Rig a live Shad

[REEFMAN]

.

[Garrick]

Excuse my ignorance here but does it make a difference whether you hook it through the top jaw and back or as per the illustration?the reason i am asking is that when I was down in St Lucia now,I hooked all my live shad through the top jaw,not too far back cos then you into it's brains, and then the other hook on the back.
interesting.
 
Cheers
Garrick

[Richardoh]

In my personal experiance I find that if a shad or any other live bait is rigged in the manner shown, it dosnt stay live for very long because it cant keep its head into the current and soon drowns. I find that the leading hook should be in the mouth and the second hook should be in the back ( A) for garrick, or ( B ) in the tail for cob, this then pulls the head into the current and the fish stays alive for hours.

[Garrick]

I noticed quite a few guys pin their livie as per the illustration.I also noticed that on the days I got no pick up,and after a good couple of hours when I pulled my line out,the shad was still very frisky and always swam awy quite strongly.Mine was pinned through the upper jaw and back.A guy I met there pinned his shad as per the illustration and when he pulled it out,his shad was also still alive.

[Jakes]

In my personal experiance I find that if a shad or any other live bait is rigged in the manner shown, it dosnt stay live for very long because it cant keep its head into the current and soon drowns. I find that the leading hook should be in the mouth and the second hook should be in the back ( A) for garrick, or ( B ) in the tail for cob, this then pulls the head into the current and the fish stays alive for hours.

Hi Richard,
 
I agree with the leading hook being in front but I prefer to put it through the back as in the pic above. The 2nd trailing hook I then put through the left hand side of the shad more or less in the same spot as where the back hook is above but loosely through the skin on the side of the livie. This just leaves the hook a little prouder and I find I get more hookups that way.
 
Jakes

[Marthin]

cut the tail off if fishing a deep water point... worked for me....

[Jakes]

cut the tail off if fishing a deep water point... worked for me....

Cut the bottom half of the tailfin if you want it to swim down/deeper water column and the top half if you want it to swim up/upper water column.

[REEFMAN]

Just reading this thread again... the way the fish is pinned in the 1st post is for R/S purposes, either swimming a bait out, or for sliding it out. This would never work for trolling a live bait offshore, as the fish would be dragged backwards and drown. For offshore or trolling, yes the bait should be hooked through the top jaw with the leading hook so it swims forward.

There are many ways of hooking a livey for R/S - I find this way works best and is less of a hinderance to the fish. But many guys will hook a fish through the top jaw, with the top hook of a slide trace - this works too...

[Kumz]

Personally  i wud do it the same as Reefer showed in 1st pic ... it makes fish swim freely & makes it look more natural ...   in my books ....
 
my 2c's ...