Sabiki setup for salmon

I’ve been experimenting with different Sabiki setups and wanted to share the one that worked best for me. My requirements were:
- fast deployment
- can be stowed for surf launch & landing
- safe (minimize accidental snags)
- easy to dehook fish
- works with a kayak thats is already loaded with other salmon fishing gear 

The setup:
- short rod that is both durable and flexible to stow in the hatch with the Sabiki, sinker, and reel already attached (I’m using Ugly Stik Dock Runner)
- small plastic containers that hold the hooks and the main line together. Light line breaks when stowing so I recommend size 6 as the line is more durable. (I’m using Hayabusa size 6 with 4 hooks. I make it shorter so that it stores on the rod. Once onboard, I jam the sinker in the reel to prevent the line from moving.)
- I modified the rod by inserting a stainless steel safety wire into the handle so I can attach the rod to the kayak with a lanyard and also attach the Sabiki and sinker to the rod. I highly recommend using an angler clip for this.
- I’m using a line counter reel to control depth (Daiwa Lexa) but you can mark your line or other methods for controlling depth.
- 2oz torpedo sinker works best.
 

Thanks for the info. That looks like a great setup.

Believe it or not, I was just about to ask some sabiki questions. So, this is a very timely thread for me...

Nice setup!

You catch salmon on that?

I thought there was a maximum 2 or 3 hooks?

Nice setup!

You catch salmon on that?

I thought there was a maximum 2 or 3 hooks?

I catch anchovy with that, but you have a good point, which is that *if you have a salmon onboard*, then you will only be able to use two barbless hooks. In that case you can clip two hooks and crash the barb on the others or whatever you prefer

nice setup! thanks for sharing

Quote from: Smoked salmon on July 30, 2022, 04:48:07 PM
Nice setup!

You catch salmon on that?

I thought there was a maximum 2 or 3 hooks?

I catch anchovy with that, but you have a good point, which is that *if you have a salmon onboard*, then you will only be able to use two barbless hooks. In that case you can clip two hooks and crash the barb on the others or whatever you prefer

Except that the 2 barbless hooks need to be hard tied(non sliding) less than 4" apart. Using only 2 hooks on your sabiki rig will keep you legal fishing rockfish, but not so much for salmon.

I think salmon bite frozen anchovy better than live anchovy.

bushy

Except that the 2 barbless hooks need to be hard tied(non sliding) less than 4" apart. Using only 2 hooks on your sabiki rig will keep you legal fishing rockfish, but not so much for salmon.

The hard-tied circle hooks are only required for mooching with bait.  The law is that if you are fishing for salmon using bait, doing anything other than trolling, you must use circle hook - hard-tied no more than 5" from the upper eye to the lower curve if you use two.

So the sabiki rig with only two barbless hooks would pass muster with salmon on board.

If you'd said that the sabiki may be considered bait because it has fish skin in the flies, then maybe you'd have a point.  I doubt that any warden would write that up tho.