Rigging livebaits

I seen Michael McVeigh rig up a live mackerel for tuna a few years ago, he used thread and sort of sowed the hook into place but leaving the bait fish almost unharmed (sounds odd i know but it was quite impressive). Does anybody know how to do this or know a link that demonstrates it with a diagram? Cheers for any help.

Pete

"See this page.

http://members.aol.com/_ht_a/sharkmanfl ... and=AOL_US

For the impatient...


""The bridle rig is probably the best; get a rigging needle and a piece of heavy dental floss, or rigging floss. Take a short piece floss (double it) then insert it through the ring end of the needle. Make a knot in the two loose tag ends of the floss. Now insert the needle between the baits front eye socket and pull the rigging needle and floss out the other end. Take the floss off the needle, then put the knoted tag end through the loop end of the floss. Bring your hook down to the top HEAD of the bait and wrap your rigging floss around the hooks curved shank. Make sure to use half hitches and tighten this down to sinch the hook right up against the live baits top of the head.

This live bait rigging method is excellent for many purposes; it keeps the bait very lively because the hook is not inserted in the bait, so therefore it's not injured, it also improves my hookup ratios due to the hook being exposed and never gets fouled up in the bait, and finally the bait just flat out swims better then nose hooked."""

Cheers Sandman. See that link the bloke talks about having a sharp knife hung around your neck so if the shark pulls you overboard you can cut the line!! Must remember that the next time I'm shore fishing for dogs!

Pete

Aye, best to be careful. :lol:

I like the bit on the web page about having another lad with you to keep a hold of yer trunks to stop you getting pulled in. :lol:

Pete,
I've seen this method used in Kenya when using livebait for King Mackeral and Marlin (thoughn didn't get any of them!), it works really well with the fish being very lively though it was very tricky to rig, what the guys did was catch the bait, put in livebait tank then rig baits from the livebait tank and put them back in to the livebait tank once rigged. Then brought the line in and clipped on the freshly rigged bait and sent it off. As soon as this was a way they rigged up another one out of the tank, quite labour intensive but definitly seems to work.
I used live mackeral for a lot of tope fishing last summer, simply hooking through the top lip works well but no doubt must restrict the swimming you would think.
Paul

I hook mackerel just in front of the eyes from one side to the other, works a treat and they last all day when there no tope around :(