Thread: Live baiting whats the go?.

Most fish will eat another fish 10%their own weight was the rule of thumb we would use. 5lb kahawhai would be targeted for 50lb+ kingi's and Marlin for example. Some fish are more resilient than others for live bait. Piper were atrocious but koheru and kahawhai awesome. Smaller mackerels and the like were best hooked through the nose. I had best results with larger bait hooked in the scruff of the neck inline and just forward of the dorsal. I never liked the hook laying horizontally, especially hooks with an offset. 9/0 Gamakatsu's were my go to.
Let the fish take the bait before setting. They will often slam the lively and run, then turn and swallow. This would take a good 10-20 seconds at times. Most of my live baiting was surface fishing under a float (balloon). John Dories were suckers for anything on the bottom.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk