Senior Member 
Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: California
Posts: 445
|  Re: Live bait rigging
There are a variety of baits available to fish the Pacific, and an infinite number of ways to rig them. Below are the most common live baits, as well as favorite methods for rigging each. Some will take a little practice to get right, but these are the best ways we have found to fish these baits.
Anchovies
Fly Line or Bottom Rig
Anchovies have long been main live bait in Southern California. There are two main methods of fishing live baits- fly line and bottom fishing. Fly line fishing involves letting the bait swim free with the current, generally close to the surface, with little or no sinker weight. Slip the hook into the gill opening and through the gill plate. Your bait will swim freely with this method. Bottom fishing requires enough weight being used to get the bait down to the ocean floor (or to the depth you want to fish). For the best results fishing the bottom with anchovies (can be used with Sardines as well), start the hook through the bottom of the bait's mouth. Slide the hook through the upper jaw, being careful to ensure the hook exits just behind the nose. This position will keeps the bait alive and properly swimming. Match your hook to the size of the bait (with all bait!); try size 4, 2 (or 1 for really big ones) for anchovies. Also, if your bait bleeds when you hook it, get a new one. This holds true for all live bait.
Sardines & Mackerel
Fly Line Nose Rig and Fly Line Bottom Rig
Sardines & Mackerel are fantastic baits for big bass, barracuda, yellowtail, tuna, and most other game fish. Above are two of the best ways to hook your bait for fly line fishing. In the first example, hook the bait just behind the nostrils (some folks put the hook right through the nose- but they tend to come loose easy). In the second example, hook the mackerel bait directly in front of the bottom fin (make sure it is behind the vent). Anglers who use this method can get the bait to swim from the boat with a very gentle tug on the line. This method works best to get the bait to swim away from the boat you're on, but you will lose your bait very easily, so be gentle on the handling and the cast.. If you want to fish the bottom/lower depths with these baits,, try hooking it through the mouth as shown in the Bottom Rig anchovy example above. Most sardines are fished with 2/0 or 4/0 hooks, mackerel with 2/0, 4/0, & 6/0 or larger. These methods will also work for fishing herring as well.
Squid
Live Squid or Dead Squid and Weight Rigged Dead Squid
Squid are "Candy Bait" for all kinds of game fish. Live squid is just about the best bait around for large white sea bass, yellowtail, calico bass and many others. Frozen squid will also work, but not quite as well. Squid is generall fished with weight from the bottom or lower depths. Hooking a squid is simple- pass the hook through the top of the mantle as shown above. If you are working with frozen/dead squide, pass the hook through once and back again to ensure the squid stays on the hook. Squid are generally rigged with 2/0 or 4/0 hooks.
One of the latest techniques has been the "weight rigged dead squid". This involves slitting the back of the squid's mantle most of it's length to the head. Your line should be rigged with a bait hook (4/0 for 3"-4.5" squid, 6/0 for 5" to 8" squid, larger hooks as appropriate) and sliding sinker of your choice. The hook is run inside through the top of the squid's head and protrudes between the eyes. Give yourself plenty of slack line for this operation. Then the sliding sinker is placed inside the mantle and the line is straightened out. With a needle and heavy thread (it's good to keep a few colors on hand- offwhite, light pink, creme- to match the squid color) sew the back of the mantle back together and tie off both ends. You now have a rigged dead squid that can be jigged to imitate a live squid (with more control!), a drift weighted squid without the fish- spooking sinker, and a trolling bait when rigged with leader/hook combos. This method takes more preparation work, but can really pay off when the fish are spooked, or you are losing normally rigged dead squid baits due to short bites. Try this with fluourcarbon line or one of the new copolymer lines for a true "stealth bait" presentation.
Live bait for Blue Marlin
Live baiting for Pacific Blue Marlin, when done correctly, can be one of the most thrilling ways to fish for these worthy opponents. When the sea conditions are right, the bait is plentiful, and the fish are in more of a feeding mood, a true professional can make a determination to switch to live bait and make the most of an opportunity. Left to chance in the hands of amateurs, however, it can be boring, and even dangerous.
