HAIR RIGS FOR SEA FISH?
Chatting to some lads about carp the other  day, one asked why hair rigs had never caught on in sea fishing?

I’ve experimented with hair rigs, as many  others have, in the sea, but found no real benefit in using them over  conventional forms of hook and bait presentation. I think one factor often  overlooked is that most sea fish have little time to think before eating  something. Given tide flow, surf movement, and above all competition from other  sea fish any hesitation means you’ll likely concede that food to a quicker  fish.

This instant decision factor means that  round fish like bass and cod must take a bait “on the run” while still  swimming. They often don’t have the whole bait in their mouths, but are  swallowing it as they swim away. Bass anglers will know how often the hook in a  crab bait is positioned outside the mouth of a bass when you land it. This is a  result of the bass picking up the bait at the opposite end from the hook,  swimming away and trying to swallow it, and the angler hitting what looks like  a normal solid bite that drives the hook, still outside the mouth, in to the  outside of the jaw. The same applies to cod that are hooked on the top hook of  a two-hook pennel system. This is in contrast to the lake carp or river barbel  that has time to inspect a bait, maybe suck the bait in and out a couple of  times before finally sucking the bait fully in to the mouth.

The shape of many sea baits is also a  problem when compared to boilies and the like. Worm baits like lug are long, so  you need a hook positioned inside towards the base where the fish is most  likely to hit. Likewise fish strips, whole sandeel, razorfish etc.

The only sea baits that instantly lend  themselves easily to hair rigging are sections of peeler crab or shellfish like  mussel and cockles. These can be formed to make a compact cylindrical or round  bait easily and tend to appeal to flatfish like flounder and plaice. And that  is where hair rigs find their place in sea fishing.

One of the problems with estuary flatfish  is that often the bites are tiny and easily missed, or left too long resulting  in a deeply hooked fish. I found that hair rigging these baits for flatfish  resulted in a much higher percentage of lip hooked fish. It’s obvious when you  think about it. The flattie takes its time swallowing the bait in to the mouth,  and the moment it has the bait it slowly moves off turning back to swim with  the tide. As it does so, the hook finds the inside edge of the lip. I also  caught a high proportion of eels on these hair rigs that were also lip hooked.  Useful given the mess they make when hooked deeper.

Hair rigs for sea fish then? In certain  situations, like flounder and eel fishing, maybe, but I don’t see them ever  being anything like the revelation they were for the carp and barbel boys.

TIPS AND TRICKS
If you need to wade for any type of bass  fishing, then you’ll soon get to realise that bass can be as spooky as sea  trout when lights are suddenly switched on nearby. Headlights need to be  carried to find your way back as the tide floods, but are way too bright for  changing spinners, flies, and sometimes crab baits when the bass you seek are  known to be just a few yards away.

The LED light technology advancement has  now produced a key fob light with a single LED that gives more than enough  light to change lures and flies with, but is probably all the light you need or  finding your way home if your main light fails too.

I’ve been using a Micro Cyba-Lite for both  sea trout and night fishing this summer and found it excellent. They run on  hearing aid type batteries and will run for at least 30 up to 50 hours on the  one battery. Mine cost £9.99 for two in Millets and I carry one all the time,  even if only as back up to my main light.

BOAT JOHN DORY TACTICS
John dory, are rare fish on rod and line,  but September gives you your best chance with the coves and sandbanks near to  reefs off Devon, Cornwall and Wales being the hotpsots.

They frequent these coves, usually over  sand, but are always close to reef or rocky ground and cliffs. The main food  source is small fish like sandeel as they are predators with a jaw that  elongates to take in their food. Find the banks that hold the sandeel, and you  are in john dory country.

The top tactic is a long 4-foot flowing  trace of lighter 15lb line attached to a boom and a light enough lead that just  fails to hold in the tide run. Position the boom about 2 to 3-feet above the  lead weight to get the bait up in the water and increase the baits movement.  Although they have big mouths a hook size around 2 or 1 is plenty, but choose a  nickel finished Aberdeen  pattern like the Mustad 3261BLN. Light reflection off the nickel hook can help  attract these fish.

The top bait is a whole small sandeel or a  mackerel strip cut from the white belly of the mackerel or herring to represent  a sandeel. Squid strips cut long and thin are also good. Make the strips no  longer than 4-inches and about half an inch wide at most.

JD’s are not good agile swimmers, but seek  their prey by slowly creep up within range as their prey swims and feeds and  then use their protrusible jaw to grab the fish. Simulate this trait by  deliberately lifting the lead up off the seabed periodically and letting line  spill from the spool. This causes the bait to flutter in the tide which attracts  the JD and also simulates small fish swimming.