Why I prefer no assist hooks when jigging summer Bluefin

[Caveman Sportfishing]

I am been fortunate to be able to do lots and lots of day tuna trips where we jig or chunk only off the Mid-Atlantic coast the last few summers targeting almost all Bluefin Tuna. Last season we only trolled twice all summer as almost all our charters preferred to chunk and jig for the inshore Bluefins but the previous season we trolled on almost every trip but did stop and jig once we found a school of tuna. What I found is way too many tuna get the second hook stuck in their gills and come to the boat bleeding. This is not a bad thing if you are keeping your fish for the table but with the limited regulations on Bluefin these days it pains me to see this and we do end up releasing 95% of the ones we catch. On our boat I try to switch to jigs that I have 14/0 circle hooks on the bottom with no assist hooks after we boat our legal Bluefin and that seemed to help a great deal and by far not every tuna we catch on a jig with assist hooks come to the boat bleeding but overall far too many do and I flat out hate to see this ever. I really do not have answer except to quit jigging and start trolling for other species after you catch your one legal Bluefin in 2009 if that is what the final ruling by the NMFS is going to be for the Charter-Head category under which we fish during the summer. The problem with going trolling is that a large percentage of our charter customers especially these days with the popularity of jigging prefer to stay and jig even though it is all catch and release. Every season now we more and more of our customers come on board with their new jigging gear and they want the chance to do battle with Bluefins that on occasion might push close to 150 lbs but most are in the 70-130 lb range. Any thoughts on this subject would be appreciated but from my own personal experience two hooks is not a good thing when doing catch and release on these tuna. In the canyons where the limits on Yellowfins are different I have no problem with jigs with assist hooks but last year with no night Yellowfin bite I did not have the chance to see if jigs with assist hooks cause any damage to the tuna. I am looking for others ideas and any recent experiences when doing catch and release using jigs that might help us become better at catch and release without the hooks damaging the gills. We have gotten pretty good at doing C&R while jigging and chunking the last few years going back to my experience when I participated in the Tag a Giant program down in Morehead City, NC a number of years ago. Single circle hooks do help somewhat but I am open to any suggestions on this subject as I hate to see any fish bleeding when it is released. One problem that contributes to this is often our newer customers to jigging bring on board gear that is too light to handle these tuna and contributes to long drawn out fights that cannot be good for the fish. Yes it is fun fighting any fish on light tackle but when the tuna takes an extended time to get to the boat we often see the second hook in the gills or gill plates.

[Parker21]

I would try using a single large assit hook, Last year me and my friends all used assit hooks and i can only remeber about one fish that bleed all season. I know that just about every fish was hooked in the corner of the mouth.

I think that using two hooks is not a good idea when trying to catch and release tuna.

[kilsong]

John,
When Shimano introduced Japanese style jigging with Butterfly Jigging System, they introduced two assist hooks on a jig and many other jig manufacturers followed it.
However serious jig fishermen rarely use two assist hooks.
I have been saying all along that fish aim at hooks most of time. There is no need to use two small hooks and one big hook is good enough.
In my opinion, the advantage of assist hooks is when you fight tuna. It seems you drop less fish with assist hooks.

[fishduck]

Caveman,
Have you tried one assist hook like Kil said? Have you had this problem with one assist hook?

Thanks,
Fishduck

[gman]

I only suggest using a single large extra wide assist hook, I feel that two hooks do one if not all of the following

a. Do damage to the fish
b. Do damage to you unhooking fish
c. They actually hook each other and foul making you miss the strike

Like Kilsong said Shimano pushed the double assist hook rig but serious jigging fanatics only use one

Just make sure the hook is wider than the widest point of the jig

[Caveman Sportfishing]

Most customers that bring thier own jigs which are mostly butterfly types have two small hooks on them and that is the way the stores or tackle shops recommend the jigs to be set up or they come rigged with two hooks on them. What is suggested here is just use one large hook if I am correct. I just feel that rigging the jigs that offer the best chance for the tuna to survive is so very important since the inshore summer Bluefin fisherey has gotten to be almost all catch and release. Losing tuna due to pulled hooks on most days is not really that much of an issue since we can only keep one anyways. There are days we cannot buy a bite on a jig and the tuna only want sardines on the chunk but most days we have no problem getting our legal Bluefin and end up doing C&R for at least a few hours of the day. I know that some of my regular customers are now spending a lot more time on sites such a SFC learning all they can about jigging as I am myself. Thank you for all the suggestions

[KeepItReel]

Have you been happy with your bite/hook-up ratio with the circle hooks? I have converted to circle hooks for topwater and for throwing hopkins spoons to redfish. The hook-ups are far more consistent than with trebles or single trailing hooks in these applications, but I have just started using them on deep jigging after missing way to many grouper bites and pulling hooks on these fish. If you think about it, if the fish hits the jig on the fall he will suck it in and keep swimming, all you need to do is reel it tight and avoid jerking. I pulled out an old article from Big Game Fishing from 10 years ago and the Canyon runner was using circle hooks on their deep jigs on overnight tuna trips.

