Gilling Booms

What are the best type of booms to use when gilling?

I use Eddystone or the wee slider booms.

Would zip sliders not cause a tangle?

I've had the occasional tangle. Booming isn't something I do very often. If the need arises, I put on an 8oz leadhead with a strip or fillet of mackerel , and have 2 droppers/snoods a few feet above (about 3 - 4 ft apart) with a 6" firetail worm on a 4/0 or 5/0 hook on each . Deadly rig - like the "killer rig" used with eddystone eels but replacing the lead weight with a 8oz leadhead so I'm fishing 3 hooks instead of 2.

What is the best bait when gilling for pollack?

Try :-
shads - 6inch+.
Jelly worms - black / pink tail - 6 inch minimum.
6 & 8 inch super grubs
mackerel fillet also works well fished on a boom over wrecks.

The gallery pix on this site shows the Clohessy's (Jim & Sean) with 20lb plus coalies taken on boom fished shads.

My favourite bait when gilling for pollack is a big king ragworm .

The technique used by the small boat match anglers is stopping a drilled bullet weight of an ounce / ounce and a half about 5 ft from an aberdeen hook. The hook is baited by hooking once through the head of the biggest rag available. The gear is flicked close to the rocks and retrieved very slowly. On getting a take, no strike should be made. Keep reeling slowly until the pollock dives. Full rag are neccessary. You will experience fewer takes on cut baits. Wrasse are also suckers for this method and any cod in the vacinity will also show an interest.

apologies - forgot to log-on again

French booms are best for gilling for a few reasons. Firstly they are cheap with a pack of 10 ten inch booms only costing €2 or something from veals. Other booms tend to cost €3 for three. Also the are put on by simply winding the main line around the 'hanger' end. This allows them to be made up ready to go and placed in a rig wallet. The nature of gilling means you lose a lot of gear and thus the simplicity of tackleing up again is nothing compared to other booms. They also allow you to change to another rig type hassle free. Another issue is that since these wire booms are silver rather than black there is less chance a fish will go for the boom rather than the lure which often happens with black booms.

Coat hangar... bent to shape, L, with line simply slipped between twists like a casting lead, but I prefer Brian Cooke's method because you can slim down on everything and if you get snagged, it cost near nothing...

FWIW...

Do you use booms for that set up cooke?

No . I would not use booms for this type of fishing. The aim is to get down among the dirt and retreive from just above it. The small weight will hit the bottom first and a quick retrieve will lift it off the bottom. The trace is still straightening at this stage as the slow retrieve begins. You will loose some gear but surprisingly little and the set up is uncomplicated, and can be replaced easily and quickly.