Rigging the Matanza

[Squidnation]

A bunch of you guys took advantage of the Green Matanza sale and then sent emails concerning how to rig them. As promised I am posting up how I rig them. I know some captains may do it differently. Capt Jakeg likes to rig them on Mono and Cowboy likes to troll them on his wayback. Capt Shane on the Fighin Lady uses them mostly on the planer. It would be great to see how others rig them as well. Here is my version.

We mostly use them in the fall here in OC. Large wahoos tend to gather on the weedlines from the 30 on out to the 500 fathom line. But Tunas will also gobble them up so I like to keep one on the short rigger when strictly tuna fishing. I like to use a select or horse ballyhoo when these guys are running. In the summer I will scale it down to a med or med/large. For medium large I will use a 8/0 pr 9/0 south tuna style hook. For the horse and select I like to use a 9/0 or 10/0 hook. This is a horse ballyhoo on this demo.



I use a #9 malin wire and rigging wire. This is a welded hook so I just haywire twist the wire to the hook and leave a tag end on the haywire. I measure the point where the bend will exit the belly and puncture a hole. Also want to make sure the tag will be able to enter the ballyhoo around the middle of the nostrils



Slip the hook through the gillplate as you would typically rig a bait and exit through the preset hole. Make sure the haywire tag will end in the correct spot so it can be punctured through the nostril



I wrap the wire through the eyes three times and then wrap around the snout to keep the mouth shut.

Note: - this rig is also very effective with a rubberband. The rubberband can also act as an O-ring to help lock the baithead in place in the matanza.





I like to leave the bill a little long so it will jam into the tapered line hole of the matanza. The hole in the matanza is purposely tapered from head to shoot so that you can lock the bill into the hole. The matanza lead is the key to this rig. It has a half bell in order to keep the bait upright. The will be your chin weight.

Notice how the bell head is designed. You want to rest the chin of the ballyhoo on the bell weight.



Next slip the matanza over the bill of the bait. If the bill is long enough then it will fit in the line hole and lock the bait into place.



Hope this helps

Here is one of Capt Jake's fish caught on a mono rigged matanza

[Cowboy]

Just a note on this: the rigging is AS IMPORTANT if not more important, the lure will not make up for sloppy rigging if you don't rigg correctly your bait will spin worse than running naked. I also find the rubberband method locks things tighter just don't ball up the rubberband so much as to make a stopper that won't let the bally up into the tapered hole. If I want even more depth I rigg with a chin weight in as far back as possible seems best with large or selects small and mediums run bare rigged with just the lure.

[Bonehead]

The Matanza is the best ballyhoo rigging "acessory" I've seen in a long time. It swims straight and level under the water everytime. I caught many tuna last year pulling it from a spreader bar.

[capt. jakeg]

I like that pic there Bill. For those of you who didnt notice in that shot there.... that is the squidnation wrapper there in the corner that this wahoo was caught on. Bill pull them out of the bag. Says they are new and wants to do some expeimenting. We pull them out of the wrapper, rig them up and drop them in and a 5 minutes later had that little hooter there.
I do rig not rig mine on wire. I do not troll anything on wire unless there is a damn motherload of hoos in the area. Id rather get the bite and have him break and take a lure than not get the bite at all because of the wire. I also pull it behind a bar at times and have had good success with the tunas especially up here in VA on the green dolphin bar with the green matanza behind it.

[FinRazr]

This one fell to a blue and pink one it wound up being #4 in virginia last season 75lbs

[Squidnation]

This one fell to a blue and pink one it wound up being #4 in virginia last season 75lbs

That is a pig Darren. Did you catch that on a planer or without?

[PurpleCedarPlug]

Another suggestion is when you place it in the water, do it slowly and gently keeping the head in the correct up and down direction.

Don't just thow it over hoping it lands right..

[dunn6253]

Anyone use the Matanza for bft? Thinking about buying some, and would just like to know if they are effictive on the bft as they are on the hoos. Thanks for the help.

[Squidnation]

Anyone use the Matanza for bft? Thinking about buying some, and would just like to know if they are effictive on the bft as they are on the hoos. Thanks for the help.

Get in touch with Cowboy here on the board. He waxed the bluefin off of Delaware with the matanza. He can give you lots of insight on what he did.

[FinRazr]

That is a pig Darren. Did you catch that on a planer or without?

She was digging deep only bite of the day it turned a crappy trip into one that was aaaariight!