Hitting ROCK BOTTOM

When going fishing offshore, you should be prepared for just about anything. Even though you've planned a day's trolling, you might get out there to find that the current's turned around and the ocean surface is cold and devoid of birds and baitfish.

You might spend hours dragging lures without a strike or seeing a sign of a fish, and you'll start to think: if only I had some bait, I could drop down on a reef.

If the sounder's showing scattered patches of fish and most of them are close to the bottom, they might be snapper or teraglin - or maybe they're just rubbish. But boy, wouldn't it be nice to find out!

When you go to the trouble of getting your boat prepared to go fishing, you should at least have an esky or the fishbox packed with some frozen bait just in case. Good-quality snap-frozen baits such as WA pilchards or striped tuna are dynamite on bottom fish, and they take very little time to thaw out in a bucket of seawater.

And if you don't end up using the bait, simply put the frozen packet back into the freezer when you get home and it's ready for your next trip.

Offshore bottom fishing can be a whole lot of fun, and you can get away with using some pretty basic tackle such as a simple handline. The techniques needed are also pretty basic, and fishing the bottom can be broken up into two broad categories: drifting and anchored.

HIGH-PLAINS DRIFTER
Drifting is a great way to catch bottom-dwellers, but the conditions have to be right. If the wind is howling or the current is screaming, the drift might be far too quick - usually the sinker won't hold and the line drag in the water will lift the bait off the bottom and away from the fish.

In shallow water you can sometimes get away with a heavier lead, but the deeper the water, the harder it is to fish!

It's a good idea to carry a sea anchor (like a parachute on a rope), as this can help slow down the drift. At the same time, if there's no wind and there's no current, you won't move too much at all - about the only way you'll catch a fish is if you practically drop bait on its head.

The paternoster rig is a favourite among many anglers, and it accounts for a wide range of species. Some anglers even use two or three "droppers" and hooks on it.

An alternative to the paternoster rig features a short 30cm trace (the line between the swivel and the hook), and this is very good for flathead. If the trace is extended to around a metre or so, it becomes a very good rig for snapper. If you use swivels on either side of the lead on this rig, they'll help eliminate line twist.

The section of line between the swivels needs to be long enough to allow a loop to be formed to hold the sinker. This loop makes it quick and easy to change the sinker without cutting the line if more or less weight is required. 

ANCHORING UP
Anchoring your vessel is a great way to work the bottom, and it's certainly my favourite way to fish. Putting the anchor in on some suitable ground you've found with the sounder yourself - or been given the marks to - can give you so many options to catch different species.

One of the key points about being stationary is that you can adapt your baits and rigs to suit the conditions, such as current and depth. Anchoring also enables you to use burley (fish scraps, heads, chicken pellets, bread and so on) to help attract the fish to the boat.

Burley can be distributed by hand, with a bucket or with a bomb. A slow, steady trail is all that's needed.

The secret to fishing at anchor is using the lightest tackle possible in both the sinker department and the size (breaking strain) of the line. Thick, heavy line creates more drag in the water and you will need extra lead to get your bait down - plus the fish can see the heavier line much easier.

Usually, floating rigs are used with a rod and reel, and its best to keep the line classes to around the 6-10kg mark. I use the rigs described earlier to set a bait or two on bottom as well, and here I only use around a 15kg breaking-strain line. It's only when fishing in the tropics, around the sharp reef, that you need heavier lines (24-37kg) to get the fish out of the coral.

But the best thing about anchoring is that you can really concentrate on the floating-type rigs to get the bait out and down. Used in conjunction with a bit of burley it can be an excellent way to fish, especially for the elusive snapper - the real prize for many bottom fishermen.

The idea is to feed the line out slowly and get the rigged bait to drift out and sink in the current as naturally as possible - similarly, the bits of burley going over the side. In other words, if you find the baits are plummeting straight to the bottom, less lead is needed - and the reverse applies if the bait's staying on the surface.

To get the technique right you need to play around with the sinkers you use; but while you're doing this, always be ready for a bite. Usually with floaters, because there is always a bit of slack line in the water, you can strike the fish to set the hook as soon as you feel the bite.

Even with the baits I set on the bottom, I only use just enough lead to hold the rig down. When a decent fish picks up a set bait, you want as little resistance on the line as possible - otherwise it could spook, drop the bait and not come back! 

UPDATE YOUR GEAR
Many anglers these days have switched over to non-stretch, gelspun or braid lines for bottom fishing. In really deep water this stuff can be beneficial, as you can feel the bites better.

The only drawback with braid lines is that you must be very careful handling the stuff because of its hard and extremely abrasive characteristics.

For example, you can't use it for handlines without gloves, so this really defeats the purpose. Even on a direct-drive Alvey reel or overhead multiplying reels where the line needs to be guided back and forth on the spool, braided line under pressure will cut your fingers to the bone.

The only suitable reels for braided lines offshore are threadlines, large deck winches or overhead reels with a level-wind. The new Shimano Tekota TEK800 reel is a great bit of gear for this kind of offshore fishing with braid.

You will notice a photo on the opening spread of this story of a system I use to get the anchor up quickly and easily. The method is particularly good if you fish by yourself.

All you do is use a plastic drum or large orange buoy (like the one shown) fitted with a stainless-steel dog clip big enough to slide over the anchor chain. When you want to pull the anchor, simply clip the float onto the rope and drive the boat up current or into the wind on a slight angle, so you don't run over the rope.

The water pressure on the float will slide it down the line and pull the anchor off the bottom, quick-smart. If you keep powering forward for a few extra seconds, even when you see the float pop back to the surface, the pressure will slide the float right down the chain to the anchor. The float will then hold the anchor up, and the weight of the chain will stop it sliding back down through the clip.

You simply drift back with the current or the breeze and retrieve all the rope and the anchor - it's that easy!