Rigging Spanish Mackeral

[The Business]

My buddy saved me a couple of small spanish to rig as Marlin baits. It will be a week or to before I can use them. Should I gut and brine them before I freeze them?

Anyone have any rigging tips or videos you can suggest? This the first time I've tried. I've got some 10/0 J hooks that I plan on using. Thanks guys!

[offshore]

My buddy saved me a couple of small spanish to rig as Marlin baits. It will be a week or to before I can use them. Should I gut and brine them before I freeze them?

Anyone have any rigging tips or videos you can suggest? This the first time I've tried. I've got some 10/0 J hooks that I plan on using. Thanks guys!

Just a tip that i learned last year. If you dont brine them as soon as you get them in the boat they wont hold up. I brined some that I had on ice, they were on Ice for about six hours from a trip that day and they did not hold up very well at all.

[Kahi]

ideally, you would have brined them ASAP in slush of ice/salt water....but they could be ok as a pitch bait..its the pulling through the water that will cause them to break up...make sure you salt them good now, and yes gut them before.

[jbonvetti]

Ideally they should be killed in a hot brine (salt and baking soda), then gutted and placed into a cold brine (salt, a touch of baking soda and ice).

I prefer not to use phormaldehidye (not spelled right I know) just because I will only use them as pitch baits. I want them as limber and loose as can be.

[The Business]

Thanks guys, I'll freeze these for Snapper baits.

[Captain Fred Archer]

I go along with JBon...Same as it is with ballyhoo that you catch and intend to use for bait, the 'hoo's should go from the hook/net right into a salt and baking soda ice slurry. That way the bait doesn't beat itself up and break tails, lose scales, etc. on cooler sides, it dies very quickly and in the process "inhales" some of the water/salt/soda mixture, which causes it to actually penetrate the flesh.

Macks are very delicate baits. They should be caught and killed in the above manner and as recommended by JBon, gutted, hit with a bit more brine, then frozen. We used sierra mackerel, basically the same fish as Spaniards, down in Cabo, mostly as troll baits and also as pitch baits. Our methods of rigging them are in my books.

[Bonehead]

I started using these last year and will continue to do so.

By far the easiet way I've found to rig a spanish (or just about anything else).

http://circlehookjig.com/

Check out the videos.

[Captain Fred Archer]

Thanks Bonehead. As a big fan of circle hooks, I really like that rigging, especially for pitch baits or deep fishing for the big Mexican groupers, snappers, amberjacks and various other deep fish. I'd sure try it on billfish, but my own personal paranoia would probably lead me to stick with the more traditional sewn-in hook...but I'd give that rigging a good test before rejecting it.