CLACKER RIGS

CLACKER RIGS

clacker rigs, usually fished witha shrimp at the bottom down south on the flats for redfish and seatrout, but the are killer up north as well.

the commercial ones consist of a heavy peice of wire with beads and a float on it, then a couple feet below is a lure. these work, but if you wanna make ur own, get a snapper popper and insert a couple of theose insert rattles used in soft baits. i do better with the snapper popper cause it makes more noise and casts farther. another improvised clacker rig is a smack it popper(cause of the rattles). remove the back treble and tie on a piece of mono or floro and then tie the other end to your lure. this sort of "reverse teaser rig" gives you a double shot at the fish just like with a normal teaser rig.

it is fished by twitching the lure on the surface and making as much noise and commotion as posable. as you twitch it, it also causes the small lure to rise and fall like a struggling baitfish. the noise attracts the fish but the killer wounded bait fish action is what gets them to strike. the popper- teaser rig is fished the same way.

i use them in less then 8' of water in the back bays and on the flats. use it when it is dead calm, or fish it in a place with some current and let it get sucked into a shallow rip, or over a small hole or drop off. also works well in small tidal creeks and around drains.

for the lure at the bottom, i use gulp sand eels and gulp shrimp, hawg shad, small soft plastics (like hawg shad, slug-go, fin-s, etc.), teasers, flies, spearing, peanut bunker, or any other small lure or small bait fish threaded onto the hook. the key is that it must be light and unweighted, otherwise it will hinder the dying baitfish action. it will also cut back on your casting distence.

i also add smelly jelly to the lure i am using except gulp(it has the scent) and flies(it mats the hair and gets it all gunked up) even though the sound is the main attrachtor, i think it helps, especially in murky water

i use it the most in the spring when fish are spread out over the flats in search of food. the fish are very lethargic since the wtaer is cold and will only hit slow moving lures. often in the spring when fish are speard out the water is also murky. this makes it difficult for the fish to find your lure. if you use a big bait toget the fishes attention or a popper the will ignore it or simply follow it.

the clacker rig attraches the fish and it has a slow action that triggers the fishes instinct to attack.

also works good when game fish are feeding on small hard to match bait fish that are schooled so dense it is hard to get you lure noticed. catch one of the spearing, snad eels, peanut bunker, etc. or use a lure around the edges of the school.

the noise helps your presentation stand out and gt noticed. you can now also present a small lure that you might not have been able to cast very far. this also works at night around a full moon when schoolies are crashing small baits on the flats.

in general i usually only use flies matching the present bait fish, hawg shad, fin-s, and the gulp lures. i catch the most fish with those lures. as for bait i use fresh spearing or peanut bunker unless i the fish are keying in on a specific bait.

i usually catch bass, blues, and fluke with this meathod but it works with weakies as well. if you were targeting weakfish i would use a pink gulp sand eel or a pink gulp shrimp. fish it around dawn or dusk in known weakie hangouts on a preferable tide. i never did well with weakies but thats probably cause it mainly fish the north shore but i have caught them on it in shinnicok in the summer.

for the commercial clacker rigs
http://www.doalures.com/deadly_combo.htm

hope this helps you guys catch a bunch of fish on new type rig if you havent tried it before

This post edited by snapperman 07:40 PM 07/01/2008