Fishing in Red Sea

Question
My name is Farhaj and I reside in Jeddah (Saudi Arabia) next to RED SEA.. Red sea has many Sea Corals and Stones in the Sea..

1) I go for SHore fishing ALways.. BUt my Hooks And weights get stuck in the Stones and corals when I threw the string from the Fishing Rod it gets stuck in the rocks and corals.. I was thinking maybe if I use dough Balls to catch fish that wont be a problem coz if they get stuck they can easily get out and are heavy and also would not be needing to put weights on it.. What is your suggestion on this.. Mind it that this is Extreme Salt FIshing and in the RED sea which also has sharks some times at Bay...

2)I used Cuttle Fish Legs as bait.. I could only catch 1.. And we even used small fishes the size of a finger nail to catch fish but none..
before leaving I threw away bread pieces in Water and Huge shoal of fish started to attack the bread... but cannot catch it coz bread wont easily fit on fish hook..SO thinking of making dough balls to catch fish..

3) How about mixing doughballs with cuttle fish u know grind and it mix it.. and then catch fish..
Coz I saw snapper fishes eating Cuttle fish legs and I caught 1 from it called as Blackspot snapper fish.. and 1 toad fish.. but the problem is the bait gets removed in the ocean most of the times so was thinking a solution for it..

4) the fishes in the ocean here in the red sea  are Snapper, Grouper , TOad fish , Parrot fish..
FOr how many of these fishes the Bait DOugh balls can work and what type of Dough balls can work ( U know the ingredients to mix inside the Dough ball)

so please answer all the questions

Answer
Dear Farhaj,

Thanks for asking.

For snagging or getting stuck on corals and the like, I suggest you look up what we call a "rotten bottom" rig. You mainly get stuck if your hook or weight gets stuck on the rocks and other structure. This type of rig will save your hook, you will however, lose your weights. Another way is to use a float instead of weights, this will keep your bait suspended, away from the snags.

Cuttlefish make excellent bait. The fish that feed on your bread or dough balls are fish that feed on weed and other floating matter, these fish are different - Think of it this way, a vegetarian person will not eat meat, the fish are the same, there are those that don't eat meat. If you want to target these fish, I suggest you use the float and the doughball, and you will catch these fish.

Try using baitholder hooks to keep your baits from being taken off the hooks. These hooks have barbs on their shanks to keep them from being stolen by smaller fish.

If you use pieces of fish, shrimp/prawns or squid/cuttlefish for bait, you would be able to catch snappers and groupers, the rigs to use would be the rotten bottom rig. When you cast out, try not to move it around too much until you have a fish on the line feeding on your bait. Moving it around will get you snagged more often.

Do a google search on bottom fishing rigs and find illustrations on what to use for rocky or snag infested areas and you will find the right rigs to use.

Thanks for asking and I hope you catch a lot of fish!

Regards,

Kit