Bluegill - Big Bluegill

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PATTERN

1-Fall, Early winter Cold water bite fish are lethargic with many gut hooked fish because of the light strikes.

2- Fish are tucked into vegetation

 

RIGGING

1- Light spinning tackle Lews 100 or 200 series Laser Spin reel

2- 7ft light action rod Okuma Celilo with 8lb braid

3- Panfish or ultra light Rocket Bobber I have just recently adjusted my interests to the rocket Bobber. Any bobber could be used even a slip bobber in deeper water situations. In very shallow water I will switch down to a pencil float or quill.

4- I used a number 8 laser sharp eagle claw octopus hook or circle hook.  Tied to the line with a Polamar knot and leave enough line past the hook for your split shot.

5- Just enough shot to stand the Rocket Bobber straight up. I used two bb’s on the ultra light Rocket Bobber. Double wrap your shot before clamping to keep the shot on the line. The point is have the shot placed below the hook

6- Anything could be used as bait… in my most recent trips I have used GULP pink maggots

 

PRESENTATION

In my youth my father introduced this rig to us kids … saved many a trips to the dock to unhook deep gutted fish. What this rig does is it eliminates the spherical dead zone in a common bobber setup see diag. that allows a fish to have space to swallow bait before it signals the bobber.

The Quick Strike bobber rig since the hook is between the shot and bobber the signal is immediate. A fish with an uptick strike the Rocket bobber lies down immediately. Very sensititive. In weeds the quick strike rig pulls the bait past stems and leaves while the common bobber rig the bait helicopters down following the shot grabbing every weed along the way … if it makes it.  Unhook the bobber and your micro dropshotting

Good fishing!

ken

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Replies to This Discussion

Yup, I've been fishing this kind of rig for years!  I knew I couldn't have been the only one doing this.  I'm the only person in my area that I know of that does this.

I'll even do with big catfish rigs, using a 2 oz sinker, a size 3/0 circle hook, and a huge Styrofoam float.

This looks great ! Nice rig .I should give this a try ,thanks Ken!

I'm with Allen - done it plenty.
I prefer a small loop for the hook, to give the bait a little wiggle.

im not implying that i invented this rig. i didnt know what to call it since nobodies taking credit for it on the internet.

i was only about 11 or 12 when my dad was tying these rigs like this, i recall my dad saying this was how my grandfather ice fished in Czechoslovakia. might be more popular in Europe than it is here. i couldn't find anything on the internet close to this. it easily allows multiple hooks. with the Palomar knot you could easily add multiple hooks without disturbing anything else.
actually any ripple or wave action adds more action to a minnow bait as gulp or dead minnows tied with a Palomar knot borrowed from drop shot ideology

the rocket bobber is a great touch

the closest thing i could come up with is saltwater hand lining for bait-fish

This reminds Of something they did in Spain
I saw this along the coasts around Rota.
A slice of stale bread was affixed to the end of he line. Above the bread many very small hooks were tied on to the main line... And buried in the bread.
The whole affair was flung out away from the rocks with a long rod, something like our long teles.
The bread floated at the surface, of course. Once it landed, swarms of small silverfish would rise up from below and tear into the bread. Some of the little fish would get hooked, to be brought in and tossed to the bucket.
This show was repeated many times, until enough small fish were caught.

They were served after being fried whole in hot olive oil. Salt was sprinkled on them and the entire middle of the fish bitten out and consumed. The oil that collected on your plate was sopped up with more bread and the whole thing washed down with much wine.
After enough wine, anything tastes good.
We did this on the coast of CA when I was a kid. Mackerel (or something like them) were the usual game.

That's where I learned it. It carried over to freshwater, in my case. The loop is just a ME thing, something I've always done.

yep the only reference i could find was saltwater.

first time i tried with multiple hooks i must of snagged 4 or five fish that day. so i kind of stopped doing it

have to experiment with spread of hooks maybe i had them to close

the only downside to this type of rig is casting... it wagon wheels a bit casting with normal floats... the rocket bobber takes care of that though.

The smallest I've ever gone with hook size...

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