Sea Fishing bait size

hi people. I agree with amy on bait size remeber your trying to catch them not feed them more bites are lost trough big baits than that. if a fish can get its gob round a bait withour having to chew on it nine times out of ten it will hook itself.

[JuanPablo]

on the flipside the following must always be considered...
1) consider what bait you are going to use, then what species you are after and then most importantly carefully decide what hook size to match this with. for instance, if you are fishing for flounders with harbour ragworm i would want to use a bunch of rag and so would select a wide gap short shank hook in about a size 2. however, if i was fishing with king ragworm for flounder i would need a long shank size 1 aberdeen match which would enable me to thread most of the worm up the hook shank.
obviously when fishing BIG baits for cod or smoothhound then you should consider using a pennell rig because otherwise you will get fish hit the bait but not get hooked - nothing more annoying than that!
i think its unfair to say you should just consider the size of the fish you are targeting - a small whiting will happily eat a pennell rig with 4 black lugworm on it. remember that sometimes a big bait is necessary - especially in the gloomy bristol channel where most fish have to feed by smell rather than just seeing a bait! here are some examples of what i use;

flounder, eel, school bass in an estuary environment. would use a fine wire hook for single rag / lug baits. a wide gape crab hook for bunches of rag or crab baits. varivas make some useful looking circle hooks which im yet to try!

whiting, bass, flounder, dogfish on a surf beach. would normally be fishing with worm baits tipped with fish or shellfish and so a long shank slightlystronger pattern is neccesary. I like the mustad viking in a size 1/0 (these are quite expensive but very good hooks) or a long shank black aberdeen standard in the same sort of size.

this gives you an idea of the importance of matching hook size to bait size. theres no point in scratching around with rag tails or white rag when this is presented on a 3/0 s/s hook because this will spook the more tentative fish immediately...you may still get bites but wont hook anything!

incidentally another thing which will make a difference when you are getting bites but not connecting is snood length and type of rig. wont go too far indepth here but pulley rigs are designed to make fish hook themselves against the weight for example.
snood length can be lengthened if you want to give fish a bit more time to gulp down the bait - for instance a 2ft snood means a fish can munch and swim for approx 2ft radius before he feels any resistance! short snoods normally see fish hook themselves but experiment with snood length if u r missing lots of bites!

hope this is of help to someone

[Ben]

good info there
i like using pennel rigs personly with a big bait on, this is because of the fact that a big fish is more likely to get hooked on it and also smaller fish will easily get hooked on it due to the 2 hooks, big baits also have an advantage in a crab riden area because bait stays on the hook longer
although i have had just as much succes with a size 1 or 1/0 hook with a single rag tipedd with squid

[JuanPablo]

yip definately. there are no hard and fast rules with fishing! u can cast 10yds with rotten lug and catch a double figure bass while a seasoned match angler will blank right next to you...
i especially agree with the crabs comment! sometimes you have to put on 4 times the amount of bait just so that there is something left for fish to home in on after 5minutes! on this note has anybody used seamatch floating beads on their snoods yet? seems very popular with some match anglers - looks like a great idea but i dont know how many u wouild need to use to suspend a big bait! any ideas?

[Ben]

i havent, thought about it but never thought it was worth it because flat fish feed right on the bottom and anyway im sure crabs would still be able to get it unless its suspended really high
even when there are no crabs a big baits scent will last longer in rough sea and is still likely to catch little fish

[JuanPablo]

they have been having a lot of success with them. btw flatfish will come up off the bottom! i have watched them feeding in an sea aquarium in st davids and they will wander up rocks and scout around before shuffling themselves down in the sand again and waiting....
they have also been using booby beads without the ball bearing in....