How to use a Sabiki Rig

[squidjigga]

Hi raiders,

Recently I've been getting in to catching my own bait and so I've been using Sabiki Rigs. I find if I add small bits of bread or prawns, I am able to catch livebait almost instantly. However, I've been advised that Sabiki Rigs should be able to catch bait without the addition of bread or anything like that. I've tried it a few times and I end up never even getting a nibble if I don't add something to the Sabiki. Am I missing something here? Does anyone have advice on how to catch bait using only a Sabiki? I am land-based if that matters.

Thanks in advance!

[Ryder]

Berley them up. Use bread, minced up fish or prawn, even grated potato.

Once they re feeding the Sabiki will pay off.

Edited March 26 by Ryder
Autocorrect can’t spell Sabiki

[DerekD]

Depends where you are fishing too. We use them when we head out on a charter and they are very effective. We find the bait schools and have a slightly heavier sinker than you would expect on them and we send them whistling down into the depths. We can control the descent with our fingers till we find a speed that seems to work. They would look like a school of fleeing mini baitfish which seems to trigger the attack response in the predators (yellowtail scad and slimies). If they get hit you feel it and then you wind it up and put the fish in the bait tank. If you don't then wind it up above the bait school and send it again and again till you hook up again.

[slothparade]

Try a bit of burley, slightly larger sinker and drop it through the school and slowly bring it back up and drop it down again. 

[squidjigga]

Thanks @Ryder grated potato is a new tip for berley that I haven't heard yet. Any other ideas for cheap and convenient berley?

@DerekD@slothparade thanks for the tips using the Sabiki. I've been jigging it up and down in the schools of bait fish so that must be where I'm going wrong. I'll try using a heavy-ish pyramid sinker and dropping then retrieving the rig at different speeds.

[Derny Driver]

8 hours ago, squidjigga said:

Thanks @Ryder grated potato is a new tip for berley that I haven't heard yet. Any other ideas for cheap and convenient berley?
 

I get stale bread rolls from the local bakery. Dry them out in the oven. Chop them up and put them through the blender. Then into ziplock bags.

[PaddyT]

Derek touched on the key thing-you will get a lot more bites on the drop that any other way. In my boat we will mark the bait schools and drop the jigs through the school-if no touches then wind them above the school and drop again-downward movement gets the bite. I rarely -if ever-bait my jigs. Slimies will hit a sabiki being retrieved . When they first came out back in the 80's as i was only a rock fisho back then i got good results suspending them under a float. Also inshore or inside the harbour i get much better results using very small sabikis-match the hatch. 

[squidjigga]

12 hours ago, PaddyT said:

Derek touched on the key thing-you will get a lot more bites on the drop that any other way.

By dropping, you mean opening the bail and letting it fly down right? Not just dipping the rod tip lower?

And good mention on the size, I'd almost forgotten sabikis come in a range of hook sizes 🤦‍♂️ might need to go smaller

[PaddyT]

Bail arm open and drop-in current i will stick crew down the back of the boat and slowly drive backwards into the current to keep the line vertical -in my experience jiggling the rod tip up and down doesnt work all that well.

[zmk1962]

@squidjigga all of the above reports reflect my experience with sabiki jigs for bait…. Including yours. 
They manly work dropping through a school of bait fish - and you need to experiment with size of jigs and the speed of the drop on the day to get consistent hook up rate. Because you are relying on dropping through the school it implies you need to be in fairly deep water given Sabiki rigs are generally around 1.5 - 2m (5-6ft).  No point trying to drop that length jig in 5m of water. 
The only way I have been able to get a bite on a sabiki in shallow water where you can’t drop is to use an attractant scent on the jigs - something like Gulp or Squidge Gel. This corresponds with your experience of needing to bait the jigs. 
But on that point, from memory the DPI site states you can only use a max of 3 hooks when line fishing (sabiki are excluded as they are jigs/lures) but once you add bait technically you have a 6 hook paternoster rig. 
Happy to be corrected on this point. 
Anyway, since I mostly catch my live bait in less than 6m of water I have reverted to a simple handline. 
I do carry a string or two of sabikis in case we encounter baitfish offshore in deeper water. 
cheers Zoran 

[squidjigga]

Thanks for the info Zoran,
Using gel on the sabiki is not a bad idea too if the water is shallow. Interesting note about the legality of a baited sabiki, never thought of that but it makes sense now you say it.