Quote:
Originally Posted by dsafety
I use a Sabiki rod, which is convenient but because the flys are stored in a wet salty environment inside the rod, they rust away very quickly. The second issue is that most purchased Sabiki rigs have five to seven flys on them. I usually have to cut off a few to make it so the rig fits in my rod.
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I have one of the original Ahi sabiki rods but I cut mine down to six feet. I also cut the end of the butt off which opens up both ends of the rod. at the end of the day I just stick a hose in the open handle end and rinse it out sqirting water right through the rod, and since it's open both ends I can then stick it in the corner and the sabiki rig dries fine. As to the types...well I've tried most of them at one time or another and I think the key is to use small ones, but I don't like going under ten pound test.
90% of the time I now use Mustad piscator rigs size 12 10lb test.
Couldn't find a pic of a 12 but the 12's look the same.
You can catch anything from sardines to squid with them, nothing fancy, simple bare bones rig, just skin and hook, and since it's a five hook sabiki you don't have to cut it down.
Like I said I don't like going under ten pound test. With Owner and Haybusa 12's have a 10 or 12 pound mainline but the branches are six and I end up breaking them off all the time. I think the mustads are straight ten at any rate they seem tougher.
The Mustads are the cheapest ones at sportmart but I get them online. Last time I ordered them I got a dozen packs for something like 15 bucks. I usually use them till all the hooks get broken off but I get a number of trips out of them, and they hold up pretty well.
To me Sabiki rods are a no brainer. I'm always trying to make more bait so I can keep the freshest bait out there. Often I'll be drifting and dropping my sabiki on bait marks with one or two baits out, usually a dropper and flyline. If I get a hookup when the sabiki is down I just stick the sabiki rod in a holder then reel it up with one handed whenever the fish is taking drag, when it gets to the rod I just reel it right and and it's completly out of the way no muss no fuss.
Last thing I want is some sabiki dangling on the end of a spinning rod when I'm trying to gaff a fish next to the boat.
My other issue of not using a sabiki rod is even if it's tied off on a spinning rod in the rod rack behind my bait tank other lines still can snag the sabiki if I get turned around in a hurry.
I learned that one the hard way.
One day I was fishing my dropper and flyline back when I used a spinning rod for sabikis. Hooked a fish on the dropper that took me for a slayride, and turned me around a few times. It was obviously a huge fish, but while I was working it another fish took my flyline and started screaming out line. So while I'm holding the dropper fish rod with my left hand and it's dragging me I move the flyline rod to my forward right holder, throw the reel in gear, and put a few turns on the handle to hook it, and it's fish number two on..
I'm thinking F yeah I got two now woooohoooo!!!!
So pretty quick I realize that somethings wrong and turns out the flyline is caught on something in my rod rack back behind my head. I'm thinking it's stuck on a rod guide or something so without turning around I slide my hand back on the line to find out what's wrong and stick a sabiki fly right into my little finger past the barb. You know how when you get stung by something like a bee and you can't see what it is how you kind of institutionally jump back? I then jerked my hand back which not only broke the weight off at the spinning reel, but also broke the sabiki fly off in my hand.
So now I got two fish on with a hook in my reeling hand, but what I didn't realize was that now the sabiki is blowing around in the wind cause it's no longer hooked to the rod at the weight end so naturally it tangles all up in the flyline fishes line which then since its running breaks off the sabiki off at the tip of my little spinning rod. So now I got two fish on and the flyline has a ball of sabiki line and flys on it while it's still taking line.
To make a long story short, I got the dropper fish but it was a Black seabass, as to the flyline fish which was probably a yellow, when I finally got the sabiki tangle back to me it was so badly tangled in the flyline rods spectra I had to cut it off to get it through my guides, and I ended up letting the line go slack while trying to cut it off and that's when that fish spit the hook. So whatever the second fish was, I lost it because of the stupid sabiki, or my sabiki stupidity.
Add to that the sabiki in my hand was in so deep I could not pull it out, ( I tried and it hurt like hell) so I had to worm it around to get the point to come out then I cut the shank to get it out of my hand (which also hurt like hell ).
I think I ordered my Sabiki rod online the next day, $39.99 and I love it.
I mean to each their own but that's my take. If I'm fishing sabikis I want my sabiki rod. Maybe you go through a few more sabikis but it's just the cleaner way to fish them.
Jim