Just chasing some ideas on how people rig up dead baits when trolling for spaniards. I usually use slimy macks or bonito on a 1m wire trace with 4 ganged 7.0 hooks lead wrapped around the shaft of the first hook to stop spinning. My real question is do you put the hooks in through the topside of the bait or the underside & do you wire the mouth closed. Any one have any suggestions out there. Oh & I fish on the Sunshine coast do I need a different approuch.
Gday mate,try towing the slimys live,use a piece of mason single strand about 12 inches long with a tiny but strong hook and then another piece coming out of the eye of the small hook about 4 inches long tied to a xxxtreble stinger.The tiny hook goes into the clear part of the nose of the slimy then stick the treble just into the anus.The engine must only idle along and somtimes you might even have to throw a bucket over or somthing to get the speed right down.
The setup you describe is essentially perfect. Tying the mouth up stops the mouth opening and causing the bait to spin, so if u have the time it is beneficial.
Put the hooks through the underside as it makes the bait look more natural.
The slimeys live can be either rigged with a double hookup setup, with one hook through the underside of the mouth and the other hook lightly "pinched" into the skin down towards the tail. this eliminates those annoying fish taht just nip the tail half off and dont get hooked. Only problem is then getting the hooks out if they take the whole thing <insert picture of missing hand here>
Good luck
Thanks for the info guys some good tactics to try. I will give them a go also what months do you recomend are best for catching spaniards on the Sunshine coast & what reefs have you had most success.
G'day Mate I live on the coast too and I have caught spaniards all over the coast using livies & dead baits trolled lures it's just a matter of whether you are in the right place at the right time as they move around alot.
There is a product {there almost always is} i think its called a chin guard made in qld , its a squareish hollow with two spikes and a front and rear tow point for attatching line and gang hooks .. Anyone seen em or know what I mean?
Yes, used chin guards before. They are on special at Wellsys Tackle if you wanna get some cheap. Work well with bonito.
Mate try from about february through till the end of autumn. Havent fished for them for a few seasons but they (spanish and spotties) regularly start to turn up here (north caost nsw) in big numbers around anzac day.
Towing dead slimies catches most of the spanish that I bring home, and I think I do OK at times.
I rig mine up by first measuring the hooks against the bait as I always aim to have the eye of the first hook just infront of the jaw of the bait. I hook them from the underside and always wire the mouth shut, using copper wire only.
A lot care has to be taken with dead slimies as they are fragile after being frozen. Tailor, large gar & pike are the easiest baits to rig as far as I'm conerned, gar being the easiest of the lot, you can tow gar a little faster than other dead baits, and IMO that helps. Bonito and horsies take a lot more care, I break the backbone down near the tail on those as well. Take care not to break the skin though.
Would have to say that using live bait always wins hands down, with a bit of luck I may be getting a live bait tank soon.
If I could choose another piece of equipment that would help, it would be down riggers for both livies and dead baits.
Hope that is of some help.
r.
GO THE CRUISER UTES!
....OH WHAT A FEELING!
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