Downrigging Basics

Living close to a boat ramp means I’m able to get out for a quick fish whenever work and weather permits:

Out yesterday morning and headed straight for the bait grounds. Don’t know what the brand is, but these sabikis are proving deadly. I cut the trace in half to make 2 by 3 hook leaders. Then, I use one of our 40 gram jigs, instead of a sinker. I’m catching live yellowtail on the three little hooks, and the odd keeper trevally on the jig:

Bait is rigged as follows. Put a size 18 rubber band on your bait needle:

Push the needle through the eye socket. Avoid puncturing the eye. Bait fish should be able to be released to swim away, if not used:

Make two loops of equal size:

Pass your hook through both loops, then do a full 360 degree turn and put the point of the hook through the loop you just made:

Drop your rod in the rod holder and back off the drag. Run the line out until the braid appears above your leader. Take another rubber band and wrap it four times around the braid. Then put the loop you have made through the metal clip we supply. Drop your weight to the depth required and tighten you downrigger drag and your reel drag. This little 65cm representative of what was around South Head yesterday morning. There are plenty there, which is good news for the summer months:

And we have taken kings over a metre using exactly this technique, at exactly this spot:

One last idea? I’m finding that, if you’re marking fish in a place you know holds kingfish, try throwing over some cut pilchards? Then looping back and downrigging through the mark again:

That worked crazy well yesterday. As I straightened up to pass over the burley drop spot the kings were boiling on the surface. Good luck and let me know how you go
Andrew Hestelow

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