Advice on Sabiki Rigs

[Berleyguts]

2 hours ago, zmk1962 said:

Like others posted above I find a heavy sinker helps with reducing tangles in the sabiki jigs when you get 2-3 or more fish hooked up. If I’m not using sabiki jigs then I do as you describe - little if any weight. 
cheers Zoran 

Thanks Zoran. Do you find you get fewer slimies (than yakkas) when you use heavy lead?

[zmk1962]

55 minutes ago, Berleyguts said:

Thanks Zoran. Do you find you get fewer slimies (than yakkas) when you use heavy lead?

For some reason i have found slimies hard to find consistently (maybe it’s the weight !!!!) - but honestly lately I have not been live bait fishing much lately. It’s been pretty much flatties or deep dropping for me. Not sure why really 🤔.

cheers Zoran 

[bombora]

Boat and land based sabiki bait collecting are different scenarios. 

Best advice you've been given was in one of the replies.

To make it simple, land based:

Cut sabiki in half so you have 3 hooks (and you now have two sabikis from each packet).

Smaller is usually better in the harbour (down to size 8 hook or  even smaller); the simple tiny glow bead, red tie, fish skin ones are often hard to beat.

Either use under a small bobby cork with appropriate sinker at end of rig. Let chop and boat wash etc "jiggle" the rig. Vary the depth of the jig under the bobby cork till you start catching. You can also do a slow stop start retrieve with the bobby cork rig if static bobby cork isn't working.

Or tie a lightish metal lure at end and cast and retrieve, varying the speed and depth of the retrieve.

A bit of burley usually helps. 

Heavy sinkers and "straight up and down" sabiki jigging is a boat thing.

[MaxSakuma]

I usually use those cheap Daiso sabiki rigs ($1 each) and just add a sink on the very end of the rig.

Tiny pieces of chicken breast and happy fishing. 

[James Clain]

21 hours ago, Gengar said:

Guys i really appreciate all the advice and tip. Guess all the brands of sabiki rigs are about the same? I will try the hayabusa one but cut it in half as 3 hooks will do. I will try a small piece of squid as some suggested and see how that goes. I also read about using a heavy sinker, how heavy should i go with 3 hooks? Will a size 1 star sinker be enough?

James, i am in the gladesville area. Usually i find some yakka but not always. During summet i try to get there early and use them for the kingies. I know squid are better but havent been very successful with squid jigs.

Gladesvile is still quite a long way up, you can get them there but really you need to go to a big pier like pier 8. Ives steps. These wharves seem to be the ultimate spot for yakkas and where the bait is the kingys are, i would not go further inshore than birchgrove for kings unless you actually hear that they are busting up further inshore. 

Prioritise small yakkas inshore and use 5/0, 6/0 live bait hooks. I prefer bridle rigged because more hook is exposed

[Gengar]

10 hours ago, MaxSakuma said:

I usually use those cheap Daiso sabiki rigs ($1 each) and just add a sink on the very end of the rig.

Tiny pieces of chicken breast and happy fishing. 

Daiso sells sabiki rigs? Didnt know that!

[Gengar]

12 hours ago, bombora said:

Boat and land based sabiki bait collecting are different scenarios. 

Best advice you've been given was in one of the replies.

To make it simple, land based:

Cut sabiki in half so you have 3 hooks (and you now have two sabikis from each packet).

Smaller is usually better in the harbour (down to size 8 hook or  even smaller); the simple tiny glow bead, red tie, fish skin ones are often hard to beat.

Either use under a small bobby cork with appropriate sinker at end of rig. Let chop and boat wash etc "jiggle" the rig. Vary the depth of the jig under the bobby cork till you start catching. You can also do a slow stop start retrieve with the bobby cork rig if static bobby cork isn't working.

Or tie a lightish metal lure at end and cast and retrieve, varying the speed and depth of the retrieve.

A bit of burley usually helps. 

Heavy sinkers and "straight up and down" sabiki jigging is a boat thing.

Thanks mate. Will try but need to get my hand on a sabiki first. Hopefully find time to get one this week!

[Gengar]

5 hours ago, James Clain said:

Gladesvile is still quite a long way up, you can get them there but really you need to go to a big pier like pier 8. Ives steps. These wharves seem to be the ultimate spot for yakkas and where the bait is the kingys are, i would not go further inshore than birchgrove for kings unless you actually hear that they are busting up further inshore. 

