You guys are probably here because you need some help with pier fishing.
Well, today I want to help explain to you guys some of the things that I always bring
to the pier um, and that I always have success on and I want to explain to you guys how I
use it and when I use it, so stay tuned to hear.
So I've been fishing in many, many piers throughout the United States and all of them have one
thing in common, there are predator fish that will hit a moving bait and some of the baits
that I really like to use, they don't always work, so I bring multiple different kinds
of lures and different kinds of rigs to try until I find them.
so the first rig I'd like to talk about is spoons.
They come in all different shapes and sizes, this one is actually a cheap one from China
that will light up when you throw it into the water, as soon as it goes to the water
it'll start flashing lights and this works really well at night time because it'll attract
the fish, it'll see the flash and um, you know that could look like a baitfish shimmering
in the moonlight or just something interesting for a fish to catch his attention.
Now when I'm throwing spoons, I throw it far to try and cover a lot of distance and I usually
throw a spoon when I first get to a pier just to see what kind of activity is going on around
the pier.
Spoon work all around the world because it mimics a little baitfish swimming in the water.
A spoon will give itself natural action, all you gotta do is reel it in and it's very simple,
simple way to start catching fish on lures if you've never caught fish on a lure before,
which I totally understand.
It's kind of difficult to start getting into lure fishing, especially if you were a bait
fisherman most of your life, but you've gotta remember these work.
These work.
Many, many, many people catch fish on spoons and if you're not catching something on a
spoon it's because you're not doing something correctly.
alright, next I want to talk to you guys about a rig that I would call it a mixture of both
lure and bait fishing and that's the flounder rig.
I put a swimbait at the end of this but you can put literally whatever you want on the
end of this hook, um, but the basic idea is that it has this, you see this little shimmery
thing right here, above the hook? that thing will spin in the water so fish will see something
flashing in the water and you can put a piece of bait on here, I usually put a piece of
Salty Tentacle right here, Super salty Squid, I take a bit of this tentacle off and I put
it right on here, that way it's got natural scent and it's got natural flow to it.
So something like this doesn't have the scent but it has a nice flow.
I would also use this if I didn't have Salty Squid on me, this is a little lake fork swimbait,
I think it's like a little 2 1/2- 3" This rig works for so many different species, this
is just a small hook, you can put a bigger hook and do the same thing.
I've caught perch, spot, croaker, rockfish, bluegill, all sorts of things, anything that
will hit a little swimming fish will hit this.
It's a really good multi-species rig if you wanna go out and catch a bunch of fish.
When you first buy this rig, you can find it at Bass Pro, Walmart, it just comes like
this and there's a little loop up top right here and sometimes people get confused how
to tie these on.
I'm going to show you the easiest way I learned, my friend Edmund taught me how to use this
rig not too long ago, um, and I haven't stopped using it since 'cause it just works so well.
I get a swivel clip.
It can spin around freely, it's got a ball bearing right here, and this clip will clip
on to here, okay? and then this end goes to the main line of your fishing rig--of your
fishing reel.
This is your main line end.
Before you tie the main line, you wanna put a sinker, and I usually use a sliding sinker
or a bullet sinker, and it sits on it like that.
When you swim it through the water, this part will sink and this part will flutter through
the water, just like that, and there's many ways you can retrieve this as well, you can
do a slow retrieve on the bottom and that will catch a lot of flounder, you can do a
mid-column swim and you'll catch some perch, there's a lot of different possibilities with
this rig.
They come in a package like this with usually five to six hooks, these are size four, good
for small inshore fish, little panfish.
I'm going to be using this in Southern Maryland.
Okay, next thing that I use constantly while at the pier is these DOA swimbaits.
It's pretty much the same thing as this, you guys remember this?
Except this is much larger.
This is a 3 1/2 incher, and I get, I usually go for a 1/4 oz. jig head, again it all depends
on where you're fishing it if it's really deep water and fast-moving water, 1/4 might
not be enough, maybe you'll go with a 1/2 oz.
But the general idea with these is that you want it as light as you can get it and it
still hit the bottom.
Now it's time to put the swimbait on here.
I've noticed a lot of people have confusion about getting this jighead onto the actual
swimbait as well, it's very simple.
First thing you do, measure out where you want the hook to come out.
You see it comes out right here?
