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Hands On Offshore Rigging Clinic

Here's an important update on the April 6 Rigging Clinic.

1. The event cannot be held at the Sovereign Bank on a Sunday (has to do with the alarm system being active on Sunday). Dave Kirk has graciously volunteered to use his business as the meeting location. Directions to come before the 6th.). Let's stick with the original 1:00-4:00 p.m. schedule. Also, PJSA will be picking up expenses for the materials we're going to supply for this event. So this is a FREE event, which will be open to PJSA members only.

2. The format of this event will be as follows. PJSA will supply basic rigging supplies including Jinkai leader stock in 80, 150, 200, 250 and 300-pound; some flurocarbon for the chunking rigs; Jinkai crimps for the general rigging activities; spiral wound chafe gear, barrel swivels, and rigging beads. You will need to bring lure bodies and hooks that you want to use for rigging. You definitely should contact any of the topic area experts for more detailed info on what hooks they might recommend for the kinds of rigs you wish to construct.

   Don't wait until the last minute to order your supplies. You can pick up in person, or order online from many NJ tackle shops including Scott's Bait and Tackle, Fisherman's Headquarters, The Reel Seat, and I'm sure lots of others. (Also, if you have a crimping tool and your own crimping supplies, feel free to bring along so you can work with the same materials that a you will work with in the future.)

3. The topic areas that we currently have lined up include:
   • Scott Martindell: Double hook stiff rigs for bigeyes
     marlin1131@comcast.net

     Scott offers the following suggestions: The Reel Seet has a large jethead made by Sumo, large bullet jet head in color Black Skippy, this will do perfect. 7691S hooks in 10/0 should do, 9/0's may work too, I will need to see the size of the skirt to be able to tell which hook size will do, Dave at the Reel Seat should be able to recommend hook size to any of the club members looking to pick this lure up. Melton also carries the large bullet jet heads, just order in Dark Purple/Black and Orange/Black if available. I will pick up the Nicopress crimps and the 485# cable for the stiff rigs. Moldcraft Wide Ranges in 8" and 11" in the same colors are good too, these are available on Meltons site.

     Real Seat store is located in Brielle, NJ. Web site: www.reelseat.com

     Melton Web site: www.meltontackle.com

     Check out these Bigeyes, Purple jethead on left, purple moldcraft on right!

   • Randy Alkins: Rigging for marlin using dead bait
     ralkins@erols.com

     As far as rigging for baits I was going to cover rigging for Ballyhoos and eels. I usually use a Ilander or similar lure in front of the bally. I use a small squid or other type of lure to cover the front of the eel where I hook the trolling leader. and use a short length of wire and a barrel swivel that I sew through the head of the eel and attach that to a trolling leader. I have plenty of wire and a few barrel swivels to use. I will bring some wire as well.

     Although I am not a big shark fisherman I do enter about 2 or 3 tournaments each year and have fished for them for about 20 years even when we fished for 300 lb sand tigers in the Delaware Bay back in the 60's. I will bring some of my shark rigs to show what I use.

     I plan to bring a rod and reel spooled with dacron for those who do not know how to back splice dacron. All my reels are filled with dacron. It makes for a surer hookup but is less forgiving for a novice. Those who fish with me are use to dacron so we do not have many breakoffs.

   • Al Gillen – Inshore and offshore general rigging
     algillen@yahoo.com

     OK, so I'm pinch hitting for John Berenato since he'll be out of town on business travel, and I don't pretend to have as much experience as he does. I have, however, been an avid rigger using Jinkai gear for the past 6 or 7 years, and have reduced my rigging failures to nearly zero percent. John promised to send me one of his double-hook squid bait rig (for night fishing) that we can replicate.

     Also, I'll be happy to show my version of the now infamous John Berenato squid-with-a-cedar-plug-inside rig, which put a couple of fish into my boxes last canyon trip late last summer! Finally, I created a version of the Canyon Runner rainbow squid spreader bar rigs that cost only $45/completed bar (the bar I had with me at the Raguso event), which I'd be happy to help you build. If anybody wants to build the bar or the squid/cedar plug rig, let me know and I'll give you a list of materials you need to order (and can tell you where to order from).

     Beyond that, I'll be showing folks how I rig for inshore fish (80-pound leader, small lures, small hooks), my general offshore rigging techniques for both lures and baits; and how I fish 40 pound flurocarbon chunk rigs (sounds ridiculously light, but is deadly effective). If you are bringing along lures to rig, my personal preference is for Mustad 7691DT hooks, which is a southern style welded-eye hook. Not the cheapest hook, but strong as heck. I use size 4/0 for inshore rigs, 6/0s for mid-sized lures, and 8/0 for the largest lures I rig. My preference for chunking rigs is an Owner Super Mutu 6/0 circle hook.

4. Finally, would be helpful to have a head count for how many people plan to attend as it will help us make sure we order enough of the supplies we will be supplying. Do contact the subject matter experts for further advice on what supplies you should pick up!! Also, don't forget that many of the other PJSA members in attendance who are not heading up a topic area may well be very well versed on these and other rigging topics, so this will be a phenomenal opportunity to learn from some really sharp anglers!

Event Logistics

Costs
This is a free event for PJSA members.

Location/Driving Directions to come shortly.

Other Upcoming Events

We will be returning to regular schedule on May 21...back to the third Wednesday of each month. For more information on future events, see our Calendar page.