Prioritise small yakkas inshore and use 5/0, 6/0 live bait hooks. I prefer bridle rigged because more hook is exposed

Never been to pier 8 or ives step before. Is parking easy or get over crowded?

I usually just use two 2/0 circle hooks on a live yakka. I have seen a live bait hook before but never understood what the advantages are.

[MaxSakuma]

7 hours ago, Gengar said:

Daiso sells sabiki rigs? Didnt know that!

They do! It's really poor quality tho...but enough to have fun with yakkas and sardines.

I believe most Daisos have a little fishing section or just a tiny shelf with some hooks, sabiki rigs and sometimes metal slugs.

[James Clain]

13 hours ago, Gengar said:

Never been to pier 8 or ives step before. Is parking easy or get over crowded?

I usually just use two 2/0 circle hooks on a live yakka. I have seen a live bait hook before but never understood what the advantages are.

2/0 circle hook is fine if using light leader but generally kingys go pretty hard and if a big one takes your live-bait land-based there is not much hope. Especially at pier 8 they go super hard because there is so much structure for them to pick. I have been smoked on 30lb there upgraded the 50lb then been smoked again even harder. They would have been big fish and generally kingys are a bit smaller and easy to deal with but you can run a small 2/0 circle hook on 50lb leader because it will just bend out. generally 2/0 hook is a tad small for a yakka as well. The gamakatzu hr mustad hoodlum live bait hooks are also deadly strong since they are designed for that sort of fishing. I have had my mustad 2/0 circle hooks straighten on 15lb when trying to stop big stuff.

Pier 8 does have decent parking ives steps does not but that being said anything inshore of birchgrove will be consistent enough to find your own spots that suit you. Although a few good kings have been caught around cockatoo island and even further inshore right now it's just easier to find them further down stream. 

[Gengar]

14 hours ago, MaxSakuma said:

They do! It's really poor quality tho...but enough to have fun with yakkas and sardines.

I believe most Daisos have a little fishing section or just a tiny shelf with some hooks, sabiki rigs and sometimes metal slugs.

Thanks mate, will have a look around next time I am there!

[Gengar]

7 hours ago, James Clain said:

2/0 circle hook is fine if using light leader but generally kingys go pretty hard and if a big one takes your live-bait land-based there is not much hope. Especially at pier 8 they go super hard because there is so much structure for them to pick. I have been smoked on 30lb there upgraded the 50lb then been smoked again even harder. They would have been big fish and generally kingys are a bit smaller and easy to deal with but you can run a small 2/0 circle hook on 50lb leader because it will just bend out. generally 2/0 hook is a tad small for a yakka as well. The gamakatzu hr mustad hoodlum live bait hooks are also deadly strong since they are designed for that sort of fishing. I have had my mustad 2/0 circle hooks straighten on 15lb when trying to stop big stuff.

Pier 8 does have decent parking ives steps does not but that being said anything inshore of birchgrove will be consistent enough to find your own spots that suit you. Although a few good kings have been caught around cockatoo island and even further inshore right now it's just easier to find them further down stream. 

Thanks mate for sharing. Talking about leaders my 30lb fluoro leader got smoked as a fish grabbed my pilchard on 2/0 circle hook. Should have used my 50lb but i feel theres less bites on my 50lb.

[James Clain]

13 hours ago, Gengar said:

Thanks mate for sharing. Talking about leaders my 30lb fluoro leader got smoked as a fish grabbed my pilchard on 2/0 circle hook. Should have used my 50lb but i feel theres less bites on my 50lb.

You can probably push the 30lb pretty hard, i would assume the 2/0 circle hooks would bend out way before the 30lb would break. Make sure you are using palomar knots or uni knots 4 wraps. 

[PaddyT]

Dont worry about straigtening hooks , but 2/0 is way too small for a live yakka and the hole point of a circle is that it will "roll" into the corner of a fishes jaw-2 of them in a rig defeat the whole point of circles-personally off the shore a 7 or 8/0 livebait style hook through the shoulder of the yakka under a float is going to work fine-damned if i can rememeber how many kings i caught or hooked of the rocks doing that and i have no doubt it still works. Bridle rigs completely unnecessary when using non circle hooks. Kings tend to hook themselves on hitting the bait so dropping more than a meter of line too them on the strike just means they are a meter closer to wiping you out.