Mark that down, mentally mark it down or physically mark it down, and then you're going to put
this hook through the front of the nose right here, just like this, and push it straight
back to where you marked it, okay? and then you're gonna pull it out just like that and
push it onto the swimbait and that's it.
Okay?
Now you're going to fish this the same way I've always taught you how to fish these little
swim jigs, there are many, many ways, you're going to have to experiment different ways
of retrieving it, um, but I find lot of times that I like to cast it out, let it sink to
the bottom, and then slowly retrieve it first just to hit the bottom column first, 'cause
I feel like a lot of times the fish are on the bottom column.
Those are three really great lures to use while you're--if you're first trying to catch
fish at the pier and you're really trying to actually get on some fish, these have given
me a lot of success while on the pier.
I'm confident that all these rigs will work pretty much any pier if there's fish.
Now for you bait fishermen out there, uh people who don't want to use lures, people who want
to use bait instead, there's a lot of different options with that too.
I find a lot of times when I use bait I have more confidence in catching fish.
I find more success using live bait, something about it being alive and the natural scent
of it out there and it actually be moving around out there where I don't have to--I
don't have to make the action like I do with like the swimbaits, I have to make the action
and at the end of the day it's not a real bait, it's not loaded with scent, it's not
actually moving, so I don't think that it could really beat a live bait so when I'm
using bait I use a couple of different rigs and again it all depends on the structure
of the pier, if you're fishing rocky bottom you don't really want to use a hi-low rig,
because that sinker's gonna get stuck on the rocks down there.
So usually what I bring to the pier is a box similar to this, this is just the box from
the pier fishing adventure kit which is available in the senkoskipper.com, um, this comes with
pretty much everything I'm talking about now plus way more, it's just a guide to teach
you the rigs to tie all sorts of that stuff, anyways, I bring a box similar to this every
time I go pier fishing where I set up everything I need to tie my rigs and to re-tie my rigs
on the pier if needed and the rig that I'm talking about today is the same one on the
guide, which is either a knocker rig or a Carolina rig and this rig is basically here
it goes, ready?
Hook, leader line, okay? and then from leader line, you tie a swivel and this swivel will
keep this from tangling your line when it spins around in the water because there's
a ball bearing in the middle of this.
This will keep from line twists and your line getting tangled.
So now after I tie this on I'll put an egg sinker on or a sliding sinker, and the weight
of the sinker all depends on the structure I'm fishing again, if it's really fsast moving
water something like a 1/4 oz. might be way too light.
The next rig I want to talk about is the hi-low rig, which is an all time classic rig, I'll
show you right here.
You guys have seen this rig before, right?
It's the hi-low rig.
Two hooks on here, doubles your chances for fish, keeps it off the ground so crabs won't
get your bait as easily.
The hi-low rig is something that I use pretty much everywhere, I don't just use it for pier
fishing, I use it for beach fishing and you can put any kind of bait on there that you
want.
The key with using the hi-low rig is to make sure that you're not fishing a really rocky
area because that'll get stuck really quick.
If you want to learn how to tie these rigs, we've got the entire tutorial on here.
We've got a guide on how to tie these knots and when to tie these knots, on what lures,
on what rigs, because you tie different knots on different rigs and different lures so we've
got a guide online on senkoskipper.com, teaching you guys what knots to tie and when.
We've also got a pier fishing guide available for instant download at senkoskipper.com where
we'll teach you how to tie these different rigs.
Okay, let's run trough it one more time, spoons: they work really well, pretty much every pier,
try changing up the size of the spoon, try changing up the retrieval speed of the spoons,
okay next, this flounder rig, I'm not sure if it's even called a flounder rig, I call
it a flounder rig because it catches so many flounder!
Use this with a bullet weight and a snap swivel.
Play with different retrieves, the same advice for all of them, play with different retrieves.
The fish'll tell you what kind of retrieve it wants because it'll be hitting your bait,
and then DOA swimbaits.
These swimbaits work all over the world, all over the world, anything that wants to eat
a moving fish will eat it.
The hi-low rig and the carolina rig, or a knocker rig.
That's all my advice for today, hope you guys like this little segment.
It always helps me to teach you guys because it's a nice little refresher before I go back
fishing and I thank you guys for watching, if you have anymore questions about pier fishing,
about any kind of fishing we do all sorts of different kinds of tutorials on senkoskipper.com,
so if you need more help, check that out, for now, sayonara