The Perfect Pitch Bait

If you are anything like me you will be constantly on the lookout for new products to either enhance or increase your enjoyment of our great sport.
Over the past year I have been experimenting with a blend of two such products that combined together in the manner described below make a product that is positively deadly on both Tuna and Marlin.
This combination product should also work on Kingfish, but as yet we have not gone down this path.
These products are the Williamson Live Mackerel and the wonderful new unique hooks from KiwiBlue, the Raptor Alloy.
These realistic little baits rigged with the KiwiBlue hooks have proved a deadly combination for us this season. Because the hooks are fine gauge they fit into the baits without damaging baits like heavier gauge stainless hooks commonly used for this purpose would. The fine gauge of the KiwiBlue Raptor hooks also gives great penetration even at lighter drag settings. The other, and possibly the greatest benefit of these hooks is their light weight- around 30% lighter than an equivalent steel hook – and strength – around 3 times stronger than the equivalent steel hook. The benefit of a lightweight hook in a lure is that you can get the maximum benefit from the lures action without it been hindered by the addition of heavy hooks. As the range of these awesome hooks that KiwiBlue are producing increases look forward to some radical differences in the way that we fish for all types of game fish.
It all started around a year ago when we looked at the Williamson Live Mackerel lures with the view of using them as a ‘pitch bait’ for tease and switch fishing. Owing to the small holes in the lure head for the mono and the distinctly average hook that comes with the pre-rig, we decided to look outside the square and come up with a viable solution that would allow us to target bigger species with the product. The solution came with the 8/0 Raptor Alloy hooks.
You will need the following to complete this rig.
2x KiwiBlue 8/0 Raptor Alloys
1x Williamson Live Mackrel lure – either blue or green
250-300mm 200lb wire and suitable copper crimps

The Method

The Williamson Live Mackrel lures come with 3 holes in the head. Insert one end of your wire into the top hole (closest to the tail) and down into the gut cavity.

 This needs to be then guided into the tube running from the gut cavity to the tail. Once you have achieved this attach your first KiwiBlue 8/0 Raptor alloy with a 90° sideways orientation (the need for this will be explained later in the article).

Next pull this hook into the lure as tightly as possible squashing the tail up into the body as pictured.

Now insert the other end of your wire into the bottom hole in the head closest to the nose and out through the slot in the gut cavity and attach your second KiwiBlue 8/0 Raptor hook as close to the gut cavity as you can.

Once you have achieved this you are then able to pull the tail hook back out and the gut hook up into the cavity and locking the crimp into the back of the lure head leaving a tidy little loop of wire on the head to attach your leader to. This then gives you a pre-rigged lure that can have leader weights very quickly changed to suit the style of fishing that you are doing.
The 90° sideways orientation on the tail hook is what makes this rig so effective. Because the body is flexible and you have a fixed gut hook the lure tracks very nicely, however the tail hook at 90° sideways makes the tail really vibrate giving off the signals that the bait is in distress which makes it very attractive to any predator.

The other advantage is that you have a bait that requires no care but acts just like the real thing in the water, a definite advantage over a multi-day offshore trip.
If you are having any problems with this rig please contact me through our website www.fish-crazy.com and I am more than happy to lend what assistance I can.

If you find this article interesting and helpful please give us feedback and we will upload further helpful articles on other aspects of game fishing.