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Pulley rigs

spiderfur

spiderfur

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Wondering if someone could clarify for me. I usually fish clean sandy ground using two hook clipped rigs or a Pennell rig for bigger stuff. ( I live in hope )
What would the advantage of a pulley rig be if any and would you use a gripper with it?
 
spiderfur said:
Wondering if someone could clarify for me. I usually fish clean sandy ground using two hook clipped rigs or a Pennell rig for bigger stuff. ( I live in hope )
What would the advantage of a pulley rig be if any and would you use a gripper with it?
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No real benefit in terms of the actual rig function, however I do still use them a lot for clean ground as they’re quick and easy to tie, plus hang together well for the cast.
Yes I’d use grippers.

FYI I don’t use expensive pulley beads and all the other gadgets, just good quality swivels, two beads and a weight clip with built in bait clip, hence quick and easy for me.

I’ve also caught more rays on pulleys than anything else, so I don’t buy into the theory they’re put off by a grip weight.

But it’s not that I think they’re better on clean ground, just find them convenient and they still work.
Nothing wrong with ordinary clipped downs either.
 
Mr Fish said:
No real benefit in terms of the actual rig function, however I do still use them a lot for clean ground as they’re quick and easy to tie, plus hang together well for the cast.
Yes I’d use grippers.

FYI I don’t use expensive pulley beads and all the other gadgets, just good quality swivels, two beads and a weight clip with built in bait clip, hence quick and easy for me.

I’ve also caught more rays on pulleys than anything else, so I don’t buy into the theory they’re put off by a grip weight.

But it’s not that I think they’re better on clean ground, just find them convenient and they still work.
Nothing wrong with ordinary clipped downs either.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the input Mr Feesh (y)
 
Pulley rigs are designed so that when you hook "big" fish the weight of the fish pulls the lead as far above the fish (away from snags) as possible.
So a 4ft snood/rig body would give a distance of 8ft from fish to lead when retrieving something with more resistance than the lead.

On a flat sandy beach, I doubt there is any benifit of this function, so as Fish said... You don't need them unless you just want a very easy tying rig, that casts most baits well.

I personally think a fixed type rig gives better hooking, so I normally use a semi fixed pulley on my mixed ground fishing, to reduce this downside. 👍
 
Wolf said:
I use the same sort of setup as Mr Fish,with a grip lead,but with a bait clip above the weight connector I tie my own rigs,I use the same rig for clean & rough ground,I also find they work well,
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Thanks
 
Si-fly said:
Pulley rigs are designed so that when you hook "big" fish the weight of the fish pulls the lead as far above the fish (away from snags) as possible.
So a 4ft snood/rig body would give a distance of 8ft from fish to lead when retrieving something with more resistance than the lead.

On a flat sandy beach, I doubt there is any benifit of this function, so as Fish said... You don't need them unless you just want a very easy tying rig, that casts most baits well.

I personally think a fixed type rig gives better hooking, so I normally use a semi fixed pulley on my mixed ground fishing, to reduce this downside. 👍
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Thanks, makes sense (y)
 
I've done this to death, but, pulleys are a last resort over rough ground.

Over too many years and too many side by side tests, a fixed rig will consistently have a better hook up ratio than a pulley.

Just my 2 penneths worth.
 
The only time I use pulley rigs over clean ground is when fishing off high walls where I have to handball the fish up. Even then there's a sliding stop involved - to improve hooking - that will slide under the pressure of playing/lifting bigger fish. Otherwise I'm firmly with Shirl - there are much better traps to set like the clipped down pennel paternoster, up-and-over and the Portsmouth loop rig
 
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I'm with shirleycodling here.
I think the pulley is the lazy man's rig, which is why I guess the 5min of fame youtube hero's push them all the time😂
a simple trick to make the rig a little more effective (in my opinion) is to semi fix it, by adding a bit of telephone cable (old skool!) to act as a stop on the main pulley line as per the pic... Its the yellow bit. Adding this, I believe helps set the hook rather than having 4foot of minimal resistance.
As soon as you get a bigger fish the stop will slide down the rig body and get your lead up high
 

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I use pulleys but have a rubber float stop to make it semi fixed but moves under pressure. I do the same with a sliding up and over rig both I use a lot up the channel.
 
Another thing to bare in mind, is that if you catch loads of rays, dogs, huss, eels etc, fixed / 2hook clipped rigs, I find a nightmare to keep re-building after losing hooks, or damaging the snood.

A pulley, is very simple to just shorten and add fresh hooks, can do that a number of times on a longish one as well.
If you fish deep water this may cause an issue eventually with bait coming up in the water, but on shallow beaches I find no I'll effects.

So basically more time fishing, unless you carry loads of spare rigs 👍
 
Si-fly said:
Another thing to bare in mind, is that if you catch loads of rays, dogs, huss, eels etc, fixed / 2hook clipped rigs, I find a nightmare to keep re-building after losing hooks, or damaging the snood.

A pulley, is very simple to just shorten and add fresh hooks, can do that a number of times on a longish one as well.
If you fish deep water this may cause an issue eventually with bait coming up in the water, but on shallow beaches I find no I'll effects.

So basically more time fishing, unless you carry loads of spare rigs 👍
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That’s another good point I forgot, and another reason I use them.
Like you I catch a lot of the above and it’s easy to just snip off the damaged section of trace and retie or replace the hooks.
Then if it becomes too short I’ll just replace the whole hook trace.
Usually while another trace is fishing - I’m always busy repairing spare traces between casts.
I’m not a great fan of rig tying anyway, and I don’t have the patience for cutting to exact length and rig jigs and crimps etc, so the pulley is perfect for me as a quick tie rig.
If that makes me lazy, lol, so be it, but I still seem to get plenty of hook ups.
If I was missing stacks of bites I’d have a rethink, but I’m not, so…

I don’t think they’re the best rig out there by any means, and there’s no need at all for the pulley effect on clean ground, but they seem to work for me so I’m not in any rush to do anything different.
 
One big thing to consider, is the length of the pully rig. Short pullys are almost like bolt rigs, where as long pullys can allow your bait to behave a bit more naturally. Lots to consider before choosing a rig, species, bait, distance required, the ground you are fishing over etc... Personally love a 5ft pully for Ray fishing on the south coast, short pully over the rough in the bristol channel. The only time Im not keen on them is connecting with bites on slack tides.
 
I tend to use a sliding weight and about 8ft trace to the hook, I can blank with the best of them.;)
 
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