2 hook fish finder

[Coop]

I have gotten tired of fish not getting stuck and decided to try a new rig I have been messing around with. The last 2 weeks I have been using a 2 hook fish finder rig on one of my rods,,,after snelling one of my hooks I decided to leave the tag end long and snelled another one on,,,the distance between hooks is aproximately 3 to 9 inches,,,if I want the hooks closer I snell the first one and tie the improved cinch not on the bottom one,,,the whole rig is no more than 12" and can be as short as 6",,,I have had a total of four fish take this rig,,,two took the last hook, the other two took both hooks,,,Iam not sure whether they take both hooks is result of them swallowing the first bait or they see the second one and they keep gulping,,,I was using j hooks with clams on one and did gut hook that one when he took both hooks and decided to switch to circle hooks for the rig,,,one had both circle hooks in him and was lip hooked with the one hook and the other wasnt hooked at all inside his mouth,,,the other two were hooked on the end of the rig,,,did he take both and the first one missed there mark or did they just grab the last hook?



advantages:

1. 2 baits,,,more fish oil in the water

2. if the fish would take both circle hooks, as he turns away and the first one doesnt stick, the second could stick.

3. 2 small baits close together could look like a nice size meal for a cow and may improve hook up ratio.



disadvantages:

1. casting distance is reduced,,,you can overcome this by reducing the size of chunk and a shorter rig,,,I was suprised how far I was heaving it out.

2. chances of gut hooking when taking both hooks.

3. a longer rig could tangle up with the main line.



I will continue using this rig on the majority of my rods until I gut hook a fish with the second circle hook,,,circle hooks are designed not to hook except on the lip,,,with all the tension on the first hook, the second hook should just dangle down the throat or mouth without hooking. I fished 4 rods and had this rig only on one,,,caught half of my fish on this rig in the past two weeks,,,could be coincidence,,,when winds are light or offshore, I will be using this rig,,,BTW, all fish that hit that rig stuck,,,didnt lose any,,,so far, 100% hook up ratio.



any comments on this rig and has anyone ever heard of this rig and if so, have you heard of any feedback?,,,when I was snelling one of my hooks, I decided that you could snell another hook close to the other hook on the same leader,,,seems to work good so far,,,when I get home,,,I'll post a pic,,,hope all this made sense.

[Steve]

I use this as a live mullet rig. The shorter one goes through the nose and the longer one through the tail. I was always getting mullet back bitten in half. When I started using this rig, 15 years ago, I started landing the fish.

You can make it shorter or longer and use whatever hooks you want. This was for blues in FL that were feeding on Mullet close in. Man, what a blast!

[trowpa]

found this while searching through the forum - Coop, what was the final verdict on this rig?

[Coop]

I loved this rig even tho it was a little unorthodox,,,I used it all winter long and made a few changes and had great success with it,,,I decided to change the rig and now made them all around 12" and only snelled the bottom hook and made a dropper loop for the other hook close to the swivel,,,I think using a dropper would allow the hook to be away from the rig and would allow a better hook up should a fish decide to take that bait on that part of the rig,,,the other way, the hook was right along the line and would make it difficult to hook a fish,,,this is really similar to a very short hi lo rig but not really since the weight is on a fish finder and not at the end of the line,,,I'll post a pic of the rig when I get home,,,rather than trying to make two baits look as one (hooks a few inches apart & very close together) I decided to spread them apart, maybe 10" - 12" and is really just a 2 bait presentation,,,since the striper season is really getting under way I have abandoned this rig just due to the fact of all the doggies and skates and now blues in the surf,,,if those usual suspects are not around, I am going to throw one out,,,all in all, I loved this rig.

One other thing, using heavy leader material like 80lb+, the rig very rarely got tangled with the main line,,,a problem I had when I used a lighter leader material.

[esoxangler]

You guys ever see a quick strike rig for muskies? The hooks are 4 or so inches apart. You lip hook a sucker and the second hook goes into the back of the sucker. But they do not come with circles... yet.


These rigs have wire leaders, maybe not a good idea for stripers, but would work for sharks.


I like the idea of the rig Scott is making.

[Coop]

2 hook fish finder,,,12" long, bottom hook snelled, other using a dropper loop,,,8/0 gammi hooks.

With a few black drum in the surf, may have to get some clams and get this rig back out there.

[trowpa]

Looks like a good idea to me - kind of the best of both the hi-lo and the fish finder ideas, but the real judges are the fish

long as it doesn't get tangled on its way to the fish, but it looks like the heavy mon drop loop is stiff enough to prevent that.

So where do you get clams? Harbor tackle have them commonly?

[Coop]

I get my clams fresh from watermans,,,they are not surf clams but chowder clams,,,going to pick up 50 for wed night and thursday for drum, heck, stripers likem to.

[Steve]

Coop, point me someplace I can learn the drop loop tying....

[Coop]

Here ya go Steve,,,very easy to tie

http://www.animatedknots.com/dropper...matedknots.com

or

http://www.connecticutsurfcasters.co...inks/drop.html

[Steve]

Thanks, plenty of knots to go through...
Funny, on the CT site (2nd one) they say for small saltwater species.
Hmmm, small to what, a shark?

[trowpa]

I tried this rig a little with clams in Avalon - I may have to experiment a little more with the lenghts, etc - kept tangling on me. I was using 80 lb test -but the shorter bait (on the dropper) was getting wrapped around the "main" leader for some reason.

[Coop]

You want to keep it 12" or shorter,,,I use 80 lb seagur flourocarbon,,,pretty rigid line and have had very few entanglments on my main line.

[trowpa]

Thanks Coop - if the "main" leader is 12" - how long is the "dropper" leader? I'm guessing I may have that one too long - maybe it should be only 3 inches or so, so it can't wrapp around (I think mine was closer to 6 inches) I'm using 80lb flourocarbon - but bass pro brand - maybe its also not as stiff as the seagaur too...

[Coop]

my dropper loop is only 2" or 3",,,I am sure it wasn't the leader material you were using,,,maybe due to the length of the dropper.