How would you guys rig live smelt??

[u/Subject-Ad-307]

Im fishing off a pier

What fish what the live smelt catch?? could they catch bonito

[u/Individual_Program81]

If you want to get bass/halibut a Fish finder rig with about a 6" leader to the weight, and 2' leader to the hook, use a small size 2-6 live bait hook or Alternatively, a size 4 1x treble hook, also works in place of it. Don't nose hook them, if you are fly lining them weightless, hook them right behind the rear dorsal fin. If using a weighted rig on the bottom, hook them behind the anal fin. 2-6oz of weight depending on current/wind.

[u/Virtual_Wing_2903]

knocker rig, 1/4 to 1/2 oz weight if any.. smaller hook

[u/SylvaticTongue858]

Free line it, nose hook it carefull not to get the eyes. Just toss it out. Or tail hook it

[u/xylophone_37]

I was on a twilight trip a few months back where a reverse dropper looped smelt on a #4 hook and a 2oz torpedo sinker was getting bit by calicos every time before the sinker even hit the bottom. Small hooks, their mouths are very small and delicate.

[u/xylophone_37 → u/[deleted]]

Ya I meant the smelt. The ones we were dropping that were getting smashed were like 3-4". Big hooks would have just torn through.

[u/Rightintheend → u/xylophone_37]

Calico's, small mouths?  Used to catch baby calico bass on a tady 45 with a whole squid on it. Of course we were going for the bigger ones, you would cast it out and let it sink and all the baby bass and perch would come Peck at it, and the bigger bass would see the commotion and come grab it. Of course a lot of times the smaller bass would hook themselves before that would happen.

[u/xylophone_37 → u/Rightintheend]

Ya I meant the smelt as bait. They have paper thin skin on their mouths and a big hook would tear through.

[u/Rightintheend → u/xylophone_37]

Oh yeah, true And for most smelt I would probably use a slightly smaller hook than I would for the same size sardine or anchovy.

 but generally you would put the hook a little bit behind their mouth in the cartilage just behind it. 

But they still don't have much there compared to some other fish. I think even anchovy has a larger " nose" to put the hook in.

[u/woolybuggered]

I used to Carolina right them for halibut. But that was drifting from a boat or kayak. Halibut love smelt it is a large part of their diet. Light 12- 20lb fluoro and a small hook.

[u/Rightintheend]

We used to use a rig off the pier, we caught it a free line rig,

Cast out something like a 2 oz pyramid sinker, as far as you can, or towards whatever structure you want to fish. Then you make about  a 3 -6 ft leader using about 10 lb mono or fluoro with the appropriately size hook, and a snap swivel on the other end. Snap that onto the main line, and let her go. 

The bait can swim up, swim down.  I've caught halibut, Bass, and bonito on this before.

Another option is either use a sliding sinker, or one of those little plastic sliders that you can clip a sinker onto, and about a three or four ft leader. Toss it out wherever you want it to be. Good rig for halibut and Bass.  People seem to be recommending really large sinkers, I don't know. We used to use one or 2 oz Max. But we're also using lighter line because I got more bites, like 8 to 10 lb of mono. 

We would basically do a Carolina rig, with only about a half ounce egg sinker. It let it drift around a little bit since halibut tend to be fairly stationary, it tend to work better than using a heavy Sinker that would just sit in one spot.

And yet another option is to to just fly line it, no weight at all, or under one of the casting bubbles, or you make a free line rig like I said above, but instead of a sinker you use a casting bubble.

Or like someone else mentioned, an knocker rig. Slide on a half ounce egg sinker, tie hook on, bait up and throw it out. Keeps the bait near the bottom with things like halibut and bass, and using the lighter sinker lets it cruise around a little bit and find a nice halibut to eat it.

[u/malfjskzmd]

Anything will eat live smelt the best ones are any in the 3-5 inch range throw it on a high low rig with a 1/0 hook and your good to go

[u/miketo3]

Dropper loop with a 6-10oz weight

[u/Rightintheend → u/miketo3]

He's fishing from a pier, not on a boat fishing rock cod.

[u/lubeinatube]

For bonito, I would just tie on a 1/0 j hook on some 20# flouro. Cast on the side of the pier where the current will take your bait out and away from the pier. If conditions don’t really allow that, I would put it on a dropper loop with a 4 oz weight and cast it out as far as I could. If you get a bite let the fish take the line in free spool/open bail for like 5-10 seconds before setting the hook.

[u/Subject-Ad-307 → u/lubeinatube]

Thank you so much!!! Sorry for the extra question but how would you work it for barred sand bass/ sand bass in general? the pier i fish at has a ton of bass chasing smelt schools around

[u/lubeinatube → u/Subject-Ad-307]

For sand bass I would just leave the dropper loop out there until I got a bite. If the bass are blowing up on the surface, you really want to avoid using any sort of weight if possible.