HOW TO MAKE A SIMPLE SURF RIG USING SNELLED HOOKS!

Our man Dan is at it again ready to answer the questions we get often here at Getaway Outdoors Balcatta. Dan is going to make a simple surf rig using a snelled hooks.

Here is Dan's run-down on how to prepare this rig, but for a quick overview check out the YouTube video below:

I am going to show you how to make my preferred surf rig targeting fish such as mulloway, snapper and smaller sharks. To start off I will be using 80lb trace which is a good universal leader. It is great for other fish like tailor and if you hook onto anything of decent size you will still have a pretty good chance on keeping it on the line. I am using 3 BKK 6/0 Octopus Beak Hooks. I prefer snelling my hooks these days as I seem to have a better hookup rate and you can angle the hooks a lot easier into the bait as well. Now onto snelling your hooks.

Grab your trace. As I am using a 15ft Assassin Rod I like to have a slightly longer trace. I generally run about 60cm as the snell themselves do use a bit of the trace. You always start your rig with the bottom hook first. You can start snelling on the bottom hook, but I tend to find that if you get bites from something with a bit of teeth they tend to gnaw on the bottom of the shank. I generally do a blood knot for the first hook. Feed the trace through the back of the hook and twist about 6-7 times. place the end of the trace through the bottom loop and back through on itself. Add a bit of saliva to lubricate the knot and pull it nice and tight then cut the tag end. Now you are ready to start your snell.

Depending on the size of your bait you can spread out your snell hooks but I tend to have just over 1cm gap between them. The benefit of snelling over gang hooks, is if you are using larger bait you can always move your hooks and you can angle the hooks in different directions. Start off by dropping the 6/0 hook straight down the trace from the back of the eyelet all the way down and line the first hook up around 1cm from the first hook. No need to worry too much about the distance as they will move a little when you tighten them up. 

Hold the hook nice and straight and grab the end of the leader and wrap to the back of the hook around the eyelet nice and tight. Once you have done your first little hitch, keep wrapping 6-7 times working down the hook nice and tight. Hold your finger over the wraps to keep them in place then grab the tag end and slide it up through the back of the shank then pull it nice and tight. Same principle with the second hook. You can run bigger hooks and less of them or smaller hooks and more of them depending what you are targeting and the bait you are using.

Once you have finished snelling the remaining hook/s grab ourself a 3 way crane swivel. Attach your hooks to the side of the swivel again with the blood knot technique.

For the sinker line grab a spool of bulk 60lb mono as this line isn't as important particularly in case of snags and you don't lose the good stuff. You want this slightly longer than your hook trace to aid with your casting ability. I find that when you tighten up your sinker as well it sits a bit higher off the floor for when a fish comes along and it keeps the bait off the bottom. Tie this trace with a blood knot to the bottom of the 3 way swivel. You can use a uni knot, but I tend use a blood knot for everything and have never had a problem.

Grab yourself a sinker. I prefer to use grapnels so I'm going to show you how I use an 8oz grapnel to finish off this rig. Widen up the legs of the grapnel. Grab the end of the sinker line and tie a blood knot to the swivel at the top of the grapnel. With this type of rig, I generally like to tie a little extra of the 80lb line on top of the rig, just to give you something to grab, especially if it is a larger fish or something with teeth you don't want to get too close to the hooks. Cut about 60cm of 80lb line and tie it to the top of the rig using a blood knot. Grab yourself a regular crane swivel and tie it to the top of the rig using a blood knot.

So now you have your length of leader at the top of the rig which is what you will be using to grab the fish. Follow down to the 3 way swivel where you have the snell hooks splitting off to the side (remembering this can be 3 or 4 snelled hooks depending on what you are targeting and the size of your bait), then heading down from the swivel to the grapnel sinker or the like depending on the sinker you prefer. Choose the size sinker that suits your rod. 

Attach your hooks to the small hook at the top of the grapnel. This will aid with your casting keeping everything together as one unit and you will get maximum casting distance. When you cast out, once the unit hits the surface the grapnel and hooks come apart and you are ready to get the bites.

Dan is using 80lb Black Magic Tough Trace Leader, BKK 6/0 Octopus Beak Hooks, Habor 3 Way Crane Swivel, Harbor 1/0 2/0 Crane Swivel, 60lb Jarvis Walker bulk Mono Line and 8oz Grapnel.

If you have any questions feel free to drop a comment below or pop in and see the team here at Getaway Outdoors Balcatta!