Bait Rigging Sardines and Similar Baitfish

Before bait rigging your sardine, let's first spare it a moments thought...

Because it must be a tough old life being a sardine. They're far too popular for their own good. Bass, tuna, billfish, dolphins and whales - they all love them. And I'm a bit partial to grilled ones myself ..

All types of sardine and any other baitfish must first be properly prepared - 'limbered up' - for trolling before the bait rigging process begins.

If your baitfish is stiff and even slightly curved, although it may smell right, it won't look right.

A fish that may otherwise have grabbed it without hesitation is now more likely to ignore it altogether.

Here's how to make sure it will behave as it should ...

Preparing the Sardine for Bait Rigging

To resemble their living brethren, dead baitfish must ‘swim’ convincingly when towed astern – they should wriggle, but not spin. And for a lifelike wriggle, the baitfish must be flexible. And here's how to make it so ...

• First, empty the gut cavity by squeezing firmly with thumb and forefinger along the belly towards its anal vent.


• Then, pinch the baitfish progressively along its backbone to detach the flesh from the bone, but take care not to break the skin. Flex it back and forth a few times to complete the loosening up process.


• Next, remove the eyes. Otherwise water pressure may cause them to bulge unequally, inducing rotation. A small wooden dowel is ideal for pushing them out of their sockets.


• Finally, trim off the pectoral and pelvic fins. Any unequal projection here and a propeller effect will be set up.

Now your baitfish is limp and flexible, and ready for bait rigging.

Bait Rigging a Sardine

Having loosened up the baitfish, the rigging process can begin.

I've shown a sardine here, but most baitfish - herring, joey mackerel, sprats, pilchard and with a small adjustment, flying fish - can be rigged in the same way.

First you’ll need to decide on the leader material. Mono will allow the bait to work most convincingly, and will get the most hits as a result. But if you think a wahoo or some other toothy fellow may put in an appearance, wire would be a better choice.

Use plastic covered seven-strand wire, as single strand wire doesn’t lend itself to this technique. To get the hook in the right place, you’ll need a baiting (or rigging) needle. This is a length of stainless wire, around 250mm long with a point on one end and an open eye at the other. So let's get started ...

• Having decided on the leader material, select a large hook, about one third the length of the bait. Use the sharp end to mark the point, exactly on the centreline of the sardine’s belly, at which the hook will emerge.
  
  Then attach it to a baiting needle as shown, and insert the baiting needle at the point you've just marked before pushing it through and out of the mouth of the sardine.
  


• Next, pull the hook into the sardine’s mouth and detach the needle.
  
  Then slide a crimp onto your leader, attach the baiting needle and push the needle through the sardine’s head on the centreline, through the eye of the hook and out vertically below the point of entry.
  
  
  


• Now remove the needle, and push the leader through the path taken by the needle, including of course through the eye of the hook.
  
  Pull the end of the leader through and into the crimp, slide the crimp back close to the mouth and nip off the excess line.
  
  
  
  
  


• Finally, with the bait rigging process complete, eyeball the sardine head-on. The hook and the loop must all be on the centreline in the vertical plane, or it will spin.

  Hold the leader and let the bait hang down.

  Is the hook pulling on the belly? If so, carefully cut a longitudinal slot at the point of entry with a sharp knife so that the hook can move freely.

Artwork by Andrew Simpson

What you'll need...

If you've done the bait rigging properly, the sardine will be towed by the head loop and won’t spin. Try it, and if it does, tweak the rig until it doesn’t - or start again.

As a final embellishment you could slide a lure - such as sea witch, trolling feather, straight runner, clone, jethead or simply an octopus skirt - down the leader so that it locates against the nose of the baitfish.

An Alternative Bait Rigging Method ...

You could use a Williamson Bait-O-Matic, which is a tandem hooked skirted lure specifically designed for use with a small baitfish.

Prepare the baitfish as previously described, then pass the front hook through the mouth of the bait so that the bait can move freely from side to side.

The front hook should always face upward, and the shank locked into a recess in the lure head.

This will ensure that the bait can’t rotate in relation to the lure, and the counterweight on the underside of the lurehead will ensure that the whole ensemble doesn’t spin. The second hook is pushed through the skin near the tail of the fish.

As a quick and effective bait rigging method for saltwater trolling, it takes some beating.