Saltwater Boat Angling — December 2017

Saltwater Boat Angling 45

To this end, Cli ’s rig storage box, which

is a lovely wooden a air (which we’ll

return to in a later issue) is meticulously

organised. In the picture of the rig box,

at the top you can see a selection of

pre-tied boom rigs stored in plastic

pouches. The pouches  t the rig and

the box exactly because they are not

o the shelf items, but are customised

by cutting and stapling existing plastic

pockets and sleeves to arrive at the

correct size. In front of that is an array of

rigs which are stored on colour coded

winders. Each bank of coloured winders

contains sets of rigs of exactly the same

dimensions, line weight and hook size.

The colours of the winders eventually

repeat but the rigs are di erent enough

to still be distinguishable from one

another.

WINDERS

The eagle-eyed among you may have

noticed a few of the winders are thinner

than the others. You’ve probably also

noticed a bait spoon of the type seen

in many previous issues; it’s there for

good reason. Returning to the thinner

winders, they contain not rigs but pre-

tied leaders. The leader has a snap on

one end ready to take the rig of choice.

This goes on the winder  rst and the

leader is wound on over the top. The

end of the leader then has half a leader

knot already tied into it ready to tie

straight on to the braid on the reel. Two

slits cut in the foam winder makes sure

everything stays put. Compared to the

average angler’s approach to the loss of

a leader, Cli ’s approach saves a lot of

time. All he has to do is tie half a leader

knot in the braid, pull the knot up,

trim it and then wind the leader onto

the reel. He is then ready to  sh again.

Most anglers will, by this time have,

just located a new clip, be reaching for

a spool of mono to tie a new leader

and will have hopefully located their

clippers too. In actual fact, Cli would

have been  shing again even sooner

as another of his tips would be to have

another suitable (it doesn’t have to be

identical) out t ready if you own one.

In the event of a severe tangle or loss of

leader, just switch to the spare rod and

re-tie your main rod when you have the

chance, preferably while still  shing.

CLIP ON BEADS

Sometimes it is not the whole leader

or rig that gets lost, but simply one

snood. If using two-way beads these

can be di cult to re-tie in this situation.

The solution is to use a clip-on bead to

add another snood. These beads are

very similar in appearance to two-way

beads but instead of having two holes

at ninety degrees to each other, they

have one whole through the bead and

a slot at ninety degrees to that. The slot

also narrows so it acts a as the clip and

so trap the bead on the body of the

rig when the line is put in the slot. In

a similar way, you can quickly convert

two-hook rigs to three hook rigs and

vice versa by using clip-on beads. I had

never seen these beads before and was

pretty intrigued by them and, needless

to say, I will be getting some.

STORING PRE TIED RIGS

Anglers are, I have always thought,

a pretty ingenious bunch, always

contriving new ways to overcome

problems and Cli is no exception. To

store his pre-tied snoods with the clip-

on beads, he stores six on a standard

winder. To facilitate this, he drills six

holes in the sides of the winder with

six slits in the  ange adjacent to them.

Using a marker pen, these holes are

numbered one to six. To store the

snoods, starting at number six, simply

push the bead into the hole, feed the

snood through the slit, wind on the

snood and dig the point of the hook

into the winder as normal. Repeat this

 ve more times and as long as you

remove them starting at number one,

you will never get a tangle and have

saved the space of  ve rig winders.

SILICONE TUBING

Tangles have been mentioned a few

times today, mostly with regard to

stored traces and snoods but tangles

with other anglers are inevitable in a

crowded boat and anything you can

do to mitigate this eventuality will

help save  shing time. To this end, Cli

covers the clip at the end of his leader

with a piece of silicon tubing. This is

easily removable when you want to

change rigs but stops anybody else’s

main or rig line going into the clip.

It’s a very simple but very e ective

technique.

Hopefully, this will have given you

some food for thought about how

to maximise your  shing time. Next

month we will look at some more

time-saving techniques and tips.

as another of his tips would be to have as another of his tips would be to have winder. To facilitate this, he drills six winder. To facilitate this, he drills six

Cli ’s rig storage box

Pre-tied and pre-knotted leaders The plastic sleeve which helps to prevent other anglers’ lines tangling in the clip A clip-on bead and the rig winder modi ed to store six pre-tied snoods

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