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Best snag rigs

S

Steve Double

Senior Member
On an annual week-long pilgrimage to the Wye last week, I was introduced to a swim packed with 7-8lb barbel, with allegedly some going into double figures. That's the good news. The bad news was this far-bank run was also full of hidden snags. The first time I fished it I hooked 24 barbel, landing only eight. Apart from a couple of hook pulls, the rest were lost to cut-offs, both above and below the feeder. Not good for either fish welfare, or my pocket.

I did the usual stuff such as keeping the rod high while playing the fish, and giving them serious stick to get them off the bottom ASAP, but to little avail. I routinely use the Enterprise snag-safe run rings, and they didn't save me once, so it wasn't purely the feeder getting stuck between rocks. I also resorted to holding the rod, touch legering, to hit the bites as quickly as possible, Great fun, but no improvement on converting hooked fish to landed fish. Later in the week I also tried float fishing, again great fun but nowhere near as productive as presenting a stationary bait - and I still hooked into snags (including another angler's lost rig).

Both mono and my PowerPro hook lengths were cut like cotton. Coated braid hook lengths were a slight improvement, but even they came back partially stripped after barely minutes in the water. I didn't have any rig tubing to use above the feeder, perhaps that's one answer.

As far as I could tell, the snags were mainly large stones/rocks. Although the gravel was fairly fine on the near-bank, as I waded out the stones got larger and larger as I headed out towards the far bank.

I've seen Bill Walford mention a Kynaston shock leader inn earlier thread, which seems worth a look. Anyway, I'd appreciate any thoughts (other than changing swims, which I did anyway) on other tactics or rig components I may have missed.
 
Sounds frustrating Steve.
Nothing worse than leaving fish with end gear attached. I'm sure you're get some better advice from guys on here than I can offer.
There's a couple of swims on the Stour that I like but the riverbed is strewn with 70's engineering masonry and boulders which has lost me some fish.
I don't usually fish feeders as I reckon they are just too prone to snagging and also too in yer face for cute clear water barbel, but I was still losing fish using pva.
One of the swims could be fished from downstream which I did and used Greased Weasel clear shock leader and Strip Tease hook length which worked a treat. I didn't bother with the other swim again as there was only grief for me and the barbel there.
I've watched hooked barbel on the Wye bury their heads behind every boulder when attempting to land them upstream with rod held high in some swims, and I wonder if fishing and playing them downstream sometimes makes a difference?
I too will be interested to hear what others say.
 
I fished a swim on the Tidal Trent a few weeks ago, hooked one & got cut off on my hooklength landed the next & then got cut off again.. That was enough for me not worth a fish so I dropped down a peg upstreaming. Problem solved no more cut offs if it's viable it's worth a shot. If not try drawing them into a snag free swim they are there for a reason.
 
Dave Taylor said:
Sounds frustrating Steve.
Nothing worse than leaving fish with end gear attached. I'm sure you're get some better advice from guys on here than I can offer.
There's a couple of swims on the Stour that I like but the riverbed is strewn with 70's engineering masonry and boulders which has lost me some fish.
I don't usually fish feeders as I reckon they are just too prone to snagging and also too in yer face for cute clear water barbel, but I was still losing fish using pva.
One of the swims could be fished from downstream which I did and used Greased Weasel clear shock leader and Strip Tease hook length which worked a treat. I didn't bother with the other swim again as there was only grief for me and the barbel there.
I've watched hooked barbel on the Wye bury their heads behind every boulder when attempting to land them upstream with rod held high in some swims, and I wonder if fishing and playing them downstream sometimes makes a difference?
I too will be interested to hear what others say.
Click to expand...

I'd agree with you Dave about feeders and clear waters in normal circumstances, but when you have a shoal of Wye barbel competing for food, they really don't seem to care. They will even take a pellet or boil on the drop seconds after the feeder crashes in.
 
Steve Double said:
I'd agree with you Dave about feeders and clear waters in normal circumstances, but when you have a shoal of Wye barbel competing for food, they really don't seem to care. They will even take a pellet or boil on the drop seconds after the feeder crashes in.
Click to expand...

Yes mate,... badly crafted post on my part,... I meant Stour and Avon summer low clear conditions.
 
Id agree that if it's possible get downstream and cast back up to the fish, have found this def helps in snaggy swims.
 
Steve,
An update!!!

Only fished one more trip ( three evenings) since I started using the Kryston Shockleader but I didn't get cut off in that time. I did land one fish that would have certainly been a lost fish as the Kryston was well chewed up. I just cut back the leader six inches, retied and was away again :) As you say you need to get the rod high, lift their heads and keep 'em up. I'm not going to say it's problem solved as next trip I could be swiftly kicked in the knackers and be back to square one but it certainly gave me the confidence to fish on.

