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Stingray photo courtesy of BIG LOU.... Stingray
with multiple bites but no hook up
Have you
ever seen a large bait being reeled in after a
strike, only to find the bait has been bitten
and eaten, but the hook has failed to do its job and
catch the fish. It may not necessarily be a failure of
the hook, but possibly in how the hook was set in the
bait. In this article, we are going discuss
baiting techniques, and ways to improve your hookup
ratio.
In order for
the hook to do its job as designed, the barb needs to
be free and exposed to be able to grab and penetrate
the fish. A hook set is very unlikely on a hook that
is buried in the bait. Also, the hook should be
placed in an area where the fish is most likely to
bite. For example, if you are using a fillet or whole
sting ray of about 16 inches in diameter, and you use
two "J" hooks, one in each wing, it should
be sufficient to get the job done. Normally yes,
but if you think about it, your hooks actually only
cover about 30% to 40% of the bite area available on
the sting ray. That means if a small bite is taken (as
in our photo above), there is only 40 percent
chance of a hookup theoretically. This doesn't seem to
be very good odds. Now, if you take the same sting
ray, and reduce the bite area by half, you have
doubled your chance of hook up. Now we have a 60% to
80% chance of hookup.
I will
show you exactly what I mean using an example of a
jack fillet, A common bait used in big game fishing.
In
illustration #1, We start by showing you the whole
jackfish, the leader and hooks (We show both a circle
hook and a "J" hook only as an example and
for ease of reference, either or a combination of the
two can be used successfully) Our fillet knife, our
cable cutters and 3 zip ties. Notice the "J"
hook is on a 10 to 12 inch trailer leader finished off
with Flemish Eye or a normal leader loop on the tag
end.
illustration #1
We begin in
Illustration #2 by threading the tag end of our
"J" hook leader through the main leader loop
of our circle hook and then feed the barb of the
circle through the tag end loop of the "J"
hook leader. This attaches our secondary hook to
our single drop leader. You can make a special double
drop leader for this purpose if you prefer.
illustration #2
Now that our
leader and hooks are prepared, we begin in
Illustration #3 by filleting our Jack with
approximately a 12" x 16" inch fillet. (the
size of your fillet will depend on the size of your
baitfish and desired bait size).
illustration #3
Place the two
hooks into the internal side of the fillet as shown in
illustration #4.
illustration #4
In
illustration #5, you can see the exposed barbs
protruding from the skin side of the fillet. Now, if
we were to leave our bait like this, our hooks would
cover about 30% to 40% of the available bite area. We
can hope for the bait to be completely swallowed, but
this is not always the case.
illustration #5
Illustration
#6 shows us that by folding the fillet over, and
securing it with the 3 zip ties and clipping the tag
ends, we conceal the hooks except for the barbs, and
we have increased our strike zone dramatically using
the same amount of bait.
illustration #6
In essence, the bait resembles
the shape of a bait fish also, and regardless of which
side the bait is hit from, our hookup chances have
been increased dramatically.
illustration #7
If you would really like to add a
little extra appeal to this bait, you can attach a
small pill bottle inside the bait with a couple of
pellets to create a clicking and rattle sound as well
as create a little buoyancy so the bait is moved in
the current. Good Luck!
By Victor
Delgado
Aka “Whopper”
If you have any
comments or questions, be sure to post
them on the Surf-Masters Message
Board
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