Running ledger

You'll need: a free-running lead clip (or a strong link swivel that slides easily), two rubber buffer beads, one swivel, and 60 to 120 cm of 15 to 25 lb mono for the snood.

Step by step

• Thread the lead clip onto the mainline: let it sit so it can slide freely up and down. The lead hangs off the clip.
• Slide on two buffer beads: these protect the swivel knot from being battered by the lead.
• Tie on the stop swivel: this is what the lead rests against. It also stops the lead riding all the way down to your hook.
• Attach the snood: 60 to 120 cm of 15 to 25 lb mono to the bottom of the swivel. Longer for spookier species (bass), shorter for inshore smoothhound.
• Hook: size 1 to 4/0 depending on bait and target. Wide-gape patterns work well for crab and worm baits.

Why it fishes shy biters

When a fish picks up the bait and moves off, the line slides through the lead. The fish feels no resistance, no drag, just the bait. Crucial when you're targeting species that drop the bait the moment they feel weight, bass and smoothhound being the classic examples.

The running ledger is the default rig anywhere you need a stealthy presentation on the bottom. It's not for distance work and it's not for snaggy ground. It is for putting a bait in the strike zone and letting the fish take it without alarm.

Best targets

• Bass: estuaries, river mouths and inshore reefs. A long flowing snood with a live prawn or peeler crab is devastating.
• Smoothhound: gravel and shingle banks on a flooding tide. Hardback crab or squid head on a 3/0.
• Cod and pollack: in calm conditions over mixed ground where you're fishing close in.
• Eels and pouting: any time you want a presented bait without bite-shyness.

Lead weight

Match the lead to hold bottom in the prevailing tide, not your usual surf weight. Often you can go lighter than you'd expect, 2 to 4 oz is plenty inshore. A plain bomb or a watch lead works; you don't usually need grip wires unless the tide is ripping.

Where to avoid it

Rough ground (the snood snags, and there's no rotten bottom to save it). Long-range surf casting (the dropping lead tangles in flight, use a clipped paternoster instead).

Snood too short

The whole point is letting the fish move off without resistance. A 20 cm snood defeats this. Aim for 60 cm minimum, longer when the fish are spooky or the water is clear.

Wrong lead clip

Use a free-running clip designed for the job. A stiff swivel or tight-tolerance clip won't slide cleanly under bite pressure and you'll miss takes. Test before you cast: tip the rig up and the lead should slide down the line by gravity.

Forgetting the beads

Without buffer beads the lead crashes into your swivel knot every cast and weakens it. Two cheap rubber beads save you a lost rig.

Lead too heavy

This rig is about subtlety. Use only as much lead as it takes to hold bottom. Too heavy and the fish feels the weight before the lead has slid up the line, exactly what you were trying to avoid.