Level up with livies

BUNDABERG Luke Truant

Fishing with live bait takes a bit more effort than fishing with dead bait. So why go to the trouble of catching livies?

The answer is twofold: you’re going to catch more fish, and bigger fish. Not 100% of the time, of course – there are some days when dead bait works better – but

Cod are suckers for a well-presented livie.

in the long run your catch rates will improve. That’s why the most mad-keen anglers often fish with live baits for both pelagics and bottom fish. It’s well worth spending that bit of extra time and effort. SABIKI RIGS AND RODS

Catching baitfish typically involves a sabiki rig, which is a length of line with a series of small, chemically-sharpened hooks along it. You put a sinker on one end of the rig, tie the other end to your main line, and send it down to where the baitfish are holding. Hook sizes generally range from around 12-4, and each hook has a bit of sparkle flash and often a glow bead as well, to maximise attraction. They’re irresistible to small fish like yellowtail scad, slimy mackerel, garfish, small

trevally and more.

While you don’t need a proper hollow sabiki rod, it will save you money in the long run because you won’t go through as many jigs. Sabiki rods aren’t too expensive; all the ones I’ve seen have been under $100. These rods have a trumpetshaped opening at the top, and you can wind your entire rig up inside the rod at the end of the session. This allows you to potentially get several trips out of one rig (each rig costs around $4-$6).

When the sabiki rig is fully inside the tube of the rod, the hooks are all covered so there’s only the sinker exposed at one end, ready to drop, and no hooks that can catch on anything.

I have a handy tip with sabiki rods. I’ve found that the swivels on your jigs get caught in the lower ceramic guide near the reel, so I get a screw driver and snap the rectangular ceramic eyelet off. This makes the opening wider which allows the jig to go all the way into the rod without the swivel catching. It doesn’t seem to affect the braid touching the rod, as the braid actually touches the edge of the tubular blank with or without the guide.

The alternative to a sabiki rod is, as you may

know, a short length of pool noodle. To use it, you wrap the rig around the pool noodle, stab yourself in the finger a few times and then re-tie it – if you haven’t got it caught in the carpet or side pocket. As you might guess, I’m not a fan!

When it comes to the

jigs themselves, I don’t have a favourite brand but I do buy jigs with heavier mono and really small hooks. In my experience, using small hooks seems to give you more hook-ups. If you’re using the larger size jigs and the baitfish are pilchardsized, it will take you a lot longer to get your live baits in the morning. And the reason I like heavier mono is because every now and then you’ll hook up to a bonito or other larger fish and you can land them without losing hooks.

Lastly, if you spool your reel with mono rather than braid, you may find you’ll land more livies. This is because mono line stretches, acting as a shock-absorber, so the hooks are less likely to tear out of the baitfish’s soft mouth.

Now let’s look at how to work your sabiki rigs.

LINE AND LEADER

When it comes to jigging for live bait, it’s not just about getting the baitfish to bite – you want to prevent them from swimming around each other in circles. When they swim in circles, they tangle the jig.

To address this issue I use a heavier sinker on the bottom, at least 4oz. If you’re getting really large yellowtail scad or other big livies, you’ll want an 8oz at the bottom to help stop the fish swimming around each other and tying up the jig.

Once you’ve dropped down, as soon as you get to the bottom you should start winding with a slow to medium retrieve. If you feel one fish on, you might feel the temptation to pause your retrieve in hopes of hooking a second. Don’t do it – they’ll swim around and tangle the rig, and you’ve just thrown $5 in the bin. Once you feel a fish on, always keep winding. Other fish will get on there as the jig rises to the surface.

When you get the fish up to the boat, it’s best to have someone ready to help you. The goal is to minimise the amount of time the livies spend dangling out of the water, struggling to breathe and sometimes falling on the deck. The person using the jig rod can lift the jig up and hold onto the sinker, while the other person takes the fish off. Then the baitfish can go into the livewell as quickly as possible. LIVEWELL

Your livewell needs as much flow as possible, so

you may want increase your pump capacity. You’d be surprised at how many fish you can pack in when you have a lot of flow.

