Some months ago I scratched the surface on some of the live bait basics around Palm Beach. Though not common up this way there is one I didn't cover. More prolific as you head south and really the best game in town when you get to the keys is live baiting with ballyhoos.
Just the fragile nature of this bait alone keeps it from being a bought commodity. They don't seem to fare very good in even the best of baitwells for much more than a fishing day. So, you really need to gear up to go get them fresh every morning.
Though its really not much more involved than driving to a reef, dropping a hook and hanging a chum bag there are quite a few tricks that can vastly improve both quantity and quality of your baits...
I for one plug wind and tide into my decision of which patch reef I want to work. Although its not a must to have a rock pile direcly under your transom it is necessary to get your chum to flow back across as much of that bottom as possible.
I approach from down wind of where I eventually want my transom to sit. Maybe as much as 300 yards before I get there I set the small holed bag in. Other days maybe only 100 yards... you use small holes because large holes allow bigger chunks of chum out and that can draw birds which can spook your hoos. I do a zig zag pattern in dispersing as broad of a scent trail as possible. Riding past my set up spot I anchor up wind of it and feed scope out til I'm positioned correctly.
If I went in right I should already have bait working up my slick. Some days yellowtails can get so thick the hoos get pushed back to far to work. The easiest trick to quell them is to hook one and jerk him once in a while. Yellowtails respond well by spooking down deep when you do this. Your hoos will appear as dimples on the surface or raindrops if you will. As they get closer you can see the red tips of their bills and tails clearly.
Now I see a load of guys make a mistake at this early stage. A big wad comes up and instantly they blast em with a net. They pick off some but now that school is gonna be wary and much harder to get.
We, on my boat start slow. Using 4lb spin outfits we load #14 long shank gold hooks with tiny dots of shrimp for bait. If the wind is blowing you can simply let that same wind carry your bait back to the hoos. Don't let it land in the tails. Get it back to the HOOS!I watch the bait disappear and in a single fluid motion I flip them back into the boat where using wet hands I unhook them quick and right into a well. Hoos like to jump. CLOSE THE LID!
The quality of a hair hooked hoo is superior to a netted hoo. Their scales havn't taken a beating nor have they been dropped to the deck from a shaking net. For me a minimum of two dozen top quality ones get dropped in the well before even busting out the net.
Once the net is brought out the rest of the pit is cleared. No rods, buckets or anything to hang the net when you throw. If you shake the bag the hoos will thicken up but you run the risk of tails swarming and driving the hoos back. Instand a squirt of bunker oil and a hand full of oatmeal flakes will sit at the surface and bunch them up just as well.
Now its game time. I load my net, a 10' radius 3/8" mesh one out of sight of the hoos. I approach the transom and watch the timing. The boat swings and the hoos cross back and forth over the slick. For me I do better with the wind on my left shoulder and time it so the hoos are just finishing their left run of the slick crossing.
Its easy to get excited and take a shot thats not right. You will make out a whole lot better if you wait for the right one then concentrate on really snapping your throw to open all the way over them. I'm not going to give a cast net lesson here but I will say that you want all of yourself in the throw. Not just arms.

As your bag unfurls... work it make sure your fingers are letting go in proper sequence and at the same time hold ing that back line til the last possible micro second.

Even if it wasn't a throw that required going to the end of the string still follow through. At that point I usually do a big exhale almost liek karate guy do that little yell in their motion. If you did it right your bag is gonna hit the water like this one is...Back lead hitting first followed by the front ones.

Still that leading edge landing should be micro seconds after the rear end. The splash if proper will look all as one unit.

I give about five seconds of sink before starting the close. I close with a series of sharp tugs to draw the base in then draw the bag back smooth and quick. Once over the gunwale I grab the horn with my left hand and start sliding back. As I do that I push forward with the right to feed the open smoothly. I try to not drop them on the deck from more than a few inches above.

One guy with wet hands loading rthe wqell another to close the lid and you're good to go...

Rigging of the live bally doesnt get simpler. I use fifteen feet of 50lb mono tied by double uni to a short double line to the main line. No hardware. My hook is usually 5/0 light wire octopus style but this year will get circle light wire since i'm doing a lot a of tournaments.
To each his own as far as attaching the hook. Some snell, some crimp, some do like me. I use the uni and leave a 1/4" of open loop so that delicate little bally can twist and turn as naturally as possible. The tip of the hook goes up through where the skin meets the hard part at the base of the bill.


I usually fish four baits on spin gear when using live hoos. I run with an open bail and a piece of light monel bent in a "U"shape to hold the line. When the fish hits the line pops off that wire and is free spooling with no pressure what so ever. The circle trick will take some time for me to nail how long a drop to use. With "J" its about a long three count...
End result should look like this...