Ledger Rigs and Drop-line Fishing on Reef

The ledger rig is a great way of targeting hapuku, bass and bluenose in deeper water, and is also an excellent all purpose reef fishing rig which can be fished directly from a rod, or set and left to fish like a longline.

In shallower water this dropshot fishing rig will catch snapper, tarakihi, kingfish, porae, red snapper, trumpeter, john dory, trevally and grandfather hapuku.

Generally no more than three hooks are used when fishing a ledger rig from a rod while up to 20 hooks can be set in very deep water beside high underwater cliffs for deepwater species.

When left to fish the deep water rig is called a hapuku dropper or dhan line. Deepwater Fishing

An example of a typical ledger rig is shown on the right. Keep the traces shorter than half the distance between hooks to avoid tangles.

All the knots you need to tie including tying a snell can be found here

Hapuku, bass and bluenose can be found in depths ranging from a few metres to 240 metres but are more abundant in the deeper water.

If fishing for these deep water species use only snelled circle hooks from size 5/0 to 10/0.

Long strip baits are good for deep sea fishing as generally the fish suck the whole bait into their large mouth.

Hapuku will take whole fish baits, whole squid, long strip baits, crayfish and crabs. Paul's favourite was whole fresh rock cod up to 2kg.

It is important to use the correct fish hook knot when tying fishing rigs

Again use a hook snell on circle hooks for this rig. An article with pictures of snells can be found here snelled circle hooks

NOTE

Always snell hook to trace first, as you cannot snell fishing rigs unless both ends of the trace are free

Articles comparing the catch rates for different fish hook knots can be found here fishing knots snell v/s tied

I have set many 10 hook ledgers in the kelp overnight around the Mokohinau Islands when I was commercially fishing and caught many 6 to 12kg snapper doing so.

More Info:http://abusamah.com/fishing/