned to the bottom if I cast it out and doesn't look natural or gets snagged up. Do you guys let your shiners or sawbellies sit right on the bottom or suspend them a little?

[KenH]

Just wondering how other people fish live bait deep from a boat.... I use a sliding sinker rig with about three feet of 6lb floro leader and a smaller Owner hook. I usually let out line until I hit bottom and reel up a little to keep it just off the bottom with the bail open. I always wonder if it's better to be stealthy and keep your bait farther away from the boat, but I worry that the bait is pinned to the bottom if I cast it out and doesn't look natural or gets snagged up. Do you guys let your shiners or sawbellies sit right on the bottom or suspend them a little?

If you're fishing anywhere near the surface, stealthy helps and keeping the presentation away from the boat
is pretty important. But I've caught Browns 20-30ft right under the boat so if you're fishing any kind of depth I don't
think it matters so much. I use linecounter reels and just lower to the depths I'm marking fish. Or just above them rather so they are suspended.




 

[lionpshark]

If you are using a flouro line with saw bellies how far do you put the sinker from the hook?

[KenH]

About 30 inches

[bobssandt]

Trout fishing: I use 8 1/2' st croix wild river rods, 8 lb mono with a barrel swivel attached to 8lb florocarbon, with 2 #2 (lead) split shot above my barrel swivel on my main line, leader for me must be about six foot in length, #4 gam. octopus hook at end of leader, and a strike gaurd! When im ready to set up I take my sawbelly and make it about even in length to the butt of my rod and I loosen my drag on my reel so I can pull line out with no problems, then I grab the line from the tip of the rod and pull it down to the butt of the rod again each rod length will give me 8/12' and this is how I measure my depth that I will fish wether it be 18',24',32' etc...I never fish the bottom normally theres no point unless im fishing for lakers in june or july!

[KenH]

John, that's a great way to count out your depth. Especially with an 8'6" rod that's
alot quicker than counting 18 inch pulls from the reel.

[Biz-R-OWorld]

On all my rods I have a little sticker saying how many pulls = how many feet, etc. Since a lot of my rods are different lengths from reel to the first eye. Most of my rods are 17-22" from the reel to the first eye. Instead of doing the math each time, I just looked at the little sticker taped to the rod, showing 5 pulls = 7.5 feet, 10 pulls = 15 feet, etc.

[KenH]

To further analyze John's excellent description, a Water Gremlin lead No.2 split shot is 7.2 grams
which is a shade over 1/4 oz. So two of those is about 1/2 oz. I prefer an egg sinker but
I can see how the swivel will take care of my twist issues.

 

[KenH]

On all my rods I have a little sticker saying how many pulls = how many feet, etc. Since a lot of my rods are different lengths from reel to the first eye. Most of my rods are 17-22" from the reel to the first eye. Instead of doing the math each time, I just looked at the little sticker taped to the rod, showing 5 pulls = 7.5 feet, 10 pulls = 15 feet, etc.

That's also a very clever system. Let's you hit the target depth pretty quickly without
habving to do too much thinking.

[bobssandt]

ken I just got in some egg sinkers with a swivel built into either side lol they look like they will work great!