Hook Rigs For Big Blues

[Le Pasha]

Gday guys, I was just interested to see how people prefer to rig their Blue marlin lures, especially the Hawaiian style Slant heads like the Joe Yee's, Marlin Magic's and Bart's.

Could spend hours and hours going over the different rigs, probably one of the most debated topics when it comes to gamefishing. For me personally, if I was targetting blues and there were no annoying stripes which just piss around, I would fish double hook rigs - Mustad 7732S in the front and a 7691S in the back, stiff rigged and toothpicked to keep it upright, front hook up and rear hook down. This is the traditional Hawaiian rig, and no one knows better when it comes to lure fishing with them.

I haven't targetted blues specifically, so I guess the best way is trial and error......just after some opinions on how others rig their lures

Cheers, tight lines

Daniel

[smokinjoe]

Daniel, being no expert, my bigger blue rigs are shackle rigs, 2 hook 1 bigger than the other and rigged as you said one up one down, why? i think that you would get a better hook up rate and depending on which way the up hook sits determines for me which side i will run it on, dunno if it works yet lol.

Edited April 16, 2008 by smokinjoe

[warnie]

[quote name='Le Pasha' date='Apr 15 2008, 11:43 PM' post='234056'

I haven't targetted blues specifically, so I guess the best way is trial and error......just after some opinions on how others rig their lures

Cheers, tight lines

Daniel

Hi Daniel...

I certainaly am no authority on blues..... other than on one occasion i do not specifically target them as such..

the time when i did specifically target them co-incided whist i was holidaying and fishing up north at xmas before last

We were lucky enough to experiance a hot bite on blues for a week and quickly worked out they

had a penchant for the lumo express on the long rigger... stripes were around also but preffering the shottie with this

in mind we set our spread to suit and proceeded to tag 9 blues in the 5 days on standard as you come rigged lures on 24kg

with no problems with such with the blues averaging from 120-160kg....

anyways on our final day with the seas glassed out happily purring along when the shottie snaps off and a

blue greyhounds off into the horizon were we expected to never see him again...

With the classic scenario of only mtrs left remaining on the spool and now deciding we should maybe take chase we do so and recover back most of the line

as we draw closer to the marlin we see he is going nuts wildly head shaking, wind screen wiping, and swimming around madly in one tight circle all on the surface kindly doing this for around 10 min's untill exhaustion set in, were at that stage we simply drove over and popped the tag in.....

Grabbing hold of the fish were he obligingly swam along with us.....the hooks easily popped out and these being light gauge SL12's....in perfect condition... (what the)

far from being the preffered option and not what i would advocate....we estimated that one at around the 250 kg mark a great fish...and being only two of us on board this precluded any pic's of the fish being taken which i would of loved...

talking to some of the boats in sydney game and one in paticular who do target them

have there twin hook rigs made up with s/steel welding rod as opposed to wire and swear by it.....

this off course makes it stiff rigged....looks neat to....

proberly not the info you seek but thought i would start it off all the same...

sorry not quick enough to start it off.....

Cheers Warnie...

Edited April 16, 2008 by ungry warnie

[Le Pasha]

Hey Warnie, lucky with that SL12 that didn't bend out on 24!!! Sounds like a sweet fish though....

Those rigs made up with steel welding rods sounds interesting. I am going to stiff rig mine on 750lb wire, tootpick and that should be alright.

Anyone familiar with Hays Hooks? Apparently they are stronger than a 7691, stainless steel and in a similar shape to the succesful Jobu hook with a turned in point. Specifically designed for blues and heavy tackle, but they are expensive at about $20 for an 11/0!!

[Sammy0884]

Hey Warnie, lucky with that SL12 that didn't bend out on 24!!! Sounds like a sweet fish though....

Those rigs made up with steel welding rods sounds interesting. I am going to stiff rig mine on 750lb wire, tootpick and that should be alright.

Anyone familiar with Hays Hooks? Apparently they are stronger than a 7691, stainless steel and in a similar shape to the succesful Jobu hook with a turned in point. Specifically designed for blues and heavy tackle, but they are expensive at about $20 for an 11/0!!

I've seen a few of the Roddy Hay's hooks.. they are available through meltons... they are thick, round and sharp as! (if you order them pre sharpened)... like a Jobu but rounder and with the point of the hook pointing straight at the eye.

[djmac]

Daniel,

I think its best to try and keep it pretty simple front up.

what gear will you be running should ultimately make your decision in what hooks you are running

if you're just fishing 24kg then the shackle rigs with the mustads or mustad/jobu combo will work well.

if you're fishing 37 and beyond then its worth looking at something a bit chunkier.

all relative to where you are fishing adn the size of the fish you expect to encounter.

going too heavy hoping for that beast to come along might make you miss a few smaller ones.

Why do you think you will need to toothpick your lures?

do you think the extra weight in the hooks might make them not swim as well as they should?

just interested to hear what you say. ive never toothpicked my lures but have heard a few people doing it...

if you have that lumo out you need a joe yee apollo evil out there too (blues love it!!)

[Aero]

Why do you think you will need to toothpick your lures?

do you think the extra weight in the hooks might make them not swim as well as they should?

just interested to hear what you say. ive never toothpicked my lures but have heard a few people doing it...

On another note, keep in mind hawaiian style lures were primarily designed for calm hawaiian waters. Alot of the rigging, lure positions and hook sets, change lure charateristics quite drastically in 1.5m of seas and 2m of ground swell. Again size of boat/pressure waves add another level to what lure/rig combination swims in each pozzy...

Chris