Injecting Life Into Your Sea Rig


Beach fishing is all about efficiency. For every single second that your sea bait is in the water, you want it to work to its maximum potential. Realistically, to be as efficient as possible, you would need to put a bait right on the nose of a fish time after time, but even if the fish were giving away their position you would be hard pressed to do it.

Let Your Rig Search The Sea Bed
So, you must be wondering, how do you maximise your time spent with a bait in the water? Well, by using the forces of nature, and by tweaking your sea rigs and equipment you can get your rigs working to their full potential.
Imax FR Competition Beach Shelter
One of the most important things while fishing is to search out every single nook and cranny of your peg – there may be a fish-filled hole just waiting to be found. This is made a whole lot easier with a bit of tide movement. But if there is no tide don’t worry. By twitching your rig back every minute or so you will find yourself covering far more ground than simply leaving your rig stationary, hopefully helping it to bump into more fish.

Fisheagle Hold Fast 1.8m Beach Tripod 
If there is some tide movement, you can simply let it do all the work for you. Cast your lead out into the tide and let it roll around. Casting uptide of your peg will allow you more fishing time before your lead weight has swung too far around.

It is crucial to find the right balance of weight to the strength of the tide. With a light, 2oz weight in a strong tide your rig may roll by far too quickly, yet a heavy lead weight in a weak tide probably won’t move at all.

There are no set rules about how much weight to use, it’s up to you to work it out for yourself, and you’ll know when you’ve got it right.

Penn Spinfisher VI Long Cast Reel
To cover more ground, it is recommended using plain leads, preferably torpedo or ball-shaped versions, due to the fact they don’t grip the sea bed.

Another hands-free way of moving your baits is by utilising the wave's action. By fishing a slightly slack line (not so slack that it bows on to the beach but not so tight that it’s like piano wire), you will be able to pick up this movement and transfer it to your rig.

Tronixpro Beach Seat Box
The constant crashing motion of the waves hitting your line will help dance your baits around, making them look extra enticing for the fish. Bites may be a bit hard to spot while doing this, though it’s normally noticeable once you’ve got used to the rhythm of the waves moving your rod tip.

Daiwa Crossflow 2pc Floatation Suit
Just when you thought you couldn’t get any more movement into your rig without physically shaking it up and down, guess what? You can. And shaking it up and down is exactly what you do.

Tronixpro Rig Float
The Tronixpro rig floats at the top of your rig are very effective for this purpose. They catch any passing wave movement and help you fish your rig at a slightly different angle in the water column. These floats can be absolutely deadly in the summer months.
Tronixpro Aphex Continental GT Rods
A weighted float at the top of your rig can have a very similar effect. This method is very good on shallower surf beaches where waves are constantly rolling the float around.
Live Ragworm
With the float being weighted, it also reduces the need for weight on the end of the rig.

There are loads more ways to get the most out of your rig while fishing, like extra-long snoods, or different diameter fishing lines… just far too many to mention in one article. These are some of the favoured ways to get your rigs working in the water but it’s always worth experimenting and trying new ideas, no matter how daft they may seem.

Top 5 Tips
  • Search all of the seabed.
  • Always use the tide to your advantage
  • Cast uptide and let the lead weight swing round
  • Use the right size sinker
  • Plain leads work best
  • Make sure you are using fresh bait at regular intervals 

This article was brought to you in association with Sea Angler Magazine

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