How do you guys place youR circle hooks in a bait?
Lost two good sharks this weekend.
Had one rigged through the mouth of a 6lb mullet and it got chomped just behind the head and the other one I threaded through the mouth and gills then around the backbone (on a 10lb bonito) , this one got picked up, ran for a bit, but managed to take the whole fish before I could increase the drag for a hook-set.
So how do you guys rig your circles?
I'm going to copy and paste some notes I took during my first year of sharking. I still rig whole baits this way. If I get a pickup with this rig, they hook about 85% of the time (which is a very good ratio):
Ultimately it really didn’t matter, but over this weekend every bite would hook if I did it a certain way. What I had done is prevent a fish from taking half the bait without taking the hook. The way I had done it is to imagine the steel leader as an extension of the hook. I figured that if a shark bites the bait at the leader, it will slide through their mouth until it meets the hook and snags some flesh. So, I would take a 10 inch (or larger) mullet, descale it and put a 2 or 3 vertical slices into the body. Then I would thread the hook through the mouth out one of the gills. Finally, I would put the hook through the body twice with the point sticking out the side near the tail of the fish . I made sure I didn’t wrap the hook around the spine. Once I understood how circle hooks work, I realize that rigging around the spine would prevent the hook from setting correctly (please forgive the lousy photoshop work).
Just my 2 cents. Hope this helps.
Remember, elephants eat peanuts. I missed a lot of fish on big baits my first year fishin. If you have a 10 lb bonita, that can be three baits. Whatever you do, do not hook a bonita through the top jaw and head, the hook will not come out and you will just rip the bait from the fish's mouth. I learned that the hard way.
Also helps to know what is around when you are droppin baits. I use to miss tippers on whole bonita with a double hook rig. I would get the bait back with a chunk missing from the center. Then i learned of the migration and the patterns.
If you go for that monster with a big bait. Put two hooks in it, and let the fish eat that bait after he picks it up. Dont run and set up on him the instant that spool starts rollin fast.