Rigging Dead Swim Baits For Trolling

[CamH]

I usually use garfish rigged with ganged 3/0's or 4/0's on one of those lead head swimming rigs you buy ready made and they work fine. The other day I got a slightly larger one that I wanted to use with a small bonito but no matter what I tried I couldn't get the fish to swim or at least stop spining and sit upright through the water. Any tips on getting a slightly larger fish to swim properly would be greatly appreaciated. I probably should be using live baits with different rigs but when they are hard to find I've always got dead ones.

[mackmauler]

Couple a ? how fast were you trolling and did you break the backbone at all. The lead should be positioned under the gills imo as well.

[CamH]

Hi Mackmauler,

Good point, No I didn't break the backbone and I was trolling at 4knots. I had the first hook through the bottom of the jaw and out through the top so the lead was slightly forward of the head. I don't usually do this but the instructions on the packet of the heads I bought said to. The other heads I have, have a piece of wire to go through the jaw and a nose cone coil that comes down onto that so the first hook is positioned behind the head.

[mackmauler]

Cam, this is how I do it, break the backbone in a coupla spots, tie its mouth and gills shut wih wax thread, take the eyes out, run the cable leader through the middle of the head and through the first hook of the gang, wack a 6 ball on then crimp it off leaving a loop big enough for freedom of movement, don't bury the hooks into the bait much it will not swim well, in fact give the fish a good bend with the hooks in it to see it can still move ok, give it a tug when you drop it in the water to centre everything and it should tow well.

[CamH]

Thanks for the help mackmauler, I'll give it a go.

[gcbfc]

There is a good book by Geoff Wilson on Knots and how to rig baits around the shops. It has a detailed explanation with drawings on what you want to do.

Cheers

Wayne

[CamH]

Hi Wayne,

Yes I have that book and it does have a lot of methods for rigging baits. I made sure I had a good look through it before I posted my question on this site but even though he had heaps of tips for rigging gars and live baits I couldn't find one that would suite a larger dead swim bait. I know there have been updated versions of the book so maybe they have some extra hints because the one I have is a couple of years old.

[thunnus]

g'day cam,

for gars hows about trying a "pin rig". Basically make up a leader of about 1.5m and crimp your hook on, and as you crimp that hook on also crimp in a small (3 or 4cm) piece of single strand wire. now bend the wire to 90 degrees of the leader. now get your gar and open up its gill plates and push the hook though so that it comes out the soft belly section of the fish. once you are happy with where the hook is, lay the leader flat along the bottem of the bait and push the piece of wire all the way though the head so it comes out of the top. now slide a bait spring down the leader and twist it over the nose of the gar and around the wire. You can now add a small pink or lumo skirt over the top of the spring and gar but personally i like to put a hollowpiont lure (small bulletheaded skirted lure) or even a McWog over the top.

for a swimming bait (ie mullet, smily, yakka) its a bit harder to explain so the best advice i can give you (for both the skipping baits and swimmers) is to check out the video "Rod Harrisons Sporting fishing - Under the Cape" The vid has a great how to section of a then young Graig "Sparrow" Denham rigging gar and mullet - you should be able to get the vid from your local video shop. Other than that if you can get your hands of a few copies of Bluewater Boats and Sportfishing magazine, they had a few bait rigging sections in thier march/april 2000 mag and also again in thier may/june 2000 mag.

hope this heap, Justin

[Lucky_Phill]

Try this for size.

for your smaller baits, Yakka, Slimies etc.

Find a piece of hot water pipe, the copper stuff. 'bout 2ft long. put one end to the grinding wheel as to make it very sharp. leave a length about 30cms straight. bend the rest to make a handle.

NOW, open the mouth of your bait and shove hard with the ( bait corer ). this will core the bait like an apple, removing the back bone and some rib. works a treat and I believe better than breaking the baits back.

The rig for trolling is as Rob ( mac ) has drescribed.


Phill

[CamH]

Thanks for the advice guys. I'm sure a lot of this stuff will come with practice as I haven't been bait trolling for long and just need to try out a few techniques.