Floss or wire or wire with a swivel?

[Digger]

ok, I know what my preference is, but what about the rest of you. My son works in Isla and rigs with wire, he states that it is faster (remember from start to finish rigging 50 to 80 baits a day) and the baits run fine. (I can contest to that) I am fishing the Jupiter sailfish tournament and the crew prefers floss! and some boats only drag ballys with wire/swivel combo.

I have my own opinion, but I would like to hear yours.

If this question was asked before, well, sorry for the repeat.

Just a little history, I have been using circle hooks starting 9 years ago. Rigging was much different back than, the hook was rigged very stiff or tight to the bait, now with different methods of rigging, the hook has more movement, hence a better hook up rate. I just find rigging with floss takes longer if you take into consideration the cutting of the floss, the theading thru the weight, the tieing of the knot, ect. plus if a novice rigs the baits, the head is usually always broken because of the knot being tighten too much around the head. where as you can buy the wire precut, make a loop using a ice pick and you are done. Swivels are great also, but you need a perfect match between the swivel and hook

[Fritz]

floss. We switched from wire & swivel to floss at the beginning of last season. It just seems faster and more efficient changing baits out. I think I will stay with the floss.

[Swami]

Floss. After fishing a bunch down in Central America and watching those crews rig tens of thousands of ballyhoo, they all use floss with or without weights. No wire and none of that swivel through the head business. Hate to say it but if there was an easier or better way to do it, they would be doing it.

[gradywhite273]

from a novice standpoint,( me being the novice) i find the floss rig much easier to do, kevin oconnor taught me both, i can do a floss rig without breaking to many heads, the ballyhoos or mine, but i definately stuggle with the wire. plus i can pre make the rig at my desk.

[frankypettolina]

I think it comes down to what works best for you.

I have "big dumb caveman" type fingers and have a hard time with the floss for some reason. Yet, I can fly through the wrie and swivel rigs.

There are some of the top guys doing it both ways, and I think it comes down to a matter of preference.

With anything fishing whether it be knot tying or bait rigging or rod spooling or whatever, I have found that you find the way it works for you, and you stick with it. You need to get to be good at it, do it in the dark with your eyes clesed with a bucket of cold water dumping on your head- that is the key

As far as hook up ratio- as long as the hook is able to turn I think technique has more to do with irt than rigging style. just my 2 cents.

And as a caveat- I predominantly fished circles while trolling this year and maintained a 60% to 70% average (if you throw away my 3 for 11 cluster fudge day- lots of crazy stuff happened and we pulled off several fish during the fight that I cannot account for, and just screwed up others). My only other experience circle hook fishing has been in Costa Rica as a guest and/or charter where we used wire- no swivels on the Wired and maintained a 60 to 70% average catching around 100 fish in 2004, and as a charter on the Miss Behavin with Capt. Dave where we still held strong at that 70% ish number using floss. We had more shots on the Wired in 04 than with Dave in 07 (15 fish) and 08 (30 fish) , but that was due to the fishery not the techniques, so i have a smaller sample group with floss.

[SeaMent]

We used to use swivels but switched to floss rigs due to the amount of time involved in riggin, the floss seem to go much quicker and the hookup ratio is the same. As Tim said while we are sittin and BSn we cut all the floss and hang the lead on em while the baits are thawin !!!

[BuenaVista Sportfishing Lodge]

This is how we do it on our boats. Here are two methods. 1 wire and 1 floss. The floss in this picture has some extra stitching to help avoid the first strike pull off. having the bait stitched into the body will keep the meat in tact for a few more strikes if the fail to get hooked on the initial strike.

[Digger]

Great comments, I perfer a loop on the end of the wire method, simply because I usually don't have time to tie the floss rigs at home or on the boat. I find it easier to twist small loops than trying to pass floss through a small weight.

I have seen a way to pass the floss through the weight faster, Take a small gauge wire (7 wire or smaller) make a tiny loop at the end of the wire, and use the small gauge wire to thread the floss through the weight. It does work and it does make things easier.

[sportfishingusa]

when using the floss do you guys stitch the floss into the backs!?

i see some people do it but not sure if needed or not..

[Bird Dog]

I've used floss and I've used wire, but never with the swivel. I use wire the majority of the time b/c that's how I learned. Try all of them and see which one you like and stick with it, but don't be afraid to experiment.