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If you are contemplating booking a reef fishing trip, Read
THIS first.
Reef Fishing
There are many variables to take into consideration when
embarking on a reef fishing trip,
The time of year will dictate what species are available in your
chosen sea area, for instance,
It would be a futile exercise to tackle up for Whiting in July at
Weymouth when we only get them during the Winter period,
Similarly it would be a waste of time trying to catch Tope during
the Winter,
Other factors to consider are the type of ground to be fished
i.e. Reef or Sandbank,
Sandbanks will hold a population of flatfish which could include
Plaice, Turbot, Brill, Dabs, Flounder etc. so you would need to make
up a rig that ensured your bait was hard on the seabed, a
paternoster rig made up to catch (for instance) Black Bream would be useless on
a Sandbank,
Reefs can be quite varied in there make up, from large rocky
pinnacles to relatively flat slate ground, Pollack and Bass will be
found haunting the rocky pinnacles of a deep water reef whilst
Congers and Ling are at home in the base of the pinnacles and also
on the flatter marks,
Fishing on the drift or fishing at anchor, depth of water, tidal
flow, flood or ebb tide, wind speed and direction, water temperature
all need to be taken into consideration,
So where do you start, Firstly dependant on the time of year I
would recommend that you target a specific species and then adjust
your tackle to suit the prevailing conditions,
I would personally set my sights on Bass, Whiting & Cod for my
Winter targets and Bass, Black Bream and Turbot/Brill for my Summer
targets,
Make sure you have sufficient tackle with you to be able to adapt
when your skipper decides to move to another mark, or, if you are
trying to catch Black Bream and are getting pestered by Pouting then
you could change tactics and make up a Conger Eel rig using a
Pouting as bait,
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Tackle
Rigs can be divided into two categories,
Rigs that
present a bait
on the seabed and those that present a bait off
the seabed,
Of those that present a bait on
the seabed the most popular must be the
Running Ledger rig
The running ledger rig has many permutations from simple one hook
rigs as shown in the diagram to multi hook wishbone rigs (used when
drifting for Plaice) but its effect is always to keep the bait hard
onto or very close to the seabed,

The Paternoster rig on the other
hand is designed to keep a bait off the seabed, this can be very
effective when targeting such species as Black Bream, Pollack, Bass
and Mackerel to name but a few,
Species that find there
food by smell will be most attracted to a bait presented on the
Running Ledger rig and conversely
species that hunt for food by sight will be more attracted to the
Paternoster rig
Of those that present a bait off the seabed the most popular is the Paternoster rig

There are a bewildering
array of commercially tied Paternoster rigs available from your
local tackle shops ranging from humble Mackerel feathers to some
exquisitely tied competitions rigs from specialist manufacturers,
If you are planning to
tie your own rigs then I would recommend that you spend a couple of
hours sitting at home in the comfort of your favourite armchair to
carry out the task, spend a few extra pence on good quality gear and
keep everything as neat as possible,
In the case of
Paternoster rigs one golden rule should be adhered to and that is "Make
sure that when the rig is suspended vertically, The hooks cannot
touch, each other, the lead or the main line
connecting swivel" if when you test them, you find that they
do touch then shorten the hook snoods until they don't,
If you fail to adhere to
this rule your gear will end up constantly tangled and catching
nothing.
Keeping your rigs as neat and simple as possible serves two
purposes,
Firstly, they will be less likely to tangle or break under strain,
Secondly, they will create less drag to the tide and subsequently
will require less lead to maintain bottom contact,
If you are planning to buy some Paternoster rigs, There are a few
examples shown below including my own personal favourite the
"Blitzer" rig manufactured by tackle giants Shakespeare Tackle Co.

I was
"introduced" to the Blitzer rig a few years ago shortly after
Shakespeare started marketing them, I was out with a mixed party
onboard 'Lady Godiva' and we were targeting Black Bream, we were
having a few fish coming to the net when a 12 year old lad pulled a
brand new set of Blitzer rigs from his pocket and asked if they
would be any good for the Bream,
I told him
we would give them a go after all if they didn't catch Bream they
would do for the Mackerel,
Well this 12
year old lad had an absolute field day with the Bream, he just
tipped the Blitzers off with a thin strip of squid and
proceeded to catch Bream three at a time, the fish just could not
resist them,
Since then I
have always kept a few rigs in the wheelhouse for my Breaming trips.
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Tactics
I could write a book or even a complete website on fishing
tactics, but for now I will give some general guidance on basic
tactics for enticing a fish to bite..
We have already looked at a couple of rigs for reef fishing and I
have already stated there are dozens of different permutations based
on the two basic patterns, you will need to experiment with these to
see which works best on the day, however, once you have set up a rig
for reef fishing there is still a lot you can do to make your chosen
rig more efficient at catching fish,
Bait is with out doubt the most important feature of any rig, and
as well as the correct bait, correct bait presentation is a very
close second in the importance factor,
You can have one of the neatest rigs ever to adorn a rod & reel
and the freshest bait available, but, if it isn't presented properly
then you may as well take up knitting because you will need
something to break the boredom whilst waiting for a bite!
Running Ledger Rig
Lets make a start with the running ledger rig,
Assuming you have all the materials required to tie the rig, we
start with a line swivel attached to your main line and lets assume
that your main line is 30lb breaking strain, to attach the swivel we
will use a clinch knot,

The Clinch
knot is a variation of the half blood knot with the tag end passed
back through the loop, use this knot for all your rig tying,
Next we
attach a length (6') of slightly weaker mono line say 25lb breaking
strain, to this we thread on either a small tube boom or a zip
slider to take our lead sinker,

