Snaglining

BEFORE YOU TRY SETTING ONE OF THESE LINES CHECK YOUR LOCAL STATE LAWS CONCERNING TROTLINE/SNAGLINE.

Flathead fishing with snaglines is best done between the first of May to mid June and mid September to about early November depending on water temperature. If you catch a flathead on bottom during the hot part of the year it’ll be dead and ruin due to the lack of oxygen. Flats will usually start going dormant here around November in the lake. They’ll be active in moving water until the end of November below dams. This will take place earlier the further north you are and later down south.

If the bottom has abrupt drop-offs common sense will tell you that a snagline will not work in this type area. Lots of submerged structure will keep you from running snaglines also. They'll get hung up on tree stumps and everything like that. Drag a weight in the area you're going to set the line across and make sure the area is clear of anything the snagline might get tangled up on.

Always use a lifejacket while running these lines and have a knife attached to your person in a place you can get to it very quickly. If there’s a large flathead or blue on the line and he jerks the line one of those hooks might get in you you’d better be ready to cut the line that the hook is tied on from the mainline. If you don't and he jerks again he'll bury that hook in you all the way to the saddle of the hook. This has never happened to me but I'd imagine it has and will.

I've never fallen overboard with one of these lines either but I weigh over 400 lbs. I’ve slipped in the boat while running a snagline so this is the reason for the lifejacket and knife also. I don't care how good of a swimmer you are. If you fall overboard and get a hook in you from this type snagline you'll need the knife to cut the line free and hope the lifejacket will hold you up well enough that you can get a hand on your boat. The snagline will be pulling down on you in this situation at about 15 to 20 lbs pressure.

The drop lines from the mainline should be 1.5 ft in length made of doubled over 150# twisted nylon. Braided can't be used on anything on one of these lines in Keystone waters. Not even the mainline can be braided line because it will break I'm not sure why but the fish will wear it out in less than 24 hours if they're large enough. I’d say 20 lbs or bigger. I use tarred 500# test twisted line for the mainline and the regular twisted 150# drop lines, which can't be tarred. They need to be very limp and the tar will make the line stiff so that the hooks can't turn into the fish. Hooks should be at least 7/0 stainless steel.

The mainline from the rock to the pulley needs to be about 5 to 6 feet long and the distance from the pulley to the first hook should be four times longer than the depth of the water. The same goes for the anchor end also so if the water is 20ft deep the line from the anchor to the first hook should be 80 ft on both ends so that when you pull the line up to check it it'll have enough room that you won't bottom out against the jugs on the pulley end or have to uproot the rock on the anchor end to get to the last hook.

The Drops are made from 3 ft sections of 150 lb test twisted nylon. Fold the drop line over and tie a granny knot in the end as shown in the photo below.

Melt the two tag ends together and this will make the ends so that it can’t slip through the knot.

Here you’ll see the finished knot. See how the tag ends have melted together and also melted slightly into the knot itself. This makes the drop line very strong and the knot will never come apart. When cutting nylon line like this use a lighter instead of a knife. If you use a knife the nylon will ravel out making it very hard to work with.

Attaching the dropline to the hook is pretty simple. Run the loop through the inside side of the eye. Then wrap one side of the loop around the hook two times. It’s very important that you put the line through inside side of the eye because if you run the loop through the backside of the eye the hook won't turn into the fish when it swims through the lines.

Put all your swivels on the mainline. This mainline is 500 lb test twisted nylon. After you’ve got all your swivels on it you start spacing them however far apart your local regulations say they have to be. Some states are 3 ft and here in Oklahoma the space between the hooks is 2 ft. Those clear globs on both sides of the swivel are hot glue. Hot glue works best but silicone or knots can be used. I used a stick of hot glue and heated it up with my propane torch. You could use a glue gun, which might save you a lot of time. After you’ve applied the glue keep rolling the line around. If you don’t the glue will settle and harden on the bottom side of the line. It only takes a few seconds for the glue to harden.

Now put your drop line through the bottom of the swivel and then put the hook back through between the lines. Pull down firmly on the drop line to take the slack out of the loop.

This is how you store the line for transport to and from the fishing hole. You get an inner tube and cut off about a foot section. You then put the hooks into the inner tube right along the edge of the cut so that the drops and mainline will hang neatly below.

