A big part of your set up in your saltwater fishing tackle inventory would be what kind of terminal tackle that you have on the end of your line. Terminal tackle can be considered anything that is on the end of the line, or the leader line. So in a nutshell some of the items that can be considered to be terminal tackle are sinkers, hooks, swivels, bobbers or corks and the leader line.
The first type of terminal tackle that I am going to cover will be saltwater sinkers, which could also be known as lead or weights. There are many types of saltwater sinkers, and they are measured in different types of weight. For instance, split shots are usually measured by number, while other types of sinkers like the egg sinker are measured in ounces. If you are fishing in a heavy current, or you are saltwater fishing in deep water then you will want to use a heavier sinker obviously, if you are saltwater fishing by mangroves then you will only need a split shot or two. It is very important to have a wide variety of saltwater sinkers in your terminal tackle inventory, you never know what kind of tide will be coming in or how deep you are going to be fishing.
Split shot sinkers are attached to the fishing line by pushing the mouth down on the line with a pair of pliers, when a split shot is open it will look like pacman trying to eat. Split shots are the lightest of terminal tackle when it comes to saltwater weights. Egg sinkers are heavier than the split shot sinker and are used when deep sea fishing or fishing in a string current. They are shaped like an egg and have a hole go down the middle of them from top to bottom, you can either tie a knot in the leader, or put them above the swivel to attach the egg sinker. Pyramid sinkers are used for digging into the ground or mud, that way they can hold the bait in place. They are also more heavy than the split shot sinkers, but it won’t hurt for you to have a couple of these in your terminal tackle collection.
Another item that falls into the terminal tackle category would be floats, also known as corks or bobbers. The idea of the cork is to one add some weight to the line, which will help you when casting. You can put the cork anywhere from a couple inches above the hook to a couple of feet, depending on how deep of water you are fishing in. When the cork plunges under water it is usually a good sign that there is a fish on and the fish has completely bit the bait, which will let you know that you need to set the hook. If you are a flats fisherman, or like to saltwater fish in mangroves then you must have a variety of bobbers in your terminal tackle.
Swivels are another type of terminal tackle that you will need to have in most cases. The main purpose of a swivel is to keep the line from twisting and getting tangled up, they are very important if you are using a live bait that will move the line around a lot. They also can connect the regular saltwater fishing line to the leader line.
Other types of terminal tackle that there are is clips, which can be sometimes combined with the swivel. The most important part of the terminal tackle collection in my opinion is the saltwater fishing hook, but I will be explaining that in a whole other post because I want to go over that with great detail, and I think that the hooks deserve their own post. Rigs can also be considered terminal tackle, there are many types of fishing rigs that can be used. There are bait rigs, which consist of a series of treble hooks ranging up to a couple of feet, and they are designed to hook up with small bait fish such as finger mullet. Then there are also saltwater fishing rigs for certain types of offshore fish such as wahoo, mahi mahi, and tarpon along with other game fish. As you can see many things can be terminal tackle, just make sure that you have a wide selection of terminal tackle in your tackle box.