Page 42 - Galveston Waves - January 2019

Close-up on:

PATRICK LEMIRE

BAITFISH-GOING HEAD FIRST

Baitfish the illustration it won’t knot onto itself pound mono and lower are easier to use

weakening the line leader.
when forming the loop and knot at the
Going Head First This bait rigging method works best tail’s base and to tighten it. The heavi-
with softer tailed baitfish such as ver-
er mono can also take a bigger strain
helping to cut through the baitfish. The
milion snapper, sardines, mullet, piggies,
etc. Baitfish with harder areas at the stiffness of the mono is also an import-
hat does that mean, exactly? base of their tails like cigar minnows or ant factor. Heavier but supple mono will
It’s a hooking, looping and blue runners are more suitable to use work better, overall, than a lighter but
W knotting method I came up with 60 to 130# mono, since they may stiffer mono.
with over six years ago. Fished, using cut a lighter mono when the line comes You are probably wondering, “When am
this trick, gives your baitfish a more eas- tight. I haven’t had any break-offs I going to see the procedure for making
ily eaten, head first sink or drift through when using 40# mono and appropriate up this hooking, looping and knotting?”
the water column. A predator hitting drag settings with this tail-knotting rig, -Well, we’re there. The first step is to
and eating a prey species head first is although break-offs could happen with place your hook into the baitfish, then
natural. With this head first presenta- lighter mono and a relatively high drag make a loose overhand knot in your line
tion, the swallow causes all the various setting, just as it could anywhere in the leader as shown in the lower part of
fins to fold back against the body which line. The 60 to 130# mono I use for the illustration. Notice that the mono
might otherwise impede the swallowing the most part hasn’t had any of these loop that has been pulled through the
process. cut-off |break-off problems. Eighty- overhand knot goes over the tail of the

This is a simple and very efficient meth-
od of hooking a dead baitfish that gives
it the natural look of a dead prey fish
sinking/drifting down and out in the
current. Stopping and twitching it every
10 seconds or so will add the appear-
ance of an injured baitfish, or one in
near death spasms-each are strike trig-
gers. The head first positioning, and its
hook location, if not swallowed whole
will get those “short strikers” too, since
at that point the nose hook becomes a
stinger of a sort.

The slip-knotted mono at the base of
the baitfish’s tail not only keeps its head
pointing down current but its loop cuts
through the baitfish and the knot unties
itself at the hookset when the line
comes tight. At times the loop doesn’t
cut through the baitfish -that’s OK too.
If the knot and loop are formed as in

42 | Waves Magazine | January 2019 Issue