Scratching Traces For Edible And Reef Fish
If you are unfamiliar with the term "scratching" it refers to scaling down your tackle when the bigger fish are off the bite and targeting small edibles and reef fish such as Blacktail and Wave Garrick.
These are the two traces/rigs I like to use when
throwing for smaller edibles and reef fish. This first trace is just
basically the general one hook trace I would use. I use small hooks
generally and I like using the size 6 Diachii's. With a glow bead and a
bit of foam for movement and floatation does the trick most of the time.
I normally like to use a shorter piece of line (20lb Fluorocarbon) for
this trace, normally 10-15cm. I have noticed the hook gets caught up
less and 9 times out of 10 I will only lose the sinker if I get stuck. I
use 10lb sinker line, twice the length with a weaker knot attached to
the sinker. If I am fishing close I will rather use a sliding sinker on
the mainline. Please see the picture on the left. Please click to
enlarge.
The trace
on the left has caught some very nice fish. I think this trace
will work very well for all edible
fish species. Its a double hook trace separated by a
3 way swivel. 2x Size 2 Diachii's are the hooks of choice here.
Basically, I have one hook fishing right on the bottom and one hook fishing as
close to mid-water as possible. The bottom hook snoot is twice the
length of the top one and has a few small split shots added close to the
eye for extra weight. The line used here is 20lb fluorocarbon; I really
enjoy using fluorocarbon line as it is invisible in the water. The top
trace is something I am experimenting with: What I have done here is add
floatation and a large floating orange bead with large holes: this rubs
against the eye of the hook or the knot and creates vibrations as well
as a small rattling noise. I use this trace as the attractor and will
have a bait such as a chokka blob bait on it and on the bottom hook a bait
such as sand prawn or pink prawn. My intention here is, either to get the
peckers to eat the attractor bait until a nice fish finds the prawn on
the bottom hook or
for a large fish to take the top bait out of irritation. Please click
the image to enlarge.
