I can only speak from limited experience with the size of the tides that you guys get, but I would think that you can get away with the long snoods if you use a stiff/higher bs line? Just a thought.

 

Good evening Brolly,

I suppose it depends on which species of the ray clan you are targeting be it Blondes through to Small eyed. Personally, I have never been enamoured with long hook snoods, certainly not anything near 6 ft. All the rays (mainly thornbacks and small eyeds) I have landed off the beach or from deep water venues like Witches or the Ogmore Deeps on simple, ordinary paternosters assembled with anything from a 12 t0 18 inch snood, a Mustad 79510 size 4/0 (well sharpened) single hook. I have plenty of photographs of S.E,'s and Thorns landed on this simple gear including by myself and other anglers of the time (including a past editor of Sea Angler magazine Peter Collins), maybe the other ray varieties require longer snoods ? As an example, I have caught these fish on my BONES Bass rod when bassing, using 11 lb. Sewerage Brown Sylcast mainline, no leader , fishing in bad broken ground with a 8 -10 lb hook snood. The size of rays in question were from 4 lb "Butterflies" to more substantial fish of 10 lb plus, traditionally fished during spring tide sequences from around low water and 2 1/2 to 3 hours of the new flood. Good luck whatever you use!

Best regards,

Ticker (Derek)

 

Most of my biggest Rays have fallen to the same rigs Derek, shows how old I am !!!

 

shows how old I am !!!

Hi Phil ... I'm over 60 but happily adapting to the NEW WAYS >...... lol lol

 

I like up and overs, often 6 foot but is this pointless when the rip will be huge?

A six foot snood on an up and over is quite modest when you consider that that is only the same length as a 36 inch pulley ( max 72 inch when extended ) Myself and many of the guys I know regularly use pulleys with 48 inch rigs (max 96 inch when extended ) I personally like my bait well away from the lead. Obviously with the stronger tides the bait will be moved away from the lead.

 

It has been said that long hook lengths in a strong tide flow will lift up or flutter away from the bottom.
I don't know how much of this is true or just speculation/assumption.
I would love to see real video footage of rig behaviour in fast tide flows to see what actually happens.
With the up and over rig (which is essentially a running ledger when unclipped) I would imagine that it would work fine just as a pully dropper would.I do favour longer hooklengths and believe they work very well for all rays in all conditions.

 

Thanks for the replies gents, we're off on Thursday. Be interesting to see how it will pan out.

 

It has been said that long hook lengths in a strong tide flow will lift up or flutter away from the bottom.
I don't know how much of this is true or just speculation/assumption.
I would love to see real video footage of rig behaviour in fast tide flows to see what actually happens.
With the up and over rig (which is essentially a running ledger when unclipped) I would imagine that it would work fine just as a pully dropper would.I do favour longer hooklengths and believe they work very well for all rays in all conditions.

Maybe you could simulate the fast tide flow in a clear running river and watch it Rich, might get some strange looks mind !

 

Knowing me I would accidently hook a salmon on a sandeel/squid wrap.

 

I would love to see real video footage of rig behaviour in fast tide flows to see what actually happens.

I think we may all benefit from seeing that Richy..
As a general rule of thumb, the surface of the water moves at a greater speed than at the sea bed. ( I'm sure there's some formula for this ) This is more relevant over rough ground where there is more disruption to the flow from rocks, weed and other features. Over flat sandy clean ground the flow would be smoother and therefore marginally faster. However most of the movement of tackle in strong currents is from line drag as opposed to terminal tackle being swept away.
Purely my opinion !!

 

As a general rule of thumb, the surface of the water moves at a greater speed than at the sea bed.

I take it you have never uptided from a boat then?