Many tanks that have a multi-point system where the water comes in through a series of small holes. I’ve never noticed a difference between that and a single

A honker tuskfish caught on a live bait.

With two people working as a team – one on the rod, one unhooking fish – you’ll soon fill your livewell.

If you’re tired of tangled rigs and stabbed fingers, get a sabiki rod. It will soon pay for itself.

pipe. As long as you get adequate flow, it doesn’t matter how many holes it comes in from. In my tank the water is jetted in almost Keeping your fish alive isn’t just about keeping oxygen levels up, it’s about keeping the temperature down. The water in the bucket can heat

If your livie dies, don’t send it back down as-is. You’ll get better results if you butterfly it.

vertically, to push that clean water right down to the bottom. You want every square inch of your tank to have clean, oxygenated water. If not, some of the fish may die.

If you are using an aerator in a bucket, that’s OK as long as you change the water really often. up quickly, and that will kill your fish.

Each time you pull out a fresh livie, have a feel around the bottom of the tank for any that are stiff. Dead fish can cause a domino effect, where more start dying, so you want to get them out promptly. Definitely don’t throw them away, because they can make great baits when presented the right way. More on that later. RIGGING

For most bottom species and cobia, I like to rig the my live baits on a paternoster (dropper) rig. A paternoster rig consists of one or two loops spaced some distance apart, which will hold your hooks, with another loop below that holds a snapper lead. I use only one hook on my paternoster because there are big fish in our area; you definitely don’t want two 20kg+ fish on at the same time!

When you tie your paternoster, make sure you tie a dropper loop and not a figure 8. This is very important. I can’t count the

If you’re using big hooks for big fish, you need to strike hard for a solid hook-up. Big coral trout love chomping on livies.

number of fish I’ve seen lost due to people tying figure 8s instead of loop knots. Tying a loop is no harder than a figure 8, it takes an extra three seconds. If you’re not sure how, have a look on YouTube and you’ll see how easy it is.

When I tie the dropper loop for my hook, I always make the loop least 1.5 times the length of the live bait that I’m using. For example, if the bait is 10cm, I’ll tie a loop that juts out 15-20cm from the main line. The reason is that when a large fish inhales the livie, the livie needs to go all the way into the predator’s mouth before it hits the main line. You don’t want the predator

trying to get the livie in a little bit of their mouth before they hit the mainline.

Additionally, a longer loop also allows the live bait to swim a little more freely, live longer, and give a better presentation in the water.

If you’re fishing with braid, I recommend making your trace extra long, around 3-4m. A long leader provides a bit of stretch, acting as a shock absorber so that you’ll pull fewer hooks. The stretch also allows you to keep a more even pressure on the fish during the fight, so it’s less likely to come off.

The other reason I like a long leader is due to its abrasion resistance. If you hook a large cod, for example, and it gets you into the reef you’ve got a better chance of getting it out if the braid is nowhere near the reef.

I generally use 55lb Schneider leader, but 60-80lb fluorocarbon is also a great option. You want a leader with good abrasion resistance, both for structure and teeth, but beware of The best baits tend to produce the best fish.

When you get a bite from a live bait, maintain a steady retrieve.

buying the more opaque leaders. Some of the really abrasion-resistant leaders are white, rather than clear, and they are definitely not as good – at least where I fish. Clear or green leaders get more bites.

PRESENTATION

In my experience, the best way to rig a livie is to insert a hook up through the bottom of the jaw and out through the nose, pinning the mouth shut. When rigged in this way, a lot of the hook is exposed, so when you get a bite the fish is more likely to get hooked up solidly. When you strike, the hook will come up and usually set in the middle of the top lip. When hooked in the centre of the jaw, big fish are generally easier to fight. That’s because the fish is less likely to turn broadside, using its wide flanks to push against the water as you muscle it in. When the fish is coming up nose-first, it’s much less tiring for the angler.

