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getting ready to strart going offshore of virginia beach for the first time on my own boat and have a question about wind-on's. i have my reels spolled with straight mono and a 6ft wind on leader with a small spro swivel on them. my question is with the windons i guess you are supposed to redo them everytime you want to change your lure??? is this right? i will be rigging ballyhoo on islanders and seawitches. so is the lure permanently on the wind on leader like it would be if you had a typical 25ft leader and the lure on it? but with those type you just unsnap your snapswivel and you can change your lure. so how do you change your lure without cutting and recrimping your windon? new to offshore on my own boat (having to rig my own stuff) so any help would be great. i like the idea of the windons because we may not have enough people for leadering/gaffing etc. thanks again
chris
Wind on's are tied to your main line with a loop to loop connection and then a snap swivel (typically) at the end of the leader. That way you can change lures quickly without rerigging at all. Make sure all of your lures have leaders on them and they stay in good shape. This is the easiest imo.
i had the guy at the tackle shop do one for me and it was main line to barrel swivel (very small non snap) crimped to the main and the whole rig hook/pin/weight at the end of the 6ft leader. there is no snap swivel and the hook/rig is on the 6ft leader. so there is no leader tied to your lure. your 6ft leader has your hook and everything on it and its crimped on. has anybody used this approach?? it seems to make alot of sence except that you cannot change your lure without cuttin/recrimping. thanks again for the help!
chris
You can use the small 100# barrel swivels. A favorite is the little 100# swivel sold @ Bass pro Shops, but any tackle shop should have them. CJBOB, what you described is exactly what I'll be going with this summer. I'm going to tie a uni knot from mainline to swivel and then crimp a flurocarbon leader to the swivel with the terminal tackle crimped as well.
What you describe is not really a wind-on; wind-ons are typically 20-30' long, so that once on the reel, you can control the fish with a lot of added drag. The last thing you want is that swivel bouncing around your guides (even though they are all roller (which is all that works without being damaged with the swivel)) while the fish is at the boat. The set ups we use for bait rigs has 30' of leader attached with a 150 or 240 lb HSHB Spro swivel with the hook tied right to the leader, when you need to replace a hook, we just cut it off and re-tie a new one. After about 10-15 fish, we usually replace the whole thing. On trolling set-ups, we run 25' leader from the Spro HSHB to a 250 lb ball bearing swivel with a coast lock hook (which is not wound through the guides) and attach our lures (all of which has 3-5' leaders) to that, which allows quick changes of lures. It also means we carry two sets of rods - one for trolling (10) and one for chunking (6). For wind-on's with ceramic guides, you must omit the the Spro swivel and do a mono to mono knot or splice.
i just found the package of swivels. they are very thin and fit fine between ring guides. does anybody else use the above desribed system for wind-ons? 6ft wind-on leader crimped with a small swivel (no snap) with terminal tackle tied to the end. i guess its not really a big deal to cut the line slide another seawitch on and recrimp. any other thoughts.
thanks again everyone for the help!
I run a 25' flourocarbon wind-on spliced to the mono mainline with a surgeon's knot, and a ball bearing snap swivel at the end of that, which attaches to the lure leader. This was recommended by someone when I asked the same question, and it's been working great.
The purpose of a windon is just that . To windon the entire leader or topshot. For long topshots there is normaly no swivel between the leader and main line. If you are using windon leaders there are a few ways to rig and none are wrong. We use 30-50 ft windon leaders. If you are just trolling plastics without meat you can get by with the straight catspaw connection to the main line. Plastics without meat very seldom will put twists in the line. We always use meat and like to add the small 100 lb barrell swivel. We do a short bimini twist in the mainline catspawed to the small 100lb barrell then the 30-50ft mono or flouro windon is catspawed to the barrell swivel. If your ballyhoo is hit and starts to spin or if someone dosent rig the meat quite right and it spins the line will not twist with the small swivel. We use all rollers and the guides still look like new and prefer the small flexible barrells over the longer stiff windon swivels which sometimes bind and will not always spin if the line starts to twist.
