Using Livies At Spit Bridge (land-based)

[paulthetaffy]

I'm thinking of a session soon at spit bridge with live yakkas to see if I can pick up a king or two. I was just wondering how best to fish them there due to the deep nature of the channel? Would you fish them high up under a float (say 1-2m deep) or with a sinker so that they're down on the deck?

From research it seems that those fishing from a boat downrig them to be a few metres off the bottom but being land-based it's either on the deck or up high - can't really do much in between.

Cheers

Paul

[jewgaffer]

I'm thinking of a session soon at spit bridge with live yakkas to see if I can pick up a king or two. I was just wondering how best to fish them there due to the deep nature of the channel? Would you fish them high up under a float (say 1-2m deep) or with a sinker so that they're down on the deck?

From research it seems that those fishing from a boat downrig them to be a few metres off the bottom but being land-based it's either on the deck or up high - can't really do much in between.

Cheers

Paul

Hi Taffy I you are thinking of driving in down the last turn on the left on the Sydney side past the Marina to fish off the little beach at the side the bridge, it would be hard to run a float down there or even cast a float well enough even in the stillwater it would be too hard on the livie to keep winding it back all the time...you could use a drop shot rig with a sinker on the bottom and rig up your livie off a short length of single leader as if it was a running snapper sinker coming off a running swivel to a bead above the main swivel, but have a piece of wool wrapped around the line as a stopper about a metre and a half or so higher than the main swivel, and keep the line reasonably tight by winding in the slack occasionally.. you could also use a standard rig with a running bean sinker on say a 600mm long leader on another rod to get more distance and just use a small cork on the leader itself to perch the livie up off the bottom

Cheers

jewgaffer

Edited December 7, 2009 by jewgaffer

[paulthetaffy]

Hi Taffy I you are thinking of driving in down the last turn on the left on the Sydney side past the Marina to fish off the little beach at the side the bridge, it would be hard to run a float down there or even cast a float well enough even in the stillwater it would be too hard on the livie to keep winding it back all the time...you could use a drop shot rig with a sinker on the bottom and rig up your livie off a short length of single leader as if it was a running snapper sinker coming off a running swivel to a bead above the main swivel, but have a piece of wool wrapped around the line as a stopper about a metre and a half or so higher than the main swivel, and keep the line reasonably tight by winding in the slack occasionally.. you could also use a standard rig with a running bean sinker on say a 600mm long leader on another rod to get more distance and just use a small cork on the leader itself to perch the livie up off the bottom

Cheers

jewgaffer

Hi Jewgaffer,

I've fished the little beach that side and also from the park on the opposite side of the bridge and road - I live just up in Balmoral so I'm familiar with the area but just not fished it with livies before. Thanks for the suggestions though.

I've been trying to find some foam balls or similar to create a "popup" rig just as your second suggestion - this is very much how we used to present baits above thick weed beds for carp back in the UK! Glad to hear I was along the right lines with that one. A cork seems like a great idea if I can figure out a good way to rig it but I'm concerned it wont be boyant enough to force the livie up. Only one way to find out though!

Didn't think about the drop-shot rig though with the livie on it's own short-running leader. That rig should allow the livie a bit more freedom to move around too I would imagine, without letting it come too high up in the water column. I guess I would need a relatively heavy sinker for that one though so that the mainline is nailed in position.

Is a long cast necesary there then? It's very difficult to work out where the channels are without a sounder

Thanks

Paul

[jewgaffer]

Hi Paul, sorry about the lack of details on the cork set up...just drill a hole thru a wine cork and thread your line thru it and back the same way again to fix it just above the live bait or dead bait, or long squid strip streamer baits etc.. pull the leader in tight and you will find the cork will stand out close to 90 degrees to the line and stay there trying to right itself and that sort of buoyancy if you could call it that will encourage the livie to go up with it.. i.e. the livie will find it easier to go up with the cork and swim it along rather than pull against it just to stay down near the bottom...

Also, there are a lot of lights and distractions under a bridge and I think it its always better to cast as far away from the shore as you can into the dark to the side of bridge lighting . you can still cast in the dark directly under a bridge with a hands on rod with a heavier line on it otherwise a decent fish could run you into a pylon should you not be able to hold it off soon enough... No matter whether you are boat fishing or fishing landbased, it's better to cast out of light and particularly if you are land based and an area that is dark in the first place always seems to fish better if you keep it that way as far as lanterns etc and headlights go....

Cheers

jewgaffer

Edited December 7, 2009 by jewgaffer