Collection: Sabikis

Sabiki rigs — strings of small dressed hooks for catching live bait where a cast net will not reach.

A cast net is unbeatable in shallow water. Over a deep wreck, around a channel marker, off a pier or anywhere the bait is sitting in 30 feet, a net is useless and a sabiki is the only tool that works. Drop it into the school, jig it gently, and come up with several baits at a time.

The small tinsel-dressed hooks imitate glass minnows well enough that greenies, pilchards, cigar minnows, threadfins and pinfish all commit to them readily.

Two things to know. Do not horse it — you are asking light wire hooks to hold several fish at once, so lift smoothly. And use a sabiki rod or a length of PVC to store it, because a loose sabiki will find every soft thing in the boat, including your hands.