Page 42 - Galveston Waves - Feburary 2019

Close-up on:

PATRICK LEMIRE

STIFF HOOK STINGER RIG

Stiff Hook tion’s stinger is shown with the hook end of the wire passing through the
bend up; it can also be in the down
hook’s eye, slide the wire’s eye around
position. When down, the hook point
can be exposed at the bottom of your the bend and along the hook shank
until it’s positioned as in the enlarged
Stinger Rig baitfish. The swivel I like to use is a detail in the illustration. Now, make
Spro Power Swivel, Size 4, with a 130#
a slight bend in the wire as a marker,
rating. The leader’s section lengths are
12” and 4”, or what fits your bait size about 4 inches from the back of the
hook, and form your next haywire twist
so that the stinger is from the mid- here, connecting it to the nose hook.
(A Short Striker’s Nightmare) body or rear-ward in the bait. Next, cut a 20-inch piece of no. 7 wire
and attach the swivel with a haywire
To build one of these leaders, I Stan twist, then make a slight bend, again
The kingfish are coming. . .the king- with a 12-inch section of no. 8 wire as a marker, about 12 inches from the
fish are coming! And the wahoo, too. and form a haywire twist on one end. swivel. Before forming this last haywire
. .be ready. The stiff hook stinger rig, Then, bend the eye of this haywire twist, insert the wire through both the
which is a short striker’s nightmare, twist about 45 degrees from the wire’s nose hook’s eye and the stinger hook
is a step toward getting you there. twists. Next, insert the point of the wires. See the enlarged view of this
It keeps a dead baitfish straight and stinger hook through the bent eye of area in the illustration which shows the
natural looking as it sinks, twitches or the stinger wire; then with the opposite interlocking of the wire’s eyes as well
“swims” in the current. Not only that,
the stiff hook stinger’s rigidity gives
a surer hookset. While the wire leader
bait rigging method of “through both
eyes of the baitfish with your hook and
then embed it into the bait fish’s side
at the mid-body area” is pretty much
standard, this method is a better one.
To build this wire leader I use stain-
less steel Malin size 7 and 8 (80 & 93
lb.), the size 8 for the stinger is stiffer.
While its tobacco brown finish is ad-
vertised as “non-glare and invisible in
water”, I have a couple of added steps
I believe go beyond that — more on
these steps and why later. The hooks
are both by Daiichi, a D87Z in size
1 for the nose and a DI 8Z, size 8/0
stinger. The stinger is an octopus wide
with an up eye. While you may choose
other brands and sizes, the “up eye” is
an important design feature that makes
this stiff hook rig work. The illustra-

42 | Waves Magazine | February 2019 Issue