San Diego & SoCal Fishing Forums

Labor Day weekend I dabbled in the dark arts and tried a Sabiki Rig on a baitcaster (first time using a Sabiki). I caught six mackerel in a short period of time on the Sabiki, I was floored it produced so well. Two were decent size, they’re real fighters.

Being primarily a fly angler and knowing macks were in the area, I busted out the six weight rod and threw the smallest clousers I had on hand (#6). All I could manage to catch was a small anchovy, which is ironic catching bait fish on the fly and macks on the Sabiki, go figure.

Now the hamster wheel is turning, why were the macks so hot for the Sabiki flies? Is it the super small size, the fact they aren’t moving much (less to chase), the fact they’re six of them so it looks like a school, all of the above? Anyway, I’d like to tie flies like the Sabiki rig and fish a couple in tandem and see how it goes. Anyone tried this?

Macs love sabiki rigs, extremely common to catch them on sabiki rigs

That’s the purpose of sabiki rigs. To make bait, primarily macs

camobass wrote: Thu Sep 07, 2023 7:03 am That’s the purpose of sabiki rigs. To make bait, primarily macs

I thought sabiki's were geared more toward smaller fish like anchovies, obviously the macs love them too. These seemed awfully big to use for baitfish, maybe they would work offshore for large fish.

I've caught macs on the fly before, but they were incidental catches. I'm thinking going smaller and tying flies similar to the Sabiki's might be more consistent with the macs, they're fun fish to fight on the fly rod.

A 25-30lb butt will have zero issue eating an 8” Mac. There are bigger models of macs that people refer to as horse Mac that’s too big but, you’re right, staple bait for off shore pelagics as well as ling cod and halibut.

Also to note, there are many different sizes of sabikis. There are micros that are for smaller bait. Small enough if you load up on average mackerel, they will tend to break off at the hooks.

You haven’t experienced “fun” until you have 3-4 guys trying to swing fully loaded sabiki rigs at the bait tank all at once all full of macs in the middle of the night.

Rattus wrote: Wed Sep 06, 2023 10:05 pm
Now the hamster wheel is turning, why were the macks so hot for the Sabiki flies? Is it the super small size, the fact they aren’t moving much (less to chase), the fact they’re six of them so it looks like a school, all of the above? Anyway, I’d like to tie flies like the Sabiki rig and fish a couple in tandem and see how it goes. Anyone tried this?

Macks will usually try to eat anything, including flies much larger than a size 6 clouser minnow.

If you caught macks with a sabiki rig then switched to a fly and stopped catching then there are several possibilities:

1. The fish were deeper than your fly was getting, the sabiki rig was getting deeper, and the macks were unwilling to come up. Often some will come up but sometimes they won't.

2. The fish moved out of the immediate area

3. The macks became fixated on a particular size bait. In this case something much smaller than your clouser minnow. Did you try to go back to the sabiki.

4. The macks just stopped eating. Or the prey they were feeding on moved away.

5. Some other reasons I can't think of right now.

I have enjoyed episodes of non-stop mack attacks on the ocean that lasted for a couple of hours. I have also looked down into clear water from a boat and watch endless streams of macks pass by uninterested in anything whether it be fly or some sort of hardware.

A two fly rig will work. I have done this a couple of times. Having two mackerel hooked up can get kind of crazy, and even crazier when trying to unhook them for release. Releasing two hooked spotties is one thing. Releasing two mackerel, bonito, etc is an adventure.

Sometimes you can draw macks up to the surface with a small popper and a small streamer (something like a small lefty's deceiver) trailing it by 18" to 3'. The splashing of the popper sometimes is an effective attractor. Sometimes they even eat the popper.

One of the thinks I dislike about two fly rigs is that it is harder to cast them long distances without fouling. To avoid fouling it helps to open up the loop, which reduces distance.

I don't use two fly rigs often due to an injury I sustained once while fishing for stripers in SF Bay. Lead fly was a 3/0 whistler and trailer was a 1/0 deceiver. I hooked a striper of 6 to 8 pounds on the lead fly and while I was releasing it another striper grabbed the trailing fly which was hanging in the water. Well, that first striper got released right away in a fashion I didn't intend and that lead fly ended up stuck in a hand with another striper pulling hard on the leader. It hurt like a (censored) and good amount of my blood leaked out. Fortunately all the critical parts of the hand were missed so no permanent damage.

Anyway, macks are a hoot to catch so I hope you get into some more. I do tie some smaller sparser , size 8 hook, clouser minnows to have on hand If I think I need a smaller fly to match bait. I usually tie these with calf tail and some flash or super hair and some flash.

Tailingloop wrote: Thu Sep 07, 2023 4:14 pm 3. The macks became fixated on a particular size bait. In this case something much smaller than your clouser minnow. Did you try to go back to the sabiki.

Probably this. I did try the Sabiki after the fly rod and caught some. They were not very deep in the water column, maybe 6-8 ft. A smallish, simple pattern like a Mickey Finn in size #8 might have worked.

Your (painful) experience fishing with a tandem rig is a good reminder to be careful with the Sabiki’s six hooks failing around.

Those sabiki hooks come out of the skin just as easy as they go in haha

It actually doesn’t hurt to pinch the barb. The secrete to the sabiki is constant pressure/ steady wind. No pumping or pausing after it starts loading up with bait