to catch a Ray

[scottish_and_mental]

I'm going to re ask a question kinda touched on by another member as i've spent the night trolling another forum ( wsf - i can see now wh i have resisted joining ) to find out some info on the pompey rig .
My first choice rig for targetting rays is the pennel pulley , made exactly as explained in another thread here ..
my questions are two fold -
firstly , touching on a point Mike made regarding ' a fish settling on the wires' - this got me concerned , i'd hate to think the pull down i had the other night ,and then subsequent release was actually a Ray spooked by the breakaway .. so my first question is .. does it really make a big enough difference to use a modded pulley so that the hooklenght is shorter , and would this not then put the bait too far away from the lead making it less aerodynamic ??

secondly , would using a pompey rig enable a longer trace of say 5 foot to be used with a 2 hook pennel and perhaps a shorter snood on top to keep the doggies amused , be a better option ?

I am getting obsessed with all things flat at the minute - i've caught 4 species of ray from the boat but only 1 from the shore ( tbh i've had about 5 attempts actuaslly targetting the species ) and it's beginning to make me think i can't fish properly

I'm gonna try both next week and see which of the two rigs i can't catch a fish on

[MRG2000]

The long and low ray pennel ,works the same as a normal pennel Steve,but gives you upto8 foot hook length, take a look in thie video as its easier to see .than try and explain how it works ....The info on the rig is from around 4 mins onwards in the clip.

I wouldnt personally put a second dog attractor on ,its bad enough with 1 bait,keep plugging away and you`ll get a ray in the end ,took me and John a good half dozen rayless sessions before we got into one ,and then it was a clonking 11 1/2 pounder ...

[scottish_and_mental]

Cheers Mike .. interesting clip.. oddly enough i tied a very similar rig years ago to use on Chesil - about 4 foot long so the hook length was nearly double but tbh , it never saw the water once.. i liked the principal but wasnt convinced a) that it would sit nicely away from the lead in a smaller tide , or b) release on impact every time ..
fishing two rods with different rigs might give me my answer over the season ..
Perhaps it's time to dig that rig back out and give it a bash

[MRG2000]

Originally Posted by scottish_and_mental

Wasnt convinced a) that it would sit nicely away from the lead in a smaller tide , or b) release on impact every time ..

Never had any problems with release with gemini splashdown leads , not cheap but worth the price , even a small tide here has a fair rip ,so we dont had a problem ,but i can see what your saying on the bait sitting nicely in the tide, on a smasll one ..