If you are sick of watching fish hit your popper ten times before hooking up on topwater only to finally pull the hooks on the first run.....you should put a circle hook on the back end of your topwater plug. In this case you are plugging along, the fish comes up, sucks the bait down, turns, and you keep your steady retreive going until it pulls tight. If he misses, you haven't jerked the lure out of the strike zone trying to set the hook, so you are poised for the follow-up strike. I have found that some plugs require that you keep a treble on the front ring of the topwater lure to maintain the action, but I always change the back hook. Here's the evidence for redfish at least:

[Caveman Sportfishing]

I got the idea of large circle hook on jigs from Adam and Capt Mark of Canyon Runner a few years ago when Capt Mark ran our boat out of North Jersey. I got my first batch of hammered diamond jigs with the large single Mustad Sea Demon Circle hooks from Adam and have been sold on them every since. It was Capt Mark and the his dedicated jigging cutomers such as Kil and his friends that really got me interested in jigging and it was the first time I ever saw what would now be considered light weight but still powerful dedicated jigging tackle. We have been jigging for well over 10 on our boats but always used the same tackle that we chunked with and it worked fine except it was much too heavy and would wear the angler out in a short period time. It was not until recently that more than a handful of our customers showed any interest in jigging but seems to be big time in recent years. We have never done any popping yet to date but have seen the Yellowfinsa a few times boiling up on the surface at daybreak but never had the equipment to cast out to them with a poppers in past years. I honestly do not know if the big circle hooks stay in place any better than a J hook as we have had tuna come undone with circle hooks at times and this really surprised me. I have lost fish using both styles of hooks but I do like just reeling down on the fish with a large single circle hook and in most cases when he is hooked in the corner of his mouth you got him. Our average charter customers are mostly new to jigging and are not used to reels with 25-30 lbs of drag or more and have a problem using reels with this much drag as most have never fished ones with more than about 16-18 lbs of drag. This is one of the things I am trying to change on our boat by providing better jigging tackle that allows our customers to put more drag on their tuna and lessen the fight time. I see so many anglers showing up at our boat in the morning with their first jigging outfits that are designed for putting no more than around 16 lbs of drag max and they expect to jig for Bluefins that may vary well approach 125 lb plus. These outfits work fine on those smaller tuna but only cause long drawn out fights when a Bluefin eats their jig. We also have to consider the safety factor when using reels with lots of drag because we do see many customers that are just getting into offshore fishing and not experienced with the raw power of a tuna and worry about tackle with lots of drag. Cost does play into this also as many of my customers are amazed at how much top quality jigging gear can cost and are just starting to realize that you get what you pay for and are thinking about purchasing new and better equipment in the future. This is the value of a site such as SFC as more and more of our customer base now reads the many posts about jigging and are becoming much more aware of the many different types of equipment that is now available. You would not believe how many of our jigging customers have mentioned to me recently that they priced one of the Stella reels but cannot believe a spinning reel can cost $700-$900 or more and now we have on the market the new Accurate Boss 50 to compete with the stella SW series. The bottom line is most of our charter customers are not going to beat a 100 lb plus tuna any where near the time it takes for a experienced dedicated jig fishermen that has top of the line jigging tackle. With our average charter customer using less drag and taking longer to get thier tuna close enough for a safe release I have personally found the circle hooks do not wear holes in the tuna mouths that J hooks do on occasion at least on these longer fights. I have seen quite a few J hooks literally drop out of the tuna's mouth when ever the slightest amount of slack is present in the line but have only seen this happen a few times with a circle hook to date. I saw the pictures on Glenn's great post on how he rigs his jigs with a single J hook and now wonder if that might work with a large circle hook in place of the J hook or is the single J hook the best way. Remember this post is about what is the best way to rig your jigs that will cause the least damage to a tuna when doing catch and release. Thank again for all those that have contributed so far or took the time to read the post.

[BretABaker]

i didnt read every word of this post but my feeling is that if you'r speed jigging (i.e. japanese style jigging) then one large assist hook like glenn mentioned is better.

if i am slow jigging as i prefer to do for tuna and bottom fish then i still prefer one hook but prefer this hook to bet positioned at the bottom of the jig, either as a siwash or similar. i think kil has used jig hooks on the bottom so he can give you a better opinion on that matter, but personally i still want to compare them.

at any rate, 2 assist hooks doesn't offer an advantage IMHO.