Rock fish Rigging and set up Ideas?

Swap out the treble hook for a single on bottom and a single up top.

>.. plus an old crusty kayak fisherman taught me and I just fish that ever since...

I can think of one in particular that resembles that description!

>.. plus an old crusty kayak fisherman taught me and I just fish that ever since...

I can think of one in particular that resembles that description!

LOL...

40-50 braid to 30 P-line flouro. I used to use dropper loops, but they tend to be a little weak. I am now going main line to a 3 way, then line to my jig or iron and the 3rd line to a shrimp fly. Seems to take more abuse that way. Pre tie like Wingshoter says. saves time and seasickness.

+1.

Dropper loops are notorious for breaking. They have no business on the end of my line.

I still use them from time to time, dropper loops, on non tourney days when I know I will get a limit eventually, or if I don't care if I keep fish or not. They are  quick and easy to tie. Come tourney days I upgrade my leader to 40-50lb and use 3 ways all the time now. I do not want to lose the winning fish to a bad knot. I also change out the leader a lot more on tourney days, even if it looks pretty good still.

I'm curious as to why a dropper rig is even used for rock fishing. Only two lures allowed so tie a short piece of mono  to top eye of swivel followed by a longer mono shot tied to bottom eye of same swivel. Tie shrimp fly or hoochie on top. Weighted swimbait or hard jig on bottom. Simple and effective. No knots mid line.

I like this and never thought of it. You got me thinking and I have a possible mod I might do to that too. Thanks Charles.

I'm curious as to why a dropper rig is even used for rock fishing. Only two lures allowed so tie a short piece of mono  to top eye of swivel followed by a longer mono shot tied to bottom eye of same swivel. Tie shrimp fly or hoochie on top. Weighted swimbait or hard jig on bottom. Simple and effective. No knots mid line.

I like this and never thought of it. You got me thinking and I have a possible mod I might do to that too. Thanks Charles.

I use this rig, but mostly use a crossline swivel. Crossline is a 3-way with a loop coming off at 90 degrees to the main shaft. Easy to clip/tie a shrimp fly or grub on-n-off.   

I'm curious as to why a dropper rig is even used for rock fishing. Only two lures allowed so tie a short piece of mono  to top eye of swivel followed by a longer mono shot tied to bottom eye of same swivel. Tie shrimp fly or hoochie on top. Weighted swimbait or hard jig on bottom. Simple and effective. No knots mid line.

I use a dropper rig and it's rarely failed.  Why do I use it, two easy knots.  The dropper loop itself and then the knot to my duolock snap for my jig.

Might not have knots midline but you know have 5 knots if I'm picturing it correctly.

Has anyone on here used the "fg" knot for tying leader onto braid. I put about s 20-25 foot mono leader on my braid with this knot on my last outing and it held up good. I think I had some bad mono cause I broke off at my dropper loop a lot on snags but I just worked my leader shorter and shorter throughout the day. It never failed at the braid/mono connection.
The knot is fairly easy to tie even bobbing around in a small plastic boat and easy to remember and goes through the guides really good.

The FG knot is my new go to knot for braid to leader connections. This video is a good example of how to tie it fairly easily:

Thanks for posting the video Seabird (& the discussion in general everyone) as an excited newbie this stuff is so helpful to me.

One of the reasons I use a dropper loop is I use soft lures and the blues and black tear-em up so I swap them out all the time. A 3 way is a solid way to do it for sure but wow that is a lot of tying. For me somehow I need a loop to swap lures out. I think I will make some jigs on 40# and some on 50# and start fishing with 50# and if its too much to handle with snags go down to 40#.

I'm curious as to why a dropper rig is even used for rock fishing. Only two lures allowed so tie a short piece of mono  to top eye of swivel followed by a longer mono shot tied to bottom eye of same swivel. Tie shrimp fly or hoochie on top. Weighted swimbait or hard jig on bottom. Simple and effective. No knots mid line.

I use a dropper rig and it's rarely failed.  Why do I use it, two easy knots.  The dropper loop itself and then the knot to my duolock snap for my jig.

Might not have knots midline but you know have 5 knots if I'm picturing it correctly.

Here is what I usually use. Braid connected to ten feet of 80#  mono. (No worries about abrasion with it.) Ball bearing swivel but any swivel works. 30 or 40 # leader tied to swivel to jig and fly or hoochie. Snag the fly and break off. Jig survives. Lose jig and retain fly. Sometimes I have stuff pre -tied with snaps but usually just tie on the yak.Small spool of leader and simple cinch knots. Fast.

Interesting set up Charles..... so I made a drawing of what I understand is the way you rigged this.
Does this look right? How did you connect the braided to the mono what knot did you use?

Exactly. Forgot the name of the braid to mono knot but I used multiple wraps of braid around the mono. Probably on utube somewhere under braid to mono. Fairly smooth knot that slides through the guides. 80# mono cannot wrap around braid. Too large diameter and too stiff. I used 80# in that I had a spool left over from commercial days but any heavy test, 50, 60 pounds would do to guard against abrasion weakening.

Nice setup Charles and nice job Dave laying it out for us to understand. I may try this out next time I go out. I would go with the Fg knot to tie the 10' mono to the braid. You tube video is linked above. I even put a drop of superglue to hold the half hitches snug at the end

These days I run two rods.

Rod one setup: 65lb braid to 30lb mono (FC if salmon jigging) to a snap.

Rod two setup: The same as rod one.

One rod is rigged with a swimbait, and the other with an iron. I do not run shrimp flies under most circumstances, as they seem to catch lots of small fish.

My bait of choice is an iron with a single barbless siwash hook attached at the lower split ring. and a small rubberband hitched on the top split ring. The iron is by far the most versitile jigging bait in your arsenal.

I go barbless because I don't seem to lose more fish, and I can jig for salmon with them. bonus. I attach a small rubber band at the split ring when I fish at depths over 60ft. The rubberband doesn't impede fishing by catching the hook (if rigged right), but it allowsme to descend fish quickly and easily with the same rig that I caught the fish on. All that I do to turn my bait into a descender is hook the rubber band, which inverts the barbless hook. The weight of the iron is sufficient to descend the rockfish, and a with a quick jerk the fish is off.

my 2cents

Also, wear gloves.