You should be using longer leaders. The whole Idea of a windon is to crimp or tie your trolling lure directly to the end of the leader. We recrimp the lure as soon as there is any fray or damage to the leader and the long leaders allow you to do this multiple times without having to change the entire leader. Remember the purpose of the windon is to have a longer leader of high lbtest that so you can wind the fish right to the boat with minimum leadering. If you are going to add a large snap swivel to the end of your windon you are defeating the purpose of the windon system and should just put the snap swivel right on the end of the mainline and the snap a regular leader on the end......Mark
I run my lure leaders at 9'.....again based on the same reccommendations, with the logic being that once you reel the lure leader to the rod tip, you have enough to hold the rod up, reach down, and grab the leader out of billfish stabbing range
What are you fishing for & with what rods/ reel setups?
If it's Kings / Spanish Mackeral - considered light inshore - don't bother with a wind on, just tie your wire rigs to your main line.
If it's Wahoo / Tuna - considered offshore big game tackle - wind on leaders are a must.......
Swivel will eventually pop out your guide, regardless of how small or tiny........
That will leave 1 rod down.......
The less hardware you use the better you will be......swivel & snap swivels cause a bubble trail & will get bitten off at times.
Leader lure lenght varies - start with a rods lenght, add a few feet & keep the crimped loop away from the tip........
LI32 & fishnutz has given you the best advice...........Good luck & keep it simple........ICM
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My wife keeps saying that I don't listen .... or something like that.
What are you fishing for & with what rods/ reel setups?
If it's Kings / Spanish Mackeral - considered light inshore - don't bother with a wind on, just tie your wire rigs to your main line.
If it's Wahoo / Tuna - considered offshore big game tackle - wind on leaders are a must.......
Swivel will eventually pop out your guide, regardless of how small or tiny........That will leave 1 rod down.......
The less hardware you use the better you will be......swivel & snap swivels cause a bubble trail & will get bitten off at times.
Leader lure lenght varies - start with a rods lenght, add a few feet & keep the crimped loop away from the tip........
LI32 & fishnutz has given you the best advice...........Good luck & keep it simple........ICM
A good point made here by ICM..... My rig is primarily for Mahi & Wahoo.
Fishnutz, that rig that offshore 3144 described is the one that I would go with. He catches 50# wahoo and 100+ # tuna on that rig. I've been on his boat and that's when I changed the way I rig. Try it, if you don't like it, do something else.
Fishnutz, that rig that offshore 3144 described is the one that I would go with. He catches 50# wahoo and 100+ # tuna on that rig. I've been on his boat and that's when I changed the way I rig. Try it, if you don't like it, do something else.
I may give it a shot.....there is definitely more than one "right" way to do this!
thanks again for the help! i will be fishing out of virginia beach. tuna/mahi/billfish whatever is out there. for reels i have 4 tld 25's, 2tiagra 30wlrs, and 2 tiagra 50wlrs. all spolled with 40/50/80 momoi diamond. the 4 tld's have all ring guide rods (2 are chaos 2 are billfisher). the tiagras have 4 chaos ring guides with large aftco wind on tip. thanks again for the help.
tld 25's.... 40# main line with a bimini to 30ft, 80# leader crimped directly to hook, no pin, no weight just rigging wire , ran as flat line and off rod tips.
tiagra 30's... 50 mainline to 80 or 130 to spro heavy swivels (not the spro wind ons- they will cut your line) to 80# leader, to seawitch and bally. everything crimped
50wlrs...... 80 mainline rigged same as the 30's.
the 30 and 50 rods can be run anywhere, but I try to keep the 25's close to home(in the white water)
the pluses are that you dont have to deal with wiring as fish 20 to 30 (deps on leader lenght), and that your swivle is a long way from your baits. dolphin dont mind the swivels, tunas do.
Id make all my leaders aleast 30ft. crimp everything 80pound and heavier. use as little weight as possible.
fwiw, everything I have is cermaic rings guides(turbo style), and have yet to destroy my guides.
and flouro is unnessicary for trolling, it dont hurt, but its better served in other purposes...chunking!
captdavdavis, thanks for the help!!! when do you think that the offshore bite will be here. i will be running out of gloucester point (york river). i dont trailer so ill have a pretty long run (about 30 miles) to the ocean from my house, but we are super excited. thanks
chris
late june...maybe. it could happen a few weeks either way.
first bluefins on the hotdog, then usually a few weeks later the yellowfins and dolphin show up good around the triple zero's and the cirgar.
keep an eye on tidalfish for reports.
you got a long run from the york river, what size boat are you running? it might be better to run to lynnhaven or rudee,take on fuel, then head offshore the next morning.
wind on question for a newbie to offshore 
