Making stiff rigs/ length question

[mscontender]

I am now making my own stiff rigs for trolling lures (700lb cable, single Hays hook, shrink tubing cover) question is when I would buy them they were always too short and I would use beads to add space and place the hook further back on the lure. Now that I am making my own I can make the cable as long as I want. Is there a benefit one way or the other to making the rig the full length or adding beads as spacers? Either way I use a crimp snugged inside of a black bart "stopper" to keep the hook point up as a keel.

Thanks
Robert

[Kahi]

I am now making my own stiff rigs for trolling lures (700lb cable, single Hays hook, shrink tubing cover) question is when I would buy them they were always too short and I would use beads to add space and place the hook further back on the lure. Now that I am making my own I can make the cable as long as I want. Is there a benefit one way or the other to making the rig the full length or adding beads as spacers? Either way I use a crimp snugged inside of a black bart "stopper" to keep the hook point up as a keel.

Thanks
Robert

Welcome to the site...My understanding is that the reason many are made that way is to be IGFA rule compliant.. I trim the bottom of the skirt's I buy to avoid tangle and foul hooking the skirt so that the bend in the hook is lined up with the bottom of the skirt....see images of legal vs. not legal....also check out this link from the IGFA..... http://www.igfa.org/Fish/INTERNATION...ING-RULES.aspx



Not Legal



legal

[mscontender]

kahi: I understand what you are saying, I have read the IGFA rules and place my hooks where the eye is inside the skirt with the rest outside, much like Pakula rigs theirs. I am thinking there may be a disadvantage to making the stiff rig too long as it becomes a lever assisting fish in throwing the hook? So at moment I am using beads as spacers, just wonder other opinions?

[BahamaLure]

Couple of thoughts....

If you want the hook to act as a keel you need to put the point down, not up as its natural tendency is to be point down. The best way to ensure the point is up is to use a keeled lure which will prevent it from turning down.

The bend of the hook should be just behind the bottom of the skirts so that can not cross over and tangle. The only thing the IGFA cares about is having the eye above the skirt ends.

Your cable rig will not be stiff enough to act as a lever to wrench the hook out.

check this thread - Rigging a big lure for Mahimahi - for making the stiff rig

Hope that helps a bit

Alan

[mscontender]

Alan: thanks for the reply and link

[CaptainSteve]

Big Al:
Your step by step rigging is awesome, real easy for newbies to follow. But have you tried to create a double hook, with circle hooks yet?

[BahamaLure]

Thanks Capt Steve, I have not done a double circle rig, but I know a man who has.... and he went 5/6 with it on blues.

I have a feeling circle hooks in lures offer much more to us than most guys might think, time will tell. Hopefully sometime soon photo evidence will begin to appear.

[CaptainSteve]

i agree. I think that in the next year or two most meat fishermen will be making the switch as well.

[Pakula]

Couple of thoughts....

If you want the hook to act as a keel you need to put the point down, not up as its natural tendency is to be point down. The best way to ensure the point is up is to use a keeled lure which will prevent it from turning down.

I'm not sure if you wrote this quickly or not but hooks travel through the water hook point up, with the hook point level with the eye of the hook.

vid here, 1st one down the page: http://www.pakula.com.au/index.php?o...142&Itemid=283

Also Keeled lures do not stabilse the lure or keel it in most modern skirted lure head shapes as the pressure on the face overides the weight that you can get into a lure head.

Most often keeling a lure head converts from a head that spins through a breathing cycle to one that both spins and corkscrews through the breathing cycle.

To 'keel' a rig you need to seperate it from what the lure is doing as this article explains:

Hook Positioning