Bottom Fishing with less Snags
Quite a lot of people , especially new beginners that start fishing this type of rig say that they are fed up of losing the lead weight every time or keep getting snagged. There is not an ideal solution to prevent this from happening but with more taught & care we can minimize the amount of snagging.
When we are fishing in an area where there is quite a lot of sea weed especially the rocky shore sea grass ‘Alka’ there is a couple of issues that we can face. These are not only the snagging but also not catching fish due to the bait ends up covered in the sea weed. Now to try & eliminate the snagging we would have to ensure that the baited hook is a fair bit higher than the lead weight. In some cases there could be the need of having the snoods ‘frieghi’ set at least a meter away from the lead weight so the hooks will not snag in the sea weed that way we solve one out of the two issues as it means the bait is higher than the sea weed & would be fishing better. The chances of losing the lead weight is not an often occurrence but if it did you would need to use a thicker diameter Line as the main line for the rig.
When the fishing area has quite some rocky shelves & ledges ‘hafiet’, it is very important to use longer rods due to when you are retrieving the fish it will allow you to bring the fish in without snagging. It is also important not to drag the lead weight all the way underneath the fishing spot as it is inevitable that you will not snag.
When the fishing spot has quite a lot of uneven surfaces coral & rocks there is two things that you can try out. The first one would be use lighter lead weight as there is a less chance of the lighter weight snagging. The other one would be to avoid the hooks contacting with the bottom & when the fish bites start retrieving the line even if it noticeable that you have not hooked the fish just hold the rod as high as possible & keep retrieving the line without stopping even if the fish is not hooked on.
The last solution if you do not want to get snagged would be go & fish in sandy areas , unless you are so unlucky & get snagged on a broken mooring block too!!
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Tight Lines
Peter Paul Azzopardi
