How to Rig Live Bait
By Captain David T. Tilley
Most of the fish that I target Offshore are predatory
fish. That means that they are fish that hunt and feed on other
fish. Spoons and drones and other artificial type baits work for smaller,
younger fish. Dragging frozen ballyhoo will snare a nice fish from time to time
but the way to catch the biggest, oldest and smartest fish out there is to use
the fish that they hunt for Live Bait. Trolling Live Bait's range
from Menhaden to Blue Fish to Spanish Mackerel up to schoolie King Mackerel
just according to what fish you are hunting for. Most of my Trolling, Live
Bait fishing is done for King Mackerel in tournaments. I like to use
fresh, palm sized menhaden. The fresher the bait the better off you are.ÂÂÂ
Tired, beat up bait will not last long trolled behind a boat. You will
know if the menhaden are beat up by looking at their noses. If they are
red and bloody looking then you need to work on your bait handling.
Menhaden
I will leave how to catch and keep the bait for
another article and for the sake of this article we will assume that we have on
hand, fresh, palm sized menhaden. The next thing we need is a Live Bait
Rig. The Rigs that I like to use are wire rigs about 7 feet long made out
of 32 lb coffee wire and #3 treble hooks. I like the treble hooks made for
fresh water use. Do not use any type of stainless hooks to saltwater fish
with or Captain Dave will not tell you any more goodies. The reason for
this is that stainless hooks when you break off a fish will last a long long
time stuck in the fish. A lot of times this will lead to the demise of the
hooked fish. If you use regular hooks, when you break a fish off the
hook will rust out in a matter of weeks allowing the fish to resume living a normal
life. 32 lb wire is a easy wire to work with and ties easily. I will
detail the rig with a picture. IF you do not know how to tie wire then
take a look at the article on How to Tie with Wire.
Tight Lines and Slight
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