Skipjack
The first step is to find the bait. While it is sometimes difficult for the lay person to understand what the crew is seeing in their decision to make the switch to bait, there are many basic signs even the novice angler can observe while on the water. Surface “boils,” large areas where they come to the surface and seem to gulp a little bit of air, like a school of aquarium fish feeding on a pinch of freshly dropped flake food, is usually the best indicator. When your skipper makes a sudden detour in one direction or another while trolling, there’s a good chance he or the deckhand saw a school of bait.
The size of these schools can range from a few fish in a 10 x 10 square to several acres, and the size of the skippies can range from 4 or 5 pounds to around 20 pounds or so. Anglers actually fish for the larger skippies.
Most skippers seem to have their own favorites for the right size of the tuna to use as bait. Almost everyone would agree that an eight pounder is a pretty good size for rigging up to send out live, but for some skippers this is the top end of the range while for others it’s the bottom size of the range. The arguments range from “gotta have big baits to catch big fish” to “big baits tend to get stuck in the gullet thereby reducing the chance of a solid hookup.” If you get a school of bait that’s in the 8-15 pound range, chances are you’re in the ballpark, but the bottom line is if the situation calls for live bait, you’re best to send out what you have.
Tuna Tubes
Tuna will bite darn near anything when they are boiling at the surface, sometimes even a bare hook. Most of the crews will run a fuzzy lure, like a small rubber skoochy ball, in red or white, or a combination of both, to attract them. Many skippers like to use barbless hooks so there is less damage to the mouth in removing it when preparing it for bait rigging.
When the area to secure bait is located, the crews break out the tuna rods. Some crews will leave a larger lure out in case there’s a lurking Marlin around, others will bring all other rods and concentrate on catching as many quality baits as possible. Most boats use tuna tubes, little tubular contraptions that have a high-pressure water pump on the bottom that the fish will be held motionless in position. Two tubes is the norm, and the ideal situation is catching four excellent baits, two into the tube and two out swimming.
Assuming the bait is healthy, it will be pulled out of the net, flipped upside down (stops him from wiggling), and the bait needle will be threaded through the eyes, back around the hook, and twisted into position on the top of the forehead. In the blink of an eye, the bait will be sent back over the side or placed into a tube while a second bait is readied. Sometime skippers find the bait on shallower water so you’ll have to hang on while you hit the throttles and head to deeper water.
Trolling the Tuna
Once the bait is in the water, the captain will generally troll with one engine in neutral and one in forward. This slows the boat to about 2 or 3 knots and allows the fish to swim naturally. The line will be set up into a large clothespin on the outrigger with the exact amount of tension required to keep the bait swimming normally yet allow a strike without tipping off the Marlin that there’s something strange about things. Too tight a clothespin and the Marlin will feel the tension. Too light and you’ll get false strikes every couple of minutes.
Once the bait is swimming and the boat is slow trolling, if it’s a nice day out, conversation is enjoyable. The boat is quiet, the view is peaceful, and all you’re doing is finding ways to prepare for when you get lucky. Enjoy it, because once the bite is on, things aren’t so tame.
Continue watching the water and what the crew looks for. Birds may or may not help with positioning, but watching the line in the clothespin is a surefire indicator. When the bait senses a predator, it gets nervous and begins to swim erratically, which causes the Marlin to sense it even faster and trigger the attack instinct.
Fighting the Marlin
With the drag set very lightly, after the snap, you’ll need to key in on the deckhand and the captain. They get very quiet, like hunters on the scent. The art of hooking the fish now is beautiful. You need to count to 10 or 20, depending on how fast you go. The adrenaline is high, the Marlin is taking line, and it doesn’t know it’s hooked yet. Let the line continue to come out slowly as the Marlin digests his prey.
Wait a little more so the hook can set nicely, then wait for the call……Wham. Take the drag up to the strike position and hang on while the captain guns the boat to set the hook. That Marlin knows she is hooked now, and will begin the performance almost immediately. Once the fish is hooked and doing its thing, jump in the chair and begin your fight as though you’d hooked in on lures.
Remember, live baiting is an art and a science. The crews who do this for a living make it look easy but there are a lot of steps to make it happen. The best advice is to listen ot the crew and do your part as instructed. It is definitely better to watch and learn on the first one and catch it than try to push too hard and lose it from a silly blunder. Marlin are powerful and handling the reels can be dangerous with the drags “light to tight.”
__________________
A release today is a fish tomorrow
Cheers
Chris |
