hooking techniques using mack fillets and pennell rigs

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#1 Post by **lumpy** » Wed Aug 15, 2007 4:55 pm

ive been doing alot of bull huss fishing lately using pennell pulleys and noticed a few things i found interesting. firstly was that approximatly 80% of huss and unfortunately dogs have been hooked on the top hook. out of interest i decided to snell the top hook of the pennell and keep a max distance of 3 inches between the hooks. i tend to use a whole fillet and keep the hooks pointing in opposite directions.when i hook the fillet i double it over and bind extremely tightly. these changes ive found have firstly increased my hook up by i guess 20% and secondly in the case of huss ive gone from having approximately 1 in 5 huss being dropped when they got to the shore, as huss are prone to do, to not dropping any of the last 11 huss ive hooked. the other change ive used is to split the fillet down the middle and bind them back to back resulting in very streamlined bait that i find huss have to take rather than a large broad bait which the huss can just hold onto without being hooked.

hope that made sense...

teacher · #2 Post by **teacher** » Wed Aug 15, 2007 5:04 pm

Could you post a pic of the baited rig?

#3 Post by **lumpy** » Wed Aug 15, 2007 5:06 pm

no problem going after them later so i'll throw up a pic later

Deleted User 689 · #4 Post by **Deleted User 689** » Wed Aug 15, 2007 5:24 pm

Great info neil will give that a try going for huss or two the weekend best of luck this evening

#5 Post by **lumpy** » Sat Aug 18, 2007 9:47 am

here are the pics, second one shows the snelled top hook on the pennell and the way they point in opp directions, the first shows it with the fillet attached, for huss i like to keep the bottom hook slightly back from the end of the bait.

#6 Post by **nthclare** » Sat Aug 18, 2007 2:20 pm

From experience I went back to use a more floppy messy looking bait just hooked old school style never minding the sleek wrapped up technical jargon which you see in magazines or hanging off the guys tripod next to you as a decoy trace lol

Let the upper hook free to slide up and down and also and like mentioned before they prefer a broad bait as an unatural presented bait isnt the way to go in our waters all the better anglers in the region use more chunky and messy baits which let out oil and scent rather than the sleek rocket propelled baits wrapped up in so much elasticated cotton you might as well have the bait in a plastic bag with no airholes so try putting on an ignorant floppy looking side of a mackerel bait using a running ledger trace where the bait moving around in the sea and not pinned down with not much room to move around you will notice the difference im gone back to the old ways and im seeing the fruits of my actions more and more hook ups.

And better fishing

#7 Post by **daithi** » Sat Aug 18, 2007 4:15 pm

Ever heard of the full stop?

#8 Post by **lumpy** » Sat Aug 18, 2007 5:33 pm

as i said this is the result of some experimenting ive been doing lately and has unquestionably improved my hook ups. i havnt dropped a huss since i started using the snelled hook and have had 3 of them to double figures with it in the last 6 weeks, but like anything in fishing its not written in stone.

one other point is that number the bait elastic probably covers 10% of the bait so restriction of scent release isnt an issue and secondly the marks i fish are infested with dogs and if you dont wrap the baits they will be wrapped to shreds.it was also a good point neilus brought up. ive experimented with natural looking baits for huss and rays including whiting, sandeel, pouting and poor cod and while some have been succesful a mackeral head and guts or fillet like in the above picture has outfished all of them. these fish are scavangers of the highest order so finesse isnt such an issue

#9 Post by **Donagh** » Mon Aug 20, 2007 11:07 am

Interesting post. I'd be of the wrap the bait as tight as possible due to the number of crabs in the Estuary. I rarely have fresh mack but find squid an exellent huss bait. Though the ones I catch are mainly small. I'd love to have the sucess in huss that you have. I find the larger huss are often on the top hook. This I find lets them get there teeth into the line. Theres been debates before about line strength for snoods. What do you recommend?

Donagh

#10 Post by **lumpy** » Mon Aug 20, 2007 2:55 pm

l generally use 100lb mono but have had a few go through it (although these could possibly be conger as the ground is very rough) when they get snagged.have been contimplating 130lb. if you examine the trace after a huss its usually is pretty ragged so i generally change my hooklength after each fish.i wouldnt drop below 80lb though. have seen 2 doubles lost on 50 lb hooklenght (unfortunately one was mine :oops:

). they are not leader shy so i'd use 100lb for peace of mind, plus it inreases your chance of a good conger

regarding bait ive found frozen mackeral to outfish fresh, although i tend to have greater access to frozen so i probably am biased. for some reason i hardly ever fish squid for them, guess its due to the freezer of frozen mack at home must try it though. also have had good success with launce cut in half and bound side by side. must also say that ive noticed the larger huss on the top hook as well, also hve yet to gut hook a larger one for some unknown reason....