by Christopher Sprague, Contributing Writer
Hello Anglers,
Surprisingly, I haven’t been fishing this month at all. Since I don’t have any fishing stories to tell, I would like to tell how we are preparing for the SKA Nationals in North Carolina. In November, we will be heading to North Carolina in hopes of a monster kingfish. Even though North Carolina was hit hard by the hurricane, SKA is optimistic that the tournament will be held there. So, here is a variety of the bait rigs we like to make.
We typically bring 35 rigs for each type of bait, but since this is a two-day tournament and we can’t afford to run short on rigs, we will double the number. We will probably bring around 80-100 rigs for each bait depending on where we are fishing. Our ideal baits are blue runners, goggle eyes, and sardines/pilchards. For a blue runner rig, we start the rig with tying a normal hook on wire. Then we tie multiple treble hooks on the rig and connect all the hooks to the wire. For a goggle eye rig, we tie a normal hook to wire and then a single treble hook to it. Tying this rig takes a lot of time but well worth it! Finally, for a sardine rig, we just tie a single hook on either wire or monofilament, depending on what we are fishing for. If we are fishing for kingfish or any fish with a lot of teeth, we would use wire. But, if we’re fishing for a fish with small teeth or with good eye sight, we use monofilament, so the fish doesn’t see it. This is what we usually use for a fishing tournament in Florida. When we are fishing in North Carolina, we will fish with the bait of choice, a bluefish. We fish for those with a very small planer, Clark spoon and slow troll the beach. Catching bait is as much fun as fishing for kingfish!
Tight Lines!
Christopher Sprague