Rainy day question?
 

Curious. While making bait, anybody ever actually catch something when putting a swimbait or croc on the end of your sabiki? If so, dark or greylight..pier or kelp?

I like squid... the tentacles in particular are perfect sized for sabiki hooks... but also just small strips of squid...

I always use an iron or megabait for a sinker on my sabiki. I've landed YT, WSB (in baja), halibut, and BSB on that while making bait, and lost several. In the kelp I get tons of calicos and the occassional rockfish, ling, whitefish, sculpin, you name it. The fish don't know it's your bait rig. That's why I use a pretty decent setup for my bait rod. This fall there was a big BSB hanging out at the pier and I have had a baby thresher chase my sabiki right back to the boat over there. Not so much in the dark but in grey and full light the sabiki is just another line with a lure on it.

Does it ever clusterFk your sabiki? never had anything hit mine and wondering if it's even worth it anymore.

shit I misread the question! lol I only use a lure on my sabiki in baja....... :D But I have plenty of older jigs now with siwash hooks, I always say I am gonna start using them on the sabiki....

Its funny you say that. I hooked a BSB at the pier last October after dropping a mac to the bottom. It barely hit bottom when I got a hook up that took me for a ride for 30 minutes. I thought I had a big halibut or YT until I saw the guy. He was released unharmed...

Good, a shiny lure often helps attract macs, and sometimes I get more macs on a croc then on the sabiki hooks themselves. Bad, a lure also snags the kelp easier making it a pain sometimes. I think it's worth it to have something on the end other than a torpedo. You never know what's there.

On a somewhat related note, I hooked 2 big yt (~25#) on the same sabiki, at the same time boatside once. One hit a mac that I was reeling in, and the other either hit the other mac, or the lure on the end. I couldn't tell. Didn't land either as the sabiki I was using had 12# main line. I stuck around that spot and did get a nice yt out of it on a setup made for it. Since then I use a sabiki with 30# mainline and 20# branches to give me a better chance.

I use a small Croc on the end of the sabiki. Increases the odds of catching a fish as opposed to a sinker, which has no hooks.
I would agree with Tyler, the Croc(mackerel colored) most times will catch more fish than the sabiki rig above it. Those mackerel love the shiny lures.
If the fishing is slow, the Croc is my best bet for catching anything, and avoid the technical skunk.

There was a phase when we had really clear water last fall. Right under the lights,where you could clearly see bottom, there was a big black blob. I didn't realize what is was until John (soulwinner) said, wow, nice BSB. The same time the year precious I had caught a 60-80lb BSB halibut fishing right off the pier.

I prefer irons to crocs because they sink faster. When you are deep and see a bait ball at 60ft you want the line to get down fast. I get frustrated with crocs since they flutter.

In baja, well, that's a whole 'nother story.;)

The same here... :D

I just never get to actually do it. :D

I never caught a big fish on sabiki stick. Probably because I use no more than 15# spinning reel setup for bait. I have 2oz torpedo sinker on the bottom.

But Brad has a very good point.

I have had dangling macks getting hit... on more than occasion. Always close to the kelp. All fish lost, early in the AM hrs.

Way back when...a standard practice when making bait was to use chrome torpedos with treble hooks. Havent seen one of those things in quite awhile.

I use megabaits, and switch out the treble with a J hook.

That brings back memories. I remember using the chrome torpedos with a treble hook on a string of Lucky Joe's at OB pier around 1970. Used to have big schools of bonito go through and hit every hook on the rig. Cool..........

Thanks for the replys. I think I'm gonna beef up the sabiki rig. Worse case scenario would be it breaking off on a BSB or other fish. I've seen a pic of a sabiki wrapped halibut. Last thing we need is a ban on sabiki's.

BTW- Abu6000 was the old sabiki reel, Friggin handle fell off. Finding parts ain't easy. Andy, think you have one of those...watch out.

speaking of torpedo weights... I found these at Fred Hall.. the candy catchers booth had them... Although, they were giving them away with a squid jig sabiki, I convinced them to sell a couple to me seperate, as I already had a couple of their sabiki's... A couple months ago, I got taps on my sabiki that didn't stick, I thought maybe they were squirts...?

Couldn't find these on their website, I am sure an email might get them to sell them.

http://www.candycatchers.com/

As you can see they are 4oz, the same as a regular torpedo weight... I painted them white, as they come in silver...

http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g2...c/P1010005.jpg