Going deep for fish may need some creative rigging

Regardless of how we would “like” to catch a fish, anglers know that there will always be times when, in order to get a bite, they’ll need to get their baits or lures “a little” or sometimes “a lot” below the surface.

While fishing deep might sometimes be as simple as adding an ounce or two of lead to the line, there will also be situations when getting down will require a measure of out-of-the-box thinking and some unique rigging to get down to the fish.

Anyone who spends much time fishing from a bridge, pier or an anchored boat knows that the speed of the current is the Number 1 factor that will determine how easy or difficult it is to get a bait down.

If there’s no current, even an unweighted bait will sink straight down to the bottom. Add movement to the water and pressure on the bait and line will move the bait in more of a horizontal rather then vertical direction.

Using heavier lures or adding weight to the line in the form of sinkers or splitshot will often overcome the forces of the current, but sometimes, due to the nature of the bait, lure, or the type of fishing being done, such an easy fix won’t cut it and anglers will need to get a little creative to make things work.

As I mentioned in this column a couple weeks ago when I was discussing “currents,” one way to get down in a strong flow of water is to cast into it.

If you’re able to make a long cast up-current and retrieve your line at a speed that about matches the flow, for at least a short while your offering will sink as if there were no current at all.

The drawbacks are that the angler will only have a short window to get a bite before the bait or lure reaches them and they have to recast, not to mention the fact that, since fish typically face into the current, a down current retrieve will have the offering flying into the face of the fish you’re trying to catch.

As many predators aren’t accustomed to being aggressively approached by their prey, a down-current retrieve might tend to spook more fish than it hooks.

Bottom fishermen around the globe have fallen in love with braided line not just because of the sensitivity of the line but also because the its ultra thin diameter means that it greatly helps to resist the lifting forces of current or from a drifting boat on a windy day.

Thin braided line allows anglers to use less weight and fish at depths they could not even consider using monofilament or Dacron line. Anglers can also gain a little bit of advantage by tapering or scaling down the size of the bait they’re using and then rigging it on the hook in such a way that it slips more easily through the water.

One of the difficulties of getting a bait to the bottom, particularly in deep water, is having it arrive there without getting all tangled or twisted up during the decent. The problem is especially evident when anglers are trying to get their bait down to a wreck or reef from a drifting boat.

With a long way to go and a short time to get it there anglers will typically want to free-spool down as quickly as they can. Unfortunately, during a quick drop, baits will often want to spin and create a tangled up mess by the time they finally hit the bottom.

Anglers making such long fast drops will find best results when the hooks they are using are set off the line on relatively short and stiff leaders or dropper loops that will prevent the bait from contacting the line on the way down and, as I already mentioned, baits should be cut and hooked in such a way that they are not prone to spinning.

Although most anglers will rank surface fishing as the most enjoyable way to get a fish on the line, whether their quarry is tuna offshore, sea bass on a reef, or rockfish in the bay, sometimes you just got to do what you got to do to get your bait in the face of a fish, and very often that means breaking out the lead and going deep!