Live Bait Rigging

clayton86 · May 26, 2012

whats the best way to rig up live bait for 'Cuda iv been catching little sunfish looking things and just hooking them threw the back sometimes head other times tail. I get bit like crazy and fight for 10seconds just to pull up a shredded bait fish and no cuda or shark for that matter. Am I doing some thing wrong I usually don't use live bait but I also never usually fish in the ocean either. I was thinking maybe use a rubber band so when I set the hook the band breaks and hook goes into the fish rather then trying to set it with the smaller fish in the way.

SirSnookalot · May 27, 2012

You're not doing anything wrong, the back is the best place to place the hook for cudas, 30# wire is not bad idea either. The nature of barracudas are slash hitters, cutting their prey in half vs an inhaling fish like a LMB, tarpon or snook.

Using rubber bands is a very popular method when using live bait, but not fore cudas. The purpose of the rubber band is to keep the bait fish alive longer and swim naturally when fishing for billfish, goggle eyes cost $10 a piece here in Florida. A wide rubber band is placed around the girth of the bait fish, hook placed under the band, not entering the flesh. Line from a second rod (short rod called a kite rod) is fed up to a kite in the air, down from the kite clipped onto to the mainline, fish hits and kite line gets detached.....cool stuff.

clayton86 · May 27, 2012

I'm hoping to give it another go this afternoon. I'm thinking of getting another set up so i can catch the bait with one and use it on the other iv been just attaching the sabiki to my leader catching the bait then un cliping it and rigging a hook on it and bouncing back and forth its a pain. I have an extra pole nice and heavy actioned and heavy itself i think would be better for getting that hook in deep it just needs a reel im gonna haggle with the haji shop for a reel. I also have a "yo-yo" spool like the locals use I want to catch one on that that's what I had the cuda bight on last time he was thrashing on the surface and bunch I thought i had him till I really started to pull to keep him from going under the pier and then I was looking at a shredded dead fish with its guts stringing out.

I'll tell ya one thing i got 6 months of doing this left and i heard it only gets better as it heats up threw the summer its 115* today. but these cuda that i haven't caught and queen fish iv got maybe 20 of so far are a blast to catch idk how im gonna go back to wny and catch bass and northerns it might bore me......ok maybe not bore but it wont ever be the same.

I attached what I use for bait plus the baby cuda I caught on the sabiki, that first fish they go crazy for and there all over the place but a pain to catch just like sun fish masters at stealing bait but not the hook iv been using cheese.

1.8k · May 27, 2012

We will often use pinfish and small tilapia for snook sharks and reds. We use a big rug needle to thread the rubberband through one eye socket and out the other. Even better through the baits nostril. Then tie the band to a circle hook. Let the fish run for a good ways and swallow the bait then take it out of freelspool and sweep set.

clayton86 · May 27, 2012

well we went out today I spent 90% my time catching bait for the other guys that went with me but we hooked into a few and one shark and a giant Queen only landed one though. Also there not cuda there are cuda here but what weve been seeing and hooking into are egypt needlefish ill attach pics I thought I had one I fought it for a good 5 minutes and well you can see what it did lol.

I started hooking mine threw the lip to keep em alive longer after seeing how they took the fish down thinking that would be the best bet because the back hook didnt work. we started using bait in the 3-5" range then i got a few tiny 1" ones I had a Queen hit mine but i was to busy catching more for the other guys and never got my pole in time, The guy who caught the needlefish hooked his with a wide gap trokar worm hook lol threw the whole thing so it looked like a lateral perch jig. Looked funny but it worked.