Rock fish Rigging and set up Ideas?

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.

Genius!

i like standard two droper loop with swimbait on it trolling you'll get nice olives every time 

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.

                       Love the desender rubber band/barbless hook trick. I am gonna try that fo sho!!! And I agree 100% on the shrimp flys catching little fish. I am gonna quit using them too. Thanks Adam

i like standard two droper loop with swimbait on it trolling you'll get nice olives every time 

The Big_Tuna boys would like to know the best swimbait to use... also, when you say trolling, do you mean just drifting with the current with the bait on the bottom or paddling and trolling with the swimbait off the bottom? - Also... love the illustrations! Thanks guys. - Big_Tuna!

After reading the comments and studying the intacticies of painting jig heads I will for sure be using a snap to hook up to my jighead from now on. Not only is it easier to change which I rarely do(I just wait to lose it) but the angle of the line to the jig head is different as you are fishing to when you hook a fish . If your knot is tight on the hook eye when you hook up a fish it pulls down on the hook pulling line at an angle if it can't pivot. If the paint is fatter on part of the hook eye(even by a few thousands) as the knot slides up the hook eye it would be like a wedge pushing your knot apart. Also a chip in the paint would be a sharp edge on the knot.  In my opinion It's probably  better to have a metal on metal pivot point so that your knot is not getting "bent" or wedged apart

I use Duo Locks on my jig end. All pre tied leaders so I do not need to worry about tieing  on the water.

I use Duo Locks on my jig end. All pre tied leaders so I do not need to worry about timing n the water.

This

I only use dropper loops if line is 30lb or more. But I prefer them to 3-way swivels because it only requires 1 knot instead of 5 knots (potential weak point).

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.

Genius!

Thanks! Here is a pic of my barbless iron/descender/rockfish and Chinook slayer rig. (Marx rig for short) 

Rig is in descender mode.. unhook rubberband for fishing mode 

Even if I didn't fish it, that's the simplest descender I've ever seen, gotta give that one a try.  Great idea.

That's a great tip Adam! I'll be carrying a few rubber bands in my PFD this year.

That's a great tip Adam! I'll be carrying a few rubber bands in my PFD this year.

+1

Another makeshift descender that works is a barbless hook snelled onto the line upside down above the iron.  Tried it after my descender with lead ball snapped off once. I'm gonna try the rubber band idea too

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.

+1

I use them all the time, and when tied right they are very strong knots and I have full faith in them catching lings and RF.  Primarily switched to using them to avoid using extra or unnecessary hardware for rockfishing.  This way I use a single swivel on my main line, tie a dropper loop in the middle of a leader, tie a double surgeons knot for the top to attach the swivel to.  And then leave like a foot or so of line below the dropper loop and use a improved cinch knot to attach to either a weight, or a jig/leadhead. 

OK UPDATE....LOL I was fishing with a buddy and he said 3-4 wraps with 40lb is not enough so I have tested this and sure enough I did a 10 wrap set up and low and behold its a strong as a heck the line broke but not at the knot just broke between the two loop knots. So I am going with this and hope next time I don't loose any big fish. How many wraps do you guys do for the Dropper Loop? Think this is correct?