Thread: Rig for kids

Brought my 12 year old niece to the pier a few weeks ago for her first experience fishing salt water. Harley tied a simple rig for her to catch pinfish but I can't remember how he tied the knot. First, he tied a 1 oz. pyramid sinker on the end of the main line which is no problem. Then, he tied a single line about 8 inches long with a small bream hook around the main line about a foot above the sinker. I didn't pay close enough attention when he tied that line around the main line. I thought it would just slip down to the sinker when she caught a fish, but it never moved. Harley said the line would break before it would slip down the line. Does anyone know what kind of knot that could have been, and how to tie it? I think he called it a "swing rig". Can't find anything on the web but "dropper loops" and that is not it, it is a single line tied AROUND the main line (no swivel). By the way, she caught 62 small fish on that rig with tiny pieces of shrimp.

A surgeon's knot, double, or triple surgeon's performs as described and is very easy to tie.

Lay the dropper line next to the main line. Form a loop with both lines at the spot you want it attached and pinch with one hand. Poke both ends through loop one, two or three times with the other hand. Tighten and trim.

Thanks! I'll have to try that. That's not the knot H.R. used but as long as it will hold up to some pinfish, lys, hardtails, etc., I will be happy. Just wanted to be able to make up rigs to give to kids at the pier and try to pass on the kindness that Harley shows so many people.

I think I found the easiest way to make this rig just using the main line only. Double the main line (from reel) about 2 ft. from end and tie a 5" - 6" surgeons loop. Tie a 1 oz. lead weight to the tag end so that it hangs about 12" below the knot. Then cut one side of the loop off near the knot so you only have one line instead of a loop. Tie a #4 or #6 aberdeen hook to this line so that it is about 6" from the knot and that's it. The line with the hook on it must be shorter than the line with the lead to help prevent tangles. This seems to work pretty good, but the main line must be small enough to allow you to tie on a very small hook. If the main line is too big to tie on the small hook, the rig could be made up using 10 lb. test or smaller and then attached to the main line with a swivel or just a uni to uni knot. Bait with TINY pieces of shrimp, drop to bottom, reel up slack and kids can catch a multitude of various small fish.

You guy got me interested so I found how to make the rig. It's just a home made sabiki with only one hook. I make some with three hook and took them bream fishing from a dock (too far from the salt to try it there). Just for kicks I used 30lb mono for the main line and 10lb mono for the hooks. It worked great this morning catching some bait sized bluegills (the catfish around here love them). While fishing a handy underwater rock was found to test the strenght of the knots. Long story short the rock won but the line put up a respectable battle. The knots are the weak point but will hold up to bait fish. Now if you get a king to hit it while it's in the water, hang on.

Found a video that shows it being done:

Counting the days until I can get back to the pier.

I've been tying more of these rigs trying to improve on my method. I edited my last post above, so have probably really got everybody confused now!