This will allow you to wrap the mainline loops around the inner tube for storage. A normal trotline/snagline for Oklahoma would have about 50 to 100 hooks. I made this one with 5 drops and hooks to show how everything is done.

When you get ready to deploy the snagline you’ll tie the end of the mainline to the line that’s running through the pulley. The pulley is attached to an anchor rock with about 6 foot of leader. The line that’s running through the pulley should be 4 times longer than the depth you’re setting the line. So if you’re setting it in 20 ft water the line should be at least 80 ft long. Tie 2 one-gallon bleach jugs to the end of the mainline after you’ve ran it through the pulley. Throw the anchor overboard where you want it and the jugs. The line will slide through the pulley and the jugs will stay on top of the water. Attach that line to the mainline one your snagline. Attach a jug and 25 ft piece of line to where the first hook is on the snagline and throw the jug overboard. This will be the line you pick your trotline up with. Then using your trolling motor or the drift of your boat you slowly take the hooks off the rubber inner tube. Don’t unhook them from the rubber. Just pull the hook so that the hook tears out of the inner tube. Don’t use the boat’s motor to move the boat. It’ll go too fast and you’ll get a hook in you. That could possibly pull you overboard also. Once all the hooks are deployed into the water you’ll attach the other end of your mainline to the opposing anchor. This is the anchor you’ll use to tighten the snagline. Tie a 25ft heavy rope on this anchor and tie your mainline to that also. The mainline to the anchor should be 80 to 100 ft long from the last hook with a truck inner tube between the last hook and the anchor.

Now using the motor have someone hold the anchor while you position the boat where the anchor will be dropped. When you’re in position pull the line until you see the jugs on the other side of the pulley submerge. Pull the line about 10 more feet and then drop the anchor at the same time you throw the rope overboard. The jug will float and if the jugs on the other end of the line surface you grab hold of the tightener jug and pull the rope with your boat until it submerges again. You should now be ready to attach the weights and bottles to the mainline.

The anchors should be as heavy as you can possible get out there too. Over 100 lbs of rock because not only does it have to hold the line tight the jugs will be pulling up on it as well. I use two rocks tied to each other about 10 ft apart with heavy rope so that it'll anchor really well. The tightener line should be very strong too. I use ski rope or a very heavy nylon rope like a boat anchor line. Pull on the tightener line so that the jugs pulling on the main line submerge about 2.5 to 3 ft and then stop pulling. The jugs pulling upwards on the mainline will keep it very tight. It’ll also will wear those big flatheads and blues down pulling the line through the pulley pulling the jugs down and then the jugs will pull the mainline back to it's original position. This is a much better way to do snaglines and trotlines because it keeps the line tight. If you've ever run lines the standard way with a solid anchor on each end you know that most of the time if the fish don't break the line it's likely to loosen up the mainline and get it all twisted up and tangled. That's a TOTAL MESS when that happens and usually you just have to break out the knife and splice the line.

The best areas I've found for setting snaglines are across sandy bottomed areas just off beaches where a main channel or current are coming through.

This type area if you can find something like this will produce flathead almost year round. During spawn they'll be around those rocky ledges finding suitable nesting areas and even after the males have secured an area and the females have laid their eggs the females will be hanging around due to some maternal instinct or something. The males will be the protector of the nest/eggs though. The male drive the females away from the nest after they lay their eggs and the male fertilizes them. Don’t ask me why because I have no idea as to why it's like this. I’m just a fisherman and haven’t figured out evolution yet.

The flatheads like to feed off structure also like where people drop cedar trees in the water weighted down for crappie fishing. These are usually hot spots for flathead because they love crappie better than anything I know of. The sandy beaches usually hold a lot of bluegill. This is why those big flathead patrol these areas.

If you use these tactics only take as much fish as your family will need and by all means remove these lines when you have enough fish. They never stop catching fish as long as they're in the water. This type fishing does not require bait to catch large amounts of fish although you can bait some or all of the hooks. When the bait is gone though they will still catch fish because when a fish swims into one of the drop lines with a properly tied hook the hook will turn towards the fish and hook him where ever it's touching it. The hooks must be sharpened and kept sharp or the snagline will not work properly.