pennel v paternosta with a big hook

[g-force]

Interesting to see people's preferences...I like to two-hook when possible, especially during matches (double the baits, double your chances...) so don't often use a pennel. However I find them very useful when fishing anywhere from a height where a bit of a lift is needed, especially when bigger fish might be expected. I'll also often use them when stalking those big fish in the kelp as having two hooks down their gobs helps cut your chances of losing them in the weed.

Pulley rigs are a different matter - I really am not a fan of this rig, and many I speak to tell the same story; a lot of really riving bites, where your rod is literally yanked out of your arm / stand and still the fish fails to get hooked! I'll use them clipped down over really rough ground on the odd occasion that distance might be required, but that's about it. As to them cutting your tackle losses, I tried a little experiment today while fishing the Amble comp at Newton. I alternated between a pulley rig and my standard rough-ground rig (both pennels as well btw & both fitted with rotten bottoms) - which is a simple loop-to loop set up, about a 3ft hooklength looped to the rig body about 18 inches above the sinker. Every cast with the pulley rig resulted in some sort of loss: either just the sinker, the whole rig & on two occasions the whole leader as well. My old-school stand-off loop rig came back every time with nothing more than a bent hook, and never once dropped off the sinker.

Speaking of hooklengths - 20lb is fine for flatties, but I use 40 or 50lb minimum on all my cod rigs. This helps with abrasion resistance, lifting fish & perhaps more importantly really cuts down on the tangles as it's a lot stiffer. Sometimes hooklengths will be as much as 60 or 80lb, depending on the amount of trashing I can expect the rig to be taking.

Cheers, Gary

[Topfly]

Shaun, you are ok using 25/30lb breaking strain on your snoods, the fish dont care about touching the line, when they can smell a juicy bait, and a heavier line will flow better in the tide.
The length of the snoods would vary, ie in a big sea short, 18in nailed with a gripper on the sea bed. In a dying sea 30in rolling lead, in rough ground when you are in a good position to lift out, use 3/4ft up and over trace with a fixed spider lead, and that way your lead grabs the first boulder and your bait is behaving more naturally away from the lead. you can fish with a rotten bottom if preferred but with big spiders the gear comes back 90% of the time. hope this helps.

[shaun]

thanks for the info and advice and i know what you mean with pully rigs gary i had a nice fish on was biting like mad started reeling in 10 seconds later it was off because i hadent hooked it properly