Regards

Bill
 
If it's rough ground I use a very heavy fluorocarbon (20lb+) hooklength as part of a combi-rig. I couple this with running ledgers on Enterprise snag safe lead clips and PVA bags. If it's submerged snags, I try to avoid fishing too close to them.
 
said this so many times now, for rocky and flinty bottoms try amnesia, the stuff is oblivious to shary edges ect even the zebra mussels at harefield couldn,t cut through it
 
As an experiment when fishing a rocky swim a couple of weeks ago I used some 10lb home made wire traces as hooklengths, when the fish were up for it they weren't bothered and I didn't lose one.
 
John Walker said:
said this so many times now, for rocky and flinty bottoms try amnesia, the stuff is oblivious to shary edges ect even the zebra mussels at harefield couldn,t cut through it
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I've just been looking at the Amnesia John and it's a much more economic option to using Kryston! In your experience what breaking strain do you recommend. I'm immediately attracted to the 20lb in clear ( for The Wye)??

Regards

Bill
 
Bill Walford said:
I've just been looking at the Amnesia John and it's a much more economic option to using Kryston! In your experience what breaking strain do you recommend. I'm immediately attracted to the 20lb in clear ( for The Wye)??

Regards

Bill
Click to expand...

I would be interested in the response to this too as well as knowing if this would be incorporated into a combi-rig allowing a softer material to be used at the sharp end.

I fish a swim on the Wye which is a bit of a nightmare. It requires a long cast to reach the fish and the best way of avoiding a cut off is to hook a fish and get them up in the water quickly. Otherwise on retrieving the feeder for a recast there would be a 50:50 chance of a cut off. Upstraming isn't possible but I have found that with patience and consistent feeding, I can coax the barbel across the river to a spot far closer to me and critically, away from the would-be rig liberator. This certainly works in evening sessions into dusk when perhaps the fish are more minded to move anyway. I'm not sure this will always work where fish are more stubborn and invite you to give it your best shot.

If barbel had any sort of entrepreneurial spirit they could make a small fortune selling used feeders and rig bits. Although I recognise I'm overlooking the fact that their fins would be next to useless when it comes to using a keyboard to list stuff on eBay.
 
Often used an Amnesia leader when I fished the Wye many moons ago. As regards to feeders, used to use the thin walled ones that deformed when pulling for a break - at least you got something back.
For plain weights, plasticine (you could add other weight material to this - stones, bits of metal etc) to make it more dense) and use a paperclip to fix to the line. I reckoned that having a weight that would deform would often help to free from wedged between boulders and stones. There were other tricks that were utilised by sea fishermen fishing rough ground eg inner tube filled with sand.
Mono is far more abrasion resistant than braid.
 
Howard Cooke said:
I would be interested in the response to this too as well as knowing if this would be incorporated into a combi-rig allowing a softer material to be used at the sharp end.

I fish a swim on the Wye which is a bit of a nightmare. It requires a long cast to reach the fish and the best way of avoiding a cut off is to hook a fish and get them up in the water quickly. Otherwise on retrieving the feeder for a recast there would be a 50:50 chance of a cut off. Upstraming isn't possible but I have found that with patience and consistent feeding, I can coax the barbel across the river to a spot far closer to me and critically, away from the would-be rig liberator. This certainly works in evening sessions into dusk when perhaps the fish are more minded to move anyway. I'm not sure this will always work where fish are more stubborn and invite you to give it your best shot.

If barbel had any sort of entrepreneurial spirit they could make a small fortune selling used feeders and rig bits. Although I recognise I'm overlooking the fact that their fins would be next to useless when it comes to using a keyboard to list stuff on eBay.
Click to expand...

As Howard and others have suggested coaxing them away from the snag seems to be the best option for both angler and fish . As for Barbel typing skills , with 4 barbules touch typing is a doddle for them
 
when carp fishing over mussel beds ect i always used the origional 20lb. black versionas mainline its a really greasy feel line ultra smooth and fish dont really spook if brushing against it as they will without doubt see it beforehand a lot of guys used to use it as a combi link with works well as it wont tangle with barbel fishing in sharp flinty& rocky bottoms i still use 20lb b/s if its just flinty type bottom then i used 15lb b/s i have found this stuff absolutely bomb proof over the past 40 odd years it was origionally the inner core of some fly lines back then.
ps its really fish friendly line that 99% of time wont cut into a fish or its fins
 
Many thanks for the guidance John :) much appreciated :):):)
 
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