Best way to rig a Bait fish

[maclennanchris]

I really like to present the bait fish so it is horizontal in the water. Have been having a hard time doing this with a quick strike rig.....any sugestions? 6" - 7" herring

[iliketrout]

Tie on a good quality swivel, get a couple of 12" leaders (I prefer the black nylon coated ones) and attach them to the the swivel off the main line.

Take your treble hook, push the shank through the herring's belly (if the shank is long enough) and get the eyelet of the hook to poke through the spine and just out the back of the fish. Connect to the leader. Do this on both hooks, one just behind the gills and one where the body starts to taper off to the tail.

If you do this right, you can use the shank of the hook to hold the bait on and have all 3 points from the treble exposed. And it's virtually impossible to get stripped unless the pike bites in between the two hooks. I've had this happen once or twice and you end up reeling in the front 1/3 and rear 1/3 of the bait with a big hole in the middle!

And of course, if you notice a pattern on where the fish are biting the bait, you can adjust the hook location and still be able to suspend the fish horizontally.

[NBFK]

Get a leader thread one large treble onto the leader so it slides up and down place the other treble hook on the clasp. Burry the hooks into the herrings back. You might have to play around to get the perfect balance. This always worked for me.

[MoFugger21]

I really like to present the bait fish so it is horizontal in the water. Have been having a hard time doing this with a quick strike rig.....any sugestions? 6" - 7" herring

http://i742.photobucket.com/albums/xx61/MoFugger21/quickstrike.jpg

If you're having trouble with the quick strike rig, I've found that if you keep the front treble in the head of the bait(like above) but flip the back treble around so the shank is pointed towards the head (opposite way of pic), it will help hold the bait horizontal.

Doing this moves the the balance of weight of the rig closer to middle of the bait (where the leader goes thru the eye of the back treble), unlike the pic above, where the balance of the bait is weighted more towards the tail, so the bait will likely hang vertically, head pointed down.

You just have to play around with whatever style of quick strike rig and bait you're using to find the right placement of hooks into different baits to get it sitting horizontal. When I'm hooking up baits, I usually drop it into the hole a couple of feet to make sure it will hang horizontal. If it's not horizontal, I'll move the back treble around so that the bait does hang that way.

Hope this helps and isn't too confusing, lol!

[WalleyeDeitz]

I like to make my own set ups where I put a J hook on a longer steel leader. Then using a needle with a lil hook, I thread the leader through the mouth of the fish and come out through the center of its back. Then you can test it by holding the bait by the leader to see if its HZ. You can have several made up so when the bite is on, you can quickly switch leaders/baited hooks. With this set up, I usually let the fish run, and run, and run and then when it moves again, thats when I try and rip its lips off. If I find am I loosing them often (usually the small guys) I will push a trebble up trhough the middle of the fish from the bottom and then thread the J hook leader through the trebble. Works great. Otherwise, In my opinion the more natural you can make the fish look without hooks poking out everywhere, I think the better...

[Bound2Fish]

I also make my own set ups. I use some teflon coated leader material and cut it to length, fold it in half and loop and melt the teflon so the loop stays and that is where I attach it to my line. Then I set some trebles on both ends, twist up the end pieces and melt them together giving me hooks on both ends. I then make a small slit from the belly through the torso and up out the back and push my rig through it and attach it to my line, hook #1 into the jaw and hook #2 into the tail. They are quick and easy to make, not to mention interchangeable between strikes and sits perfectly horizontal. Not sure if it all makes sense but if not, let me know and ill try to explain it a bit better.

[PERCHY]

I only use one treble hook..stick the eye of the treble through the fish's stomach and out the back. One hook goes in the head and the remaining two stick out the sides. I have yet to lose a fish and nearly a 100% hook up rate with that formula.

[love2fish]

I only use one treble hook..stick the eye of the treble through the fish's stomach and out the back. One hook goes in the head and the remaining two stick out the sides. I have yet to lose a fish and nearly a 100% hook up rate with that formula.

You must fish alot. I didnt know you fished for pike. i thought you just fished for whites and perch. Sure wish i could afford to get out more. Wife only lets me get out and work more to pay the bills and support the kids lol.