How to rig a Ballyhoo without a pin....

As you may have read, I no longer troll Ballyhoo as I wish to prove our lures consistently and I also save room in my freezer for fish. But, I do still advocate the use of Ballyhoo because after you have hooked a Mahi on one of our lures, if you have a Ballyhoo left out there dangling from an outrigger while you are fighting your Mahi, you have a shot at getting hit by another Mahi. With our lure hanging in a rigger, that chance diminishes quite a bit, so if you want to rig a Ballyhoo behind one of our rigged lures or without a wire leader and without a pin for the chin, read below....

1. Tie (wrap) your copper wire to the loop of the mono that holds the hook.
2. Measure hook next to Ballyhoo with the copper wire (where wrapped to mono) is next to the nose of the Ballyhoo (where the pin usually goes through)
3. See where the hook should exit the Ballyhoo’s underside and take hook point and mark the spot by making a small hole
4. Pass hook through Ballyhoo’s gill as usual
5. Exit hook through small hole you made in underside
6. Pull hook back to correct position with copper wire lined up to pass up through chin and out the top of the nose
7. Push copper wire up through chin and find the hinge in the upper jaw and pass copper wire through upper jaw at the soft part of the hinge
8. Wrap copper wire around back under the mono and crimp under the chin of the bait. Pass copper wire through eyes of Ballyhoo and out other side.
9. Pull wire tight and back around the bottom of the bait
10. While pulling wire tight take a couple of wide wraps (moving forward) with the wire until it is ¾” in front of the upper jaw’s lip and then make four tight wraps right next to each other. Bend excess wire back toward head of Ballyhoo. Break bill off just in front of the four tight wraps
11. Put it out and catch a fish!

I will try to get some photos for this page, but I am in China at the moment so unable to do so right now....