is also a good idea for trout, bass, and other fish made wary by fishing pressure. Abrasion resistance is also a huge plus. When these lines get nicked or scratched from being dragged across structure by a heavy fish, they are much less likely to break than comparable nylons. You have lots of knot options for making
leaders. I usually use a four-turn surgeon’s knot to attach a fluorocarbon fly-fishing tippet, for example, and back-to-back Uni knots with heavier lines.
This is the most widely useful—and the easiest “to tie—of all terminal knots that you’ll see used in freshwater and inshore saltwater fishing. It works well with both nylon monofilaments and superbraids, and will soon be your new best friend in the knot world.
STEP 1 Extend about 6 inches ( cm) of doubled line through the eye of the hook or lure.
STEP 2 Tie a loose overhand knot using the doubled line on either side of the eye. The hook itself will hang from the middle of the knot.
STEP 3 Pass the loop over the hook. Wet the knot with saliva and then pull on the doubled line (but not the loop) to tighten. Trim closely.
1
2
3
17
GE
T INTO
HEAVY METAL
PINCH-ON SINKER
MODELS:Lead or tin; round, clam, bullet, or elongated.
USES: Geing lures, flies, and bait deeper in the water for trout, bass, catfish, and other species. They’re most oen used in stream and river fishing.
RIGGING:Pinch the shot or sinker to the line above the hook or lure.
TIPS:Pinch-on weights are best used for casting. The clam and bullet shapes are more snag resistant.
BULLET SINKER
MODELS:Lead, brass, steel, or tungsten; painted, free-sliding, or self-pegging.
USES: Casting or pitching Texas-rigged so plastics.
RIGGING: Run the line through the sinker’s pointed end and tie it to a worm hook.
TIPS: Use the lightest sinker needed to maintain boom contact or to penetrate cover. Let the sinker slide free for open water; peg the sinker to the head of the bait amid thick cover.
EGG SINKER
MODELS:Lead, steel, or bismuth.
USES:Carolina-rigging so-plastic bass lures; driing and boom-fishing live bait for everything from trout to stripers.
RIGGING: Run line through the sinkerand tie it to a two-way swivel. Aach a leader and hook to the other side.
TIPS: This allows a fish to run with the bait without feeling its weight. Over a snag-filledboom,pinch a split shot on the line in place of the swivel.
DROP SINKER
MODELS:Lead, steel, or tungsten; round, teardrop, or cylindrical.
USES:Fishing smallso plastics in deep water.
RIGGING: Tie a drop-shot hook to the line with a Palomar knot, leaving a long tag line to aach the sinker.
TIPS: Aer the sinker touches down, gently pull the line taut without moving the sinker. Then drop the rod tip and let the lure free-fall slowly to the boom.
WALKING SINKER
MODELS: Lead or steel; Lindy-style or banana-shape (boom weighted).
USES:Presenting live bait to walleyes. They’re either dragged over the boom behind a driing boat or trolled.
RIGGING:Thread the line through a walking sinker and tie it to a swivel. To the other side, tie a - to 6-foot ( to m) 6-pound-test ( kg) leader with a live-bait hook.
TIPS: Banana-type models are more resistantto snags.
19
CHANGE HOOKS
FOR BETTER FISHING
18
Adjustyour
bobber to the fish
BLUEGILLS When bluegills are on or near spawning beds in early spring, set your bobber to fish shallow with only or feet (.6 to . m) of line, holding your bait a few inches off the boom. Later in summer, when bigger bluegills have moved to offshore boom humps to feet ( to . m) deep, slide your bobber stop up the line to fish the same terminal gear at those depths.
TROUT For both resident stream trout and steelhead, adapt the tactic to moving water. To work a run of moderate current that’s feet (. m) deep, set your bobber so the worm, salmon egg, or small jig is just above the boom as the bobber dris with the current. Cast up and across the stream, then hold your rod high; keep as much slack line as possible out of the current to avoid drag on the bobber while following the dri with your rod. When the bobber pauses or darts underwater, set the hook.
WALLEYES Put a wriggly leech on a size 6 or hook, add some small split shots, and set your slip bobber to fish at the same depth as the outside edge of a deep weedline. Ideally, a light breeze will dri both your boat and the floating bobber slowly along the edges of the vegetation, so you’ll cover lots of water with very lile effort.
BASS Set your slip bobber shallow to fish a frisky -inch (. cm) live shiner along shoreline structure. When you come to some deeper structure off a shoreline point, it takes only a few seconds to adjust your bobber stop and fish the same shiner feet ( m) deeper and right on the money.
Remove those treble hooks from your lures and replace them with straight-shank hooks one size larger. Attach the single hook to the lure’s
forward hook mount and leave the rear bare. Fish often hit lures headfirst, so you will get just as many hookups, and the release will be easier.
20
PLA
BAITING GAME
CIRCLELIGHT WIRE RINGABERDEENBAIT-HOLDERKAHLE
B
