Great Opening Weekend ...... Wonder Rig Strikes Again !!!

[TopRod]

Originally Posted by bulletbob

yes.. Its good in shallower areas in rivers and along the shallower bay flats.. It will do you little good in deep water or strong currents..
Couple of ways you can do it.. You can tie in 2 small fine wire hooks
[ #2 fine wire sproat , longer shank- more or less a freshwater type hook]
and put 1/4 oz split shot at the end of the line, or before the hooks, it doesn't matter much.. You can even go down to a 1/16 shot if its slack water.. Just so it gets close to bottom, and stays in the vicinity.. If its a fast drift or strong current and the rig is floating it won't do much good... I have found 1/4 oz plenty for most shallow areas, as long as the tide isn't ripping, and your boat isn't blowing away at 15 knots...
I would put the shot about 18 inches before the hooks personally, and the hooks maybe 18 inches apart.. If there is a ton of lettuce in the area, it might be problem, but usually its fine.. Basically is the simplest of bottom rigs.. Light weight that keeps the bait near bottom but isn't dragging it, and allows for a bit of rod manipulation.. Its not for deep channels, fast water, or fishing in heavy wind.. It works well in the ocean as well, as long as the wind isn't bad.. You can always add another split shot or two if needed, and you'll still be way under the 2-3 ounce bank sinkers many guys use..
2 spearing at a time is cheap, way cheaper than 2 killies, and works about as good.. Squid works as well, but squid seems to draw more smaller fish for me.. Move the rig off bottom regularly, but keep it fairly near bottom.. Fluke will come up quite high off the bottom to grab those dancing spearing or killies.. It will work in shark river, shrewsbury/navesink, manasquan river, and all the bay flats, as long as you can keep it around bottom... If its constantly floating out of the zone it won't do much good.. Its a good finesse bait rig, but has limitations.. I was talking last year to a guy that used a similar rig in shark river. Live killies, split shot, smaller hooks, and he caught over 100 fluke using this simple freshwater type rig... It works better than any conventional " fluke dragger rig", but conditions have to be right.. For whatever reason, 2 baits one behind the other has a strong appeal to fluke, and when the dance and flutter off bottom it has to look more natural than the bait dragging anchored to sinkers/swivels etc...... Bob

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