[bigrick]

Do you rig a ballyhoo the same with cable as you would with mono?

 

[Eastern Tackle]

I have never used anything more than #9 wire. Why cable?

 

[bigrick]

I've always used short cable leader when I troll for wahoo but want to try to rig some ballyhoo for this weekend. Whats the smallest wire I can get way with? I don't like my rigs to be stiff so I've never liked heavy wire leaders.

 

[Chris V]

If you ate going to use cable, I wouldn't use heavier than 275lb, 49 strand. It'll be thinner and more flexible if you're trying to avoid stiffness.

I will add though that I never rig any of my ballyhoo on wire and very,very,very rarely get cut off.

 

[lobsterman]

So use a 12" piece of wire and then a 4' mono leader.

 

[bigrick]

I guess I'll use heavy mono and see how that goes.

 

[Eastern Tackle]

I will add this, if your going to use wire, then use all wire - 15' of it. Just putting a short shot of it in front of the bait, connected with an albright or something similar to the leader, messes up the action.

 

[Chris V]

I agree with above. All wire or all mono

 

[billin]

Wire

I have Been experimenting with this for several years. Straight running islander style lures dont swim as well as I would like on 300 lbs mono and straight cable is a pain in the ass and IMO tuna don't like it so the solution for me has been 49 strand cable 18 inch prior to rigging I make a basic pin rig with chin weight and a 10/0 mustad slide the islander on it and then crimp a wind on Aussie swivel 1-2 inches in front of the islander then connect 6 feet of 200lbs leader I have never been cut/broken off and have caught tunas wahoo etc on this rig. That being said this rig doesn't work worth a darn with a surface lure you cant get them to run straight pop and smoke correctly with the swivel that close to the con caved head. But for straight running wahoo rigs it cant be beat.

 

[billin]

Hooks

No matter how you rig your lures step your hook size up for wahoo you won't have hooks falling out of there mouths when you use a 10/0 or above

 

[KINGFISH]

big hook works well i mostly use 250 or 300 for all my lures dolphin wahoo tuna marlin and my ballyhoo lures have 200 mono . Drag set right dont rush the fish and most likely you will put him in the box