Robert Meneguz
The magic question, what is the best rig for Tailor and Mulloway? Is there one correct answer? There are many styles of rigs and techniques which are very good and in a lot of circumstances, the type of rig you would use, would depend on the area you are fishing.
In this article I’m going to talk about the rig I like to use when fishing for Tailor & Mulloway off the beach.
The style of rig I use is a pulley rig. If you look at picture 1 with all the terminal tackle, this gives you an idea of type of gear required to make a few different styles of surf rigs, with different bait release systems. I use ALL these types depending on the sort of rig I am making.
My favourite being the red Gemini Splashdown clips (Picture 2). These can be a little bit fiddley when you first start to use them, but once you get the hang of it you won’t look back. The reason I like this type so much, is that once you lock your hook, it can’t come out until it hits the water. I have another couple of pictures with a diagram of the way I rig this up. Picture 3 is with the hooks attached to the clip and Picture 4 is what happens once the hooks are released.
To use the clip, you basically slide the hook into the small red gap you will see in the picture. Once your hook is in the gap, you grab the red plastic circle on the clip and pull it down. This encloses your hook to the clip and ready to cast. Obviously, you would need to put the bait on your hook before you get to this stage. Also, please note that you will need to make sure your hook goes through the bait enough that you can still get the corner of the hook into the gap of the clip. It sounds confusing, but believe me once you have the clip in your hand it’s pretty simple. As you can also see on the picture, you slide your sinker onto the bottom bit of wire.
I like to use Grapnel sinkers when fishing in the surf because if there is a lot of current, these wires dig into the sand making it a lot less likely to get dragged up the beach. There are many types of grapnels which I won’t get into too much detail in this article but they’re all designed to do the same thing some are just better than others.
Once you have your rig all baited up and your hooks into the clip, you are now ready to launch your bait into the deep blue. This rig is great for distance casting. By casting your bait and your sinker together it stops a helicopter like action where your bait and sinker pull against each other, slowing down the speed hence not going as far. Another great thing about this rig, is that by using this pulley rig you are having your leader twice as long(because you’re halving the rig by going back on itself). Once your rig of say 1m hits the water you have about 2m to play with. This is great for fishing for Mulloway, if they pick up the bait they will not feel the weight of the sinker until they have swam 2m from the sinker. Once the bait is in the water however by keeping tension on the line you can also keep the bait well off the bottom reducing the chance of hooking up the annoying Stingray! Sort of like a paternoster rig except not! This rig will ONLY work as a pulley rig if the line to the hooks is shorter than the line to the clip. A quick breakdown of the rig I’ll list below:
Rig Breakdown from Sinker upwards
- Sinker attached to the clip, then a green soft bead, a Crane swivel, then another green soft bead then another crane swivel this whole section should be about 60-120cm. I make this up with around 55-70lb Schneider line (55lb for Tailor, 70lb if I’m going for both Tailor & Mulloway). Also by going a little heavier, if you do hook a small shark you have half a chance to still bring it in..
- I then add another 40-80cm of 55-70lb Schneider line to my hooks. In this photo I have a set of gangs however you can run any type of hooks. You could run a couple of snells, a short trace of wire to a circle hook, the choice is yours!
For Tailor and Mulloway, the most common hooks would be gangs and Mulie, which there is nothing wrong with. I also would recommend trying fresh fillets of fish, whether it be a freshly caught Tailor, Herring, Whiting or some Mullet! If using fillets, Snelled hooks are a very good option as you can face your hooks opposite ways and your bait does look more presentable in the water.
One other quick tip I would like to share, is the benefit of bait cotton, bait thread, ghost cotton. There are a few names for it, but this stuff is amazing! If you aren’t using this surf fishing, then you SHOULD BE. This allows you to put a mulie onto the gangs and not have to worry about the mulie coming off mid-flight. Last thing you want especially when you hit that sweet spot in your cast, is to find out you need to rewind it and do it all over again. Once your mulies start to become a little soft, sometimes I’ll bait cotton 2 mulies on a set of gangs turning them into a bit of a mushy log, which may look a little gross, but rest assured the fish find these things irresistible.
If there is anything in this article you are not sure of, or need explaining a little better please feel free to pop into the store for a rig demo or any other helpful tips.
If you need to purchase the right gear for these rigs come in store or jump on our website as we have everything you need!!
Combo used - Assassin Horizon Heavy XL 15ft - Shimano Stella 8000SW - 50lb Grinder braid 300m
https://getawayoutdoorsbalcatta.com.au/search?q=gemini
Robert Meneguz
PICTURE 1 - Terminal Tackle
PICTURE 2 - Red Gemini Splashdown Clips
PICTURE 3 - Rig with hooks attached to Splasdown clip
PICTURE 4 - Rig with hooks detached from clip