How to make and rig your own ganged hooks
A DIY ganged hook can match the rig perfectly to the baitGanged hooks are an excellent way of presenting whole fish or long strip baits, with good hook coverage throughout. The number of hooks in a gang and how they are rigged though, really depends on the target species.
For instance, a small two-hook gang might be perfect for presenting a whole whitebait in an estuary, but if spinning the beach or coastal washes from the shore or boat, three to five might be necessary to give good hook spread for a whole garfish.
If toothy critters such as tailor or