Preparing hoo's

[dunn6253]

How do you guys go about preparing your hoo's? Say I am going out Saturday mourning, would you prepare them friday night? How do you go about thawing them out? Any and all input is helpful. Thanks in advance.

Next time out on the wagon, I am definetly running my planer setup after marking a lot of fish down deep yesterday, that we just couldn't get to come up in the spread.

[Sea Draggin]

Take a bucket of sea water. Stick your packs in it beak down with the beak end of the pack cut open, but not off. Allow it to soak until the plastic pack comes loose. Take off the plastic and toss it.

Allow the bait to continue to thaw fully. Don't tear them apart. Take them out, poke out the eyes with an arrow and clip off any forward facing fins.

If you rig them, make sure you give them a dunk back into your bucket of sea water to wash off any blood from the hook exit hole. Put them in your tray belly up and give them a sprinkle of brine.

The next morning, pull your whole tray out of the bait cooler, put it on the deck and use a 5 gal bucket of sea water to wash off all the brine at once. Your hands will thank you for it.

Put the tray back in your bait cooler and your good to go.

[clt_capt]

I will always thaw and prep my hoos the night before.
Thaw them in a bucket of salt water - never fresh, and
make sure to take them out of the bag before thawing.

To prep them,

1) remove the eyes - a short section of an aluminum arrow makes a perfect eye tool.

2) Remove the pectoral fins - scissors or dykes work well

3) De-poop them - gently squeeze the belly (from the sides) working from the head to the anal vent.

4) Limber them up - easiest thing is to gently squeeze the
top side to release the meat from the bone - Do Not break the skin.

5) Place them in a metal pan - belly up and lightly brine them ( Bionic Brine is good stuff, but 50/50 mix of baking soda and Kosher salt works just as well)
DO NOT USE IODIZED SALT

6) Put the pan directly on ice in the cooler.


Someone did a GREAT Ballyhoo 101 Video, but I can't remember who it was - Do a search - you'll find it, or you can also look on www.baitmaster.com for instructions.

[BTH284]

If you want a lil more preservative to your brine mix makes 'em nice and shiny. Add a small amount of 20 mule team borax to the mix. Not to much or they will shrivel up like a man in a cold pool. I use an large size used up black pepper shaker, parmigiano cheese shaker etc. 40% kosher salt, (idoized will turn the baits brown over time)50% baking soda
and 10% borax. The old chrome finished over copper water line attachment from the hardware store makes a great poker too.
Swancaller told me about these tips last summer. Work like a champ.

[dunn6253]

Thanks for the replies guys.

One more question, what is your favorite hook to throw in a horse hoo'? Will be picking up some hooks early this week, and will be hitting the grounds sometime late this week/or the weekend. Thanks for the help.

[wrap-check]

10/0 Mustad 7691S works well in horses

[rarhomes]

I personally do not brine or limber the ballyhoo the night before.

Cut off the fins, remove the air bladder and poop with and rigging tool or something similar (not by squeezing) remove the eyes, rig then rinse in saltwater and place in your bait trays.

Good ballyhoo do not need to be brined (especially swimmers)the night before, it makes then stiff and dry.

Limber them up by gently squeezing their backs, break the tail section, and move them back and forth (snake like) just prior to putting them in the water and you will have a much better bait. Just my opinion.