Next we add
a small plastic bead, the purpose of this is to protect the clinch
knot from being damaged by the Boom/Slider, and then another line
swivel to which we will add our hook length (4') of say 20lb
breaking strain mono, the length of hook trace will depend on the
tide flow with a longer one being deployed for a weak tide and a
shorter one for a strong tide (generally as a rule of thumb),
Finally the
hook itself, this must be suitable for the bait being used and the
target species, if we are using worm baits for Bream we would choose
a size 1 Aberdeen pattern hook, on the other hand if we were using
whole Mackerel fillets for Ling we would choose a 6/0 - 10/0
O'Shaughnessy pattern,
Which ever
hook you choose you should now have a rig resembling the
one below,

Next the
bait itself, I would always recommend that your bait should flow
with the tide,
Imagine a throng of bladder wrack seaweed flowing to
and fro in the tide, your bait should (if possible) do the same
thing,
To achieve this when cutting Mackerel/Squid baits always cut
long thin strips instead of chunks of bait, when attaching the
Mackerel strip (or Squid etc.) put the hook IN THE END OF THE BAIT
not in the middle like so many novices seem to do,
When you
lower your bait into the water you will see the difference
immediately, the strip of bait will wave in the tide like a flag,
the chunk of bait will just tangle as it spins around the trace
line,
Okay so now
we have a nicely presented bait sitting on the seabed and attached
to your rod by a beautifully tied running ledger rig,
Now we must
wait for the scent from your bait to travel down tide and attract the
fish towards your offering, after say 10 minutes if you have had no
nibbles then change the bait for a fresh one, it will have become
washed out and less attractive as a consequence,
If the fish
are being a little coy and only nipping the bait, try teasing them
by very gently lifting your rod tip, this will make them
think the bait is getting away and often they will attack it with
gusto, this is especially true of Black Bream.
You will
notice that the breaking strains of the line we used to tie this rig
was decreasing in strength from the main line to the hook length,
the reason for this is that if a part of the rig gets snagged in the
seabed, say its the hook for arguments sake, then the hook length
will break before the others and you will only lose the hook, if the
lead gets snagged then the trace will break before the mainline
(very important when using expensive braid main line).
The generic
term for such a setup is "Rotten Bottom", the lengths used will need
to be varied according to conditions,
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Paternoster Rig
Once again
lets assume you have all the necessary materials to make one up,
Take a
length (3') of 25lb mono and attach a line swivel at one end using
the clinch knot,
Next slide
on these items in this sequence,
A line
crimp, small bead, line swivel, small bead, line crimp, line crimp,
small bead, line swivel, small bead, line crimp,
finally tie
a snap swivel to the other end,
it should
look like this,

Now you can attach your hook snoods complete with
chosen hooks to both swivels and then position each group of two
beads, two crimps and line swivel so that the hooks are clear of the
other parts of the rig and when you are satisfied that they are
correctly positioned finish off by gently but firmly crimping the
line crimps up with your crimping tool, if you can't get any line
crimps then you can substitute them with a stop knot of some sort,
We have just made a 2 hook Paternoster rig but you
could make up 1, 2, 3 or even 4 hook rigs using the same method,

As with the running ledger rig, bait is again the most important,
always use the best bait that you can get your hands on, If your
bait supplier is selling you ragworm that falls apart when being
handled, change your supplier or at least complain about it,
The Paternoster rig will generally out fish all others when
targeting Wrasse, Pollack, Bream, Bass and Mackerel, they are most
often tied up with small attractors threaded onto the hook snoods,
attractors such as small sequins, very small coloured beads and even
small spoon blades will add to the attractiveness of these
rigs,
The attractors do exactly what they say on the tin, They attract
the attention of the fish, luring them towards your bait and will
often work better on the drift rather than at anchor, this is
because the fish we are targeting will be used to hunting there prey
by sight rather than tracking down a scent,
Once again a simple lift of the rod tip will often entice a bite
from an other wise lethargic fish, one word of caution when using
this rig, do not make your baits too big, a large bait is often
unnecessary and will only mask your hook and the attractors,
remember that your chosen quarry will be hunting by sight!
This is proven by the fact that un-baited Paternoster rigs will
often catch fish where as an un-baited running ledger will not!
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Rod Hire
We can provide Rod & Reel hire for your Reef fishing trip
(Call for Details)
Our rods are general purpose 7' 0" - 30lb class Fox Warrior rods,
our Mitchell reels are loaded with 30lb micro-braid line and
is terminated with a short length of 30lb mono line to which is
fitted a snap link swivel for attaching your terminal tackle,
Please Note,
We can provide terminal tackle for your reef fishing
trip,
These will be charged as an extra at £5 per person.
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Bookings
To Book your next Reef fishing trip
please send a cheque made payable to:
Seadrive Charters
10 Portwey Close
Weymouth
Dorset
DT4 8RF
Alternatively, You can use our secure credit card system below:
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Please make your choice from
the selection below, Ensure that your chosen date is available before
completing your purchase, You can check the availability of your
preferred dates here. |
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Accept all major credit cards, All payments are taken via a Paypal
secure connection, you will be redirected back to this site when you have
completed your purchase.
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Please enter your
preferred date
in the appropriate box below.
(Example - Sept 1st 2009) |
Whole Boat Deposit:
£100.00 per day
Balance to be paid on the day of the trip. |
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Whole Boat Charter Reef Fishing:
£400.00 per day |
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