Boatless Fishing Forum, Reports, Info

Hi guys,

I've been looking at some of the bottom fishing rigs that people use on the piers and I keep seeing that they use a small red bead between the swivels. I'm wondering what the purpose of the bead is, I'm assuming its to stop friction? This is the best example I could find online, however I don't want my sinker to be so short and I'm not sure exactly where to place the bead, I'm trying to target snapper. Any help would be appreciated!

Thanks!

The bead is to keep the knot out of the sinker and from damaging the knot. I usually run around 12" leader from the swivel to the hook. for cut bait and about 5" longer for live bait.

In your picture,
you may not need to protect knots. But without bead, sinker swivel may get stuck in the main line knot, which may defeat the purpose of fish finder concept.
without bead, swivel can also be twisted with line... bead makes smooth line passing thru swivel

But there may be some issue with fish finder rig in your picture,
If this rig is used on rocky area, sinker gets snagged by rock, then you may have to cut out main line.
Also, when you have a big fish, fish can pull the line and gets into a hole and then your sinker get snagged.

For this reason, we also use short (about 2") breakaway line between sinker and swivel...
For this breakaway-line set up, bead seems more important than your picture as it makes less tangle between short 2" breakaway line and leader line.

If you use egg sinker with fish finder rig, bead also protects knots... When you have 8 oz sinker, this becomes a problem.
In my case, I add small piece of rubber tube before knot. so knot --> rubber tube --> bead -->egg sinker
This is just me. I've never seen anyone else using small rubber tube like me...

kblue wrote:In your picture,
you may not need to protect knots. But without bead, sinker swivel may get stuck in the main line knot, which may defeat the purpose of fish finder concept.
without bead, swivel can also be twisted with line... bead makes smooth line passing thru swivel

But there may be some issue with fish finder rig in your picture,
If this rig is used on rocky area, sinker gets snagged by rock, then you may have to cut out main line.
Also, when you have a big fish, fish can pull the line and gets into a hole and then your sinker get snagged.

For this reason, we also use short (about 2") breakaway line between sinker and swivel...
For this breakaway-line set up, bead seems more important than your picture as it makes less tangle between short 2" breakaway line and leader line.

If you use egg sinker with fish finder rig, bead also protects knots... When you have 8 oz sinker, this becomes a problem.
In my case, I add small piece of rubber tube before knot. so knot --> rubber tube --> bead -->egg sinker
This is just me. I've never seen anyone else using small rubber tube like me...

i so want to go fishing with you

sure... let's figure out a good time to fish...

loll i dont think he gets your sarcasm....im in on that trip tho..

Thank you for the detailed responses, very much appreciated!