My hook of choice for this is an 8/0 Elkat Live Bait hook (a Big Gun or Hoodlum should do the job too). These 8/0 hooks catch fish anywhere from 0.5kg to 40kg. When you

get really high carbon hooks they don’t usually straighten – I’ve never seen one of those Elkats even start to straighten.

Stinger

I have found that a running ball sinker rig is better than a paternoster when targeting coral trout and extra-large grass sweetlip. If I’m using a running ball sinker rig, I like to add a stinger hook. I snell the top hook and run the stinger down to the rear of the livie. I usually use the same 8/0 hook for the stinger that I use for the leading hook. If the bait is really small I’ll use a 7/0 for the stinger, but still an 8/0 for the leading hook.

I insert the stinger about two thirds down the livie, into its back behind the dorsal fin. Don’t insert the hook too low, or it will pierce the bait’s innards and it will soon die.

It’s important to get the right length of leader between the leading hook and the stinger. You want enough slack for the livie to swim freely, but not so much slack that you’ll keep getting snagged. Too much slack also seems to put the fish off, maybe because it strikes

the side of their mouth. Pelagics

When targeting pelagics or surface snapper (in Bundaberg nearly all our XXL snapper come off the surface), I will run a stinger rig with light single-strand wire between the leading hook and the stinger. The reason I use wire is to minimise bite-offs from passing mackerel.

The forward hook is an 8/0 Elkat and the tail hook is a no 2 VMC treble. I insert the treble on the very top of the fish. You want the hooks to be just the right distance apart, so the livie can swim straight. If the livie is bent, it will die.

I don’t use floats, I just throw the livie out with the current. I like to fish them along way back, letting out at least 50m of line. This avoids tangles, and the pressure of the line stops the fish swimming back upcurrent and hanging beneath the boat. THE FIGHT

When you have deployed your livie and you feel it starting to swim

faster and get frantic, that means it’s spotted a predator close by. This is when you want to let out about half a metre of line

to allow the bait to swim a little more freely, and hopefully get inhaled.

When a big fish scavenges a wafting dead bait, it often won’t hit it very hard. With a live bait, however, you can except a sudden, decisive strike, because the predator doesn’t want its swimming prey to escape.

When you get that forceful strike, set the hooks. If you’re using extra thick live bait hooks for big fish, you need to set the hooks well. Pull harder than you normally would to make sure the hook is in and barb is set. Think about how thick the skin is on a 20kg fish that you need to puncture.

Importantly here, your drag has to be set quite tight; when you’re setting the hook you don’t want to be losing drag.

Lastly, keep your fingers off the braid while you’re setting these hooks. If the fish does take drag it’s not going to be good on your fingers!

FALLBACK PLAN

If you pull in your live bait to find that it’s died on the hook, don’t just drop it down dead and hope for the best. Either put a new live bait on, or butterfly it.

Butterflying is great for small to medium size bait, such as a yellowtail scad. Cut from the tail back up to the head on both sides, and leave the tail on. That way, there will be three things flapping in the current, not just the two sides. You can rig your butterflied bait exactly like a live bait.

If your bait is a bit bigger, you can still butterfly it but I recommend removing the backbone and tail. This will make the bait more floppy and create a smaller presentation, so you can attract smaller fish, not just 10kg+.

If the bait is really large, just take both fillets off, keeping the tail on one of the fillets. Leave a small portion of the backbone attached to the head, and you now have three great dead baits from one livie. If you haven’t used head baits before, you should definitely try it.

Lastly, when fishing livies, it’s often good to have at least one person using dead baits. A smelly bit of squid, pilchard or flesh can attract a lot of interest from smaller fish, and the resulting commotion can draw the attention of bigger fish. Just be sure to rotate who’s using livies and who’s using dead baits, so everyone can have an equal chance of catching the fish of a lifetime!

A simple way to fish a livie on the bottom is with a single hook through the nose on a paternoster rig.

A live yellowtail was the undoing of this big knobby.