How To Rig A Ribbon Fish For Trolling

Here’s everything you need to know about How To Rig A Ribbon Fish For Trolling. Find all the information it in this article.

I shorten the leader down to about eight inches of wire on the dead baits. You, put the boat in gear and let it idle at about 1/2 to 1 mile per hour. If you go any faster than that, then the live baits that you are dragging, will not be able to swim that fast and will end up being pulled. When you pull a live bait that is rigged with a live bait rig, it makes the bait spin in circles or it skims it across the surface. NOT GOOD. This is not what you want with a live bait.

Yet the path to glory is paved with more than positive thinking and a sprinkle of luck. Keep a little slack in each stinger wire to prevent them from binding. Capt. Jerry Dilsaver has been fishing since he was a child and writing about fishing, hunting and the outdoors since 1986. He has been on staff at Carolina Adventure, North Carolina Sportsman and South Carolina Sportsman Magazines and his byline has appeared in several other magazines and newspapers.

Trophy King Mackerel Love Live Bait

Slow trolling up one side and down the other of this line, or try zig-zagging across it . When the bite has been strong inshore, just look for the fleet. The fish might only be off the beach a quarter mile, and the biggest fish are often caught very close to the beach. After years of frustration and experimentation, my crew and I finally figured out the obvious.

In my travels throughout the southeast United States, I’ve seen many ways of fishing with ribbonfish. In northeast Florida and Georgia, ribbonfish are fished just off the bottom using downriggers or trolled on flat lines. Some anglers even build a combo rig by attaching a small ribbonfish behind a live menhaden. All of these methods work and there are many opportunities to experiment with this highly productive bait.

Rigging Ribbonfish For Trolling:

This will at first attract bait fish and then hopefully the larger game fish. King mackerel have a mouth full of razor sharp teeth. Fish that are going to be kept to eat are normally gaffed. Special release tools work very well on small king mackerel. They allow anglers to pop the fish off without even touching them.

The best quality ribbons are caught on hook-and-line by anglers who have refined their methods to an art form. Needless to say, the hook-caught ribbons shine like newly-minted dimes and command the top price of $3 to $5 each. Like most things in America, the more you need something the more it costs. So expect to pay premium prices the evening before a tournament. I glanced back behind the stern, and all I could see was several ripples in the water where only moments before there had been floating menhaden.

Kingfish Help

Most plugs sport a pair of treble hooks which should hook the king securely. Plugs allow anglers to thoroughly cover the water column. Several plugs that work different depths can be used at the same time to determine where the fish are. As with all trolling, anglers can cover a lot of water efficiently and quickly.

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We had two fresh, dead menhaden rigged with treble hooks floating just behind the boat, and a live menhaden suspended under a float was swimming about 100 feet off the stern. This rig is generally lighter than the fast trolling outfit. I like a rod about 7 to 8 feet in length with a very light tip and as many guides as you can get. The reel should be a fast retrieve (3.8 to 1 or better). Bait cast style reels work best as you do not get line twist using these. The line should not be heavier than 20 pound test and the drag should be set to about 3 to 5 pounds.

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When you find a shop that consistently supplies you with top-quality mackerel baits, stay with them. Even if their bait is slightly more expensive, it will be worth the extra money in the long run. The first rig is built on monofilament leader material of whatever pound test is needed for the target game fish. It can range from as light as 80-pound on up, within reason. Just remember, extremely heavy leader can dampen a bait’s action. This rig is probably the most commonly used and is a breeze to assemble.

How To Target Ribbonfish

They tend to prey on small schools of baitfish, so you can commonly find them near piers, jetties, seawalls and other structures waiting to feed. They are abundant worldwide and are easy to catch with a cast net since they are often found in large schools and in shallow water. They make a great bait for regular trolling as well as for making dredges.

Try adding a ribbonfish – and a new dimension – to your trolling spread and see if a king mackerel or other game fish comes calling. Like wacky rigs, drop shot rigs are used for precision fishing, but in deep water situations, and typically when fish aren’t as active. Pretty much all soft baits can be Texas rigged from curly and ribbon tail worms, shaky head worms, lizards, and even some swimbaits.

Boone Ribbon Rigs

Obviously the hook size depends on the size of the bait. Using 130- to 200-pound mono, rig a hookless bait exactly the way you would rig one with a belly hook — push the mono down through the skull and out the bottom jaw. Then cut the “leader” down to about 6 to 8 inches and add another sleeve. Pull the second sleeve tight around the bend of a circle hook (or J-hook, for that matter) and you now have a bait guaranteed to work without spinning. This also puts the hook an inch or two in front of the rig, allowing the circle hook to find its way into the corner of the jaw without interference from the bait .

See how to get broken off less, what lures to use, how to find the best spots, and more in this video. I like to add a weighted skirt in the place of the two weights. Anglers often complain that kings will come in and take out the middle section of their bait.

Best Ribbonfish Baits

A mackerel’s sharp teeth quickly annihilate rubber lures or skirts. In a pinch, threading a couple of beads on a short length of wire ahead of a bare hook works amazingly well. The second-longest line uses a live bait and a small skirt or Turbo Rattler. Place it in the port rod holder angled out from the T-top. A Turbo Rattler garners more bites from king mackerel in dirty water. Use light colors as long as the water has a green tint.

Dangling from the stern was a mesh bag filled with a dog food and menhaden oil mixture. The chum slick trailing off behind the boat looked thick enough to walk on. I can put a video together for this, but I roll the wire into a circle and store in heavy duty plastic bags. If you use light kitchen-maid ones, the trebles will stick into the plastic, but the stiffer plastic won’t catch. Adding a bonita belly strip can make a great addition to most trolling set ups. Check out this video put together by Bill Miller on how to rig a bonita strip.

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A mackerel’s compressed body shape makes it a great bait for both swimming and skipping applications. All you need to rig one up is a good set of rigging needles, some waxed thread, a sharp knife and a pair of pliers. Some fishermen have difficulty estimating distances, and fish sizes. The term “pull” describes pulling line off between the reel and the first guide. The “pull” of line from the reel to the first guide on most rods is about two feet. So something between 50 and 60 pulls should be around 100 feet.

We all looked at each other with that “no, you get it” look before I urged Dusek to take up the rod, as he is generally stuck at the helm while the rest of us catch all the fish. While the fight dragged on, Dusek and I debated whether it was a big king or a wahoo. I claimed it had to be a king because we were too close to shore for anything else. When the fish came to the surface, the unmistakable yell of “wahoo” underscored just how wrong I was. The 3D Bunker, a 2-ounce lipped plug that’s the perfect likeness of a real pogy, is an excellent choice when kings are skyrocketing through bait balls.