Freelining Bait?

[redneckrob]

I typically would go to the skyway and use gotchas, live/artificial shrimp near the bridge and not cast far. I attempted to freeline pin fish the other day with success and ended up with a keeper grouper. The only problem was I couldn't really feel the bite. There was alot of slack, however the line appeared to be tight when I put the rod in my holder.

My rig consisted of a circle hook -> 80 pound mono leader -> 150# swivel - > 3/8 ounce egg weight sitting on top the swivel and 65# mainline (braid)

I feel like I'm doing something wrong and added the weight to keep the bait more on the bottom.

[montylfl]

Rob, Others may have better tips but I like to ask you a question first. When you say freeline what is your intention?

If it is to just to le the bait do it thing then the weight is not reallly "freelining".

If it is to get the bait out to the rock piles here is something you may want to try.

Your set up is good, maybe a little extra weight to hold the fish on the bottom when the current is strong.

Attach to that swivel @ a foot of 8lb mono.
tie a peppermint life saver.
two more feet of mono
and attach a bio degradable ballon,

drop it all over the rail and let the current pull the ballon out. After about ten minutes the lifesaver will desolve and drop your rig over the hot spot. Once on the bottom you can take the slack out of the line and hold the rod. ( never leave your rod in a rod holder. I seen many rods fly over the side.).

good luck

[goindeep]

Freelining is using a live bait with no weight. You wanna freeline it out WITH the tide. So at the Skyway, send it out towards the rockpiles on an OUTGOING tide. Hook pinfish just above the anal fin and theyll swin down towards the bottom. Theres a good thread on freelining somewhere on this forum but the search function has never worked right. Ill see if I can find it for ya later.

[blacktip]

Try To get on the left corner of the rock pile, The outgoing current pulles the bait out and to the right. You will cover more of the rubble this way. I rarely feel a bite when Im freelining, I keep an eye on the bow(slack) in my line. If it tightens fast more than likely you have something on the other end.

[gerard1031]

I've done this two ways.....continuous feeding out of line, with the tide, slowly letting the bait cover more rocks (which sometimes the little buggers like to get into) and just feeding out line to a certain length, trying to either have them right at the start of the rocks. If the tide is really ripping...I watch when stopping the bait if it's flopping on the surface and then add a little slip sinker.

In both instances I always set the pole down but hold the line in my fingers....and have always felt a slow steady pull as the grouper bites, and this gives me time to pick up the rod and start cranking like hell because the minute he feels pressure it is off to the rocks.

Now my wife always...always..... puts her pole down and on clicker....and has to scramble to get to it and to her credit, she has caught more keepers than I have....so "your mileage may vary".

Our rig is just a straight circle hook tied to the mainline....50# mono....hook that pinner, or jack or big greenie at the back of the tail, keep tension on it to kind of steer it out toward the rocks. And definitely bigger bait usually means bigger grouper since the greedy little shorts can inhale a medium pin with no problem! The extra bonus on this rig is if you rock up and break off, all you've lost is a hook and maybe some mono. I learned the hard way that braid does not play well with rocks and pilings!!!!

[havetofish]

First off...if you caught a keeper Gag on your first attempt...you should be giving us advice.

With that said..you got lucky and probably caught a grouper out in the open, because if you had that much slack in your line he never ran for his hole and rocked you. A gag will usually slam your bait hard, kinda like a Bass would.
Bigger pins will swim harder and dig for the bottom when a good tide is running. You can have a pin on the bottom and think he is swimming out, but the current is just taking your line past the pin on the bottom. You have to take up the slack once in a while to see where he is. If he ain't moving give him a few twitches and try to get him started again.
I couldn't disagree more with using mono. If you've got a good amount of leader the main line is not going to get frayed. Using a swivel will help to keep the pinfish from just spinning and twisting your line. Braid will give you less wind and water resistance, more feel, and most importantly, no stretch. Every inch of extra line counts when Skyway Gag fishing. You have got to turn him around as fast as possible.
I am as guilty as everyone else in putting my rod in a holder once in a while, but I can tell you that I have caught more grouper holding the rod, because you can react faster. If he takes drag then your gonna generally lose that battle.

Now where the hell is that old thread on this topic.

[redneckrob]

blacktip : I noticed that when I started tossing pins out. Definitely had to adjust to get over the rock piles.

@gerard: Will definitely try the slipshots sometime

havetofish: I think it was pure luck. Started reeling back and the gag was buried in the rocks. I have a very sturdy rod and just manhandled him out of the rocks (definately wasn't in the open). Thanks for the tips.

[goindeep]

Ya know John, I think that thread might have been on the old original skyway forum. Ive looked through all the pages here and theres no sign of it. Too bad that guy that went by the username "1337", who put up that other skyway forum/site right after this one, took his site down -- he had all the old threads from that forum archived.

Remember this thread? skywaypiers.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=88

[fishfun]

Hi everyone. I'm a newbie here and learning to catch Gag at the skyway. I've been reading posts around the forum about fishing for Gag. When you free lining, do you let the bait go all the way out and reel it in then start again, or you let the bait stay at a certain spot along the rockpile? Thanks in advance. ( great great forum )