Whole Fish on Ganged Hooks

Why use a set of ganged hooks over a snooded set of hooks you may ask?

Many of the fish species that I target with whole pilchards, garfish, whitebait, yellow-finned pike and so forth, have lots of sharp teeth and I don’t like using wire, so ganged hooks offer protection from these teeth.

Fish species like tailor, mackerel, big flathead, dolphinfish, bonito and so forth, all have plenty of razor-sharp teeth that will cut through mono or fluoro in the blink of an eye. This is where using a set of hooks that have been ganged will give you more of a chance of staying connected to the fish.

Many of you would have made your own sets of gangs up using a Mustad 4200 (straight eye) as the top hook and them the Mustad 4202 (turned down eye) as the other hooks. Or maybe you have linked the hooks using a swivel in between each. Either way it makes it so much easier when pushing the point and barb through the body of the bait, so that it sticks out the other side and it doesn’t restrict the movement of the bait.

Technique 1

It doesn’t matter whether you are casting out pilchards, garfish or any other slender fish rigged on a set of ganged hooks from the beach, off the rocks or out of your boat for Australian salmon or tailor, I find that the slower that I wind in the garfish or pilchard the more takes I will get.

While winding in the garfish or pilchard, I will have to rod tip at about a metre from the surface of the water and slightly to the side. This will allow me to strike in a sideways and upwards motion, helping to set the hooks.

Once I have hooked the fish, I will then keep my rod tip at between 60 and 90 degrees to the water’s surface. This will allow me a bit of leeway if the fish makes off with a powerful surge.

Technique 2

As stated earlier, there are variables that will determine the size and number of hooks used in a set of gangs. This is why I will have a range of gangs that I carry with me when either fishing from the shore or out of a boat. The range that I carry is quite comprehensive and here is a breakdown of the number of hooks ganged together and hook size - 3 x 2/0’s, 3 x 3/0’s, 4 x 3/0’s, 3 x 4/0’s, 4 x 4/0’s, 3 x 5/0’s, 4 x 5/0’s, 5 x 5/0’s, 4 x 6/0’s, 5 x 6/0’s, 4 x7/0’s and 5 x7/0’s. This range will cover me whether I am using a small white bait, right up to a yellowfin pike of around 40cm in length.

Technique 3

Now, there are 4 main things you need to remember to do or check when using gangs in a whole bait.

Firstly, I break the joints in the backbone of the bait to make the bait more flexible and realistic, while also making rigging easier.

Secondly, all the hook points must protrude outside the body of the bait.

Thirdly, the last hook point must be down near the end of the bait (whether it has been rigged head or tail first) and finally, when rigged the bait must be straight.

This will allow the bait to swim straight when retrieved, glide down the burley trail when it’s fed out and give you a great chance of a good hook-up rate.

Whether it's a pilchard, garfish, mullet, whitebait, yellowtail or any other slender shaped whole fish, the use of a set of ganged hooks will help increase the hook-up rate when targeting toothy fish or acrobatic fish species. It also helps keep the bait straight when retrieving it. Your selection of hook size and numbers will depend on the thickness and length of the fish. Ideal when targeting Australian salmon, tailor, shark and Spanish mackerel, bonito, dusky flathead and any other fish species that has teeth.

When using whole baits, you will need to check with your state or territories Fisheries regulations as to the minimum legal size for whole fish and also the maximum number of hooks you are allowed to have ganged. For flathead I prefer poddy mullet, squid for kingfish, whitebait for bream and trevally, and yellowtail or slimy mackerel for mulloway.