Jacks: Hook placement live baiting

[Lukey]

When presenting a live bait to a jack, can anyone recommend where the best place is to put the hook?? Do jacks usually take livies head first??

[Fisher_90]

Just above the Lateral Line.

[shortie]

Through the shoulder

[Lukey]

This might be uncommon for others, but there has been heaps of times when i've live baited and you get a hit only to find that something with teeth has clean bitten the head off your bait and missed the hook. Is this just bad luck or poor placement of the hook?

[Fisher_90]

Bad luck or the bait is too big. Its not Uncommon for Crabs and other fish to take chunks out of live bait.

[Dazzamcgee]

I recommend a twin snelled hook arrangement for live baiting.

Set the gap between the two hooks according to the livie you are using, The top hook goes through the upper lip and the lower one goes just behind the guts/ass. The lower hook can also be replaced with a treble hook to increase hookup rates.

Jacks will bite the bait in what ever way necessary in taking it whole...

[pcsolutionman]

mate if you are loosing just the heads off of smaller live baits it will be bream, I have hooked small bream on 4\" live herring.

Lee

[jeff f]

jacks tend to hit livebaits from behind and below, ever brought back a livey with 2 parallel scratches down each side? thats a missed jack hit.

the best position for your hook is just above the anal fin.

[Dazzamcgee]

Jeff could be huge flathead aswell!!

[jeff f]

flattys usually only leave the twin scratches down one side not both

[Brian D]

Dazzamcgee wrote:

I recommend a twin snelled hook arrangement for live baiting.

Set the gap between the two hooks according to the livie you are using, The top hook goes through the upper lip and the lower one goes just behind the guts/ass. The lower hook can also be replaced with a treble hook to increase hookup rates.

Jacks will bite the bait in what ever way necessary in taking it whole...

Yeap I agree with you there Daz.

[jeff f]

i kept a baby jack in a fishtank for about a year and a half till he got too big, fed him on a diet of mullet,herring and prawns.the baitfish were allways hit from below, even if they were hiding on the bottom of the tank he'd hunt them upwards and hit them from below and behind then turn and swallow them.

so i started putting my hooks just behind the anal fin and the hookup rate doubled didn't land many more

but hooked plenty

[Lukey]

Cheers heaps for that fellasB) . I'm interested in the twin snell setup, sounds like any way the livie gets hit the hooks will be ready. But does it affect the livie's range of movement too much??

[Dazzamcgee]

Mate it has no effect on the livie's movement aslong as the distance between the two hooks is alittle longer then where they are to be positioned..

If it's a larger size livie try cutting the lower fin off its tail so it can only swim in a downwards direction to stop it from surfacing....

[jeff f]

buying proper livebait hooks helps too

[mackmauler]

i just use a single in the nose most times, better for the fish if they snap off which they do fairly often, hookup rate is pretty good, a lotta the time ya get snags and bycatch so its faster to just use 1.

[buzzid]

hey guys,

i don't use livies to often and the few times i have resulted in zero fish, zero hits, however i do feed hard body lures to jacks and can say i don't think i have ever hooked one on the rear treble, always the front. for this reason i always place a single hook in the shoulder of a livie. just got to get one now to see if it works.

jamie