Dont know if this helps you but I fish from a sea wall that has concrete blocks in front of it so there are lots of snags. When I started I used a lot of purchased rigs but I found that these would snag and as they were made with 60lb line I would end up snapping my main line and end up leaving 30 or 40 yards of line in the sea (I was more bothered about this, from a wildlife safety point of view, than the loss of the end gear).

After some experimenting I now use 100lb braid as a main line. It terminates in a 80 lb swivel clip and to this I add a length of 18lb line to the hook and a length of 30 lb lne to the weight. I cover the knot on the weight with a short piece of plastic tube (to stop abrasion). I now find that I can pull on the line and snap off the hook length if its stuck, a bit more of a pull will snap off the weight if required. This way I dont loose too much gear and anything lost can quickly be replaced at the swivel.

Please don't try power casting with this set up ......

ZD

 

Your doing it the wrong way zebradiver. You'll end up loosing fish and keeping your lead with that set up!! :hammer:

 

I did start with 30lb line for the hook as well but I find that the hook snags a lot more than the weight. I figure the chances of me catching anything weighing more than 18lb is pretty remote.

ZD

 

Don't complain if you loose a fish then... it doesn't have to be 18lb..it could be 10lb and exert 4lb of force...you 4lb of force and then...PING. Or even less if the grounds that snaggy and the line gets a nick in it. There's plenty of fish that'll bite or rub through 18lb line.

Try putting your hook length up higher so it doesn't snag as much as the weight. I'm not having a go...it's just you're doing it arse backward if you ask me:laugh: Have never ever heard of anyone using a lead weak link of 30lb..lol. Honestly...if you hook into a fish of a lifetime and you snap it off and get your lead back instead because of that set up you'll remember the day you saw this message :shutup:

 

I think braid would actually be the wrong way to go as if it gets caught on rocks, it's is just going to cut apart the same as mono. I'm more worried about the weight getting stuck so anyways to loose the weight but keep the rig + fish if i get one ! Are some rigs better for this ?

Thanks

Rob

 

Braid has very poor adraision resistance so I would go for heavy mono every time.
When I fish rough ground and don't need to cast far, I use a simple water knot to make a loop in my mainline and split the loop to form a paternoster. A weight goes on one end and a hook on the other and it's good to go with no expensive hardware.
The weight would usually be a lenglh of lead pipe hammered over a paperclip and I would deliberatly choose a knot to attatch it that will let go with a good tug (something like an untucked four turn blood knot) and a good secure knot to the hook.
This is good for a 40m or so lob with an overghead thump but for any more (or on a crowded beach) you're going to have to look at rotton bottom rigs with the lead held on a hook for casting.

 

Okay Thanks M8 , will give that a go next time as don't usually need to cast very far anyway

thanks again

rob

 

here you go fella i use this on all my rot bott rigs and it works very well have a look at the photo

and on the eye of the lead cut a bit of the ring of the eye tight lines

 

here you go fella so your lead looks like this in the end

if you still need info gave me a pm dude tight lines

 

OK, I'm confused.Why is the eye on the lead cut away and where is the light link that conects the lead once your hook has fallen away ?

 

Dont always presume it's the lead that snags. I'd advise using a hook that can bend out of snags. I used to always use the uptide vikings in 4/0 for this reason. The 6/0 was a lot tougher to bend and often resulted in a lost rig. So experiment with hooks and line strengths too.
Personally I don't like rotten bottoms as you end up losing far too many leads, where a hook can be bent back into shape and sharpened in seconds. But if you do use the rotten bottoms use suitable hooks too and you'll get 99% of snagged gear back.
And 18lb hooklengths, I'd never drop below 40, and mostly use 80 hmy:

 

Okay thanks Rockling and The Crusty Crab, Will Bare both in mind

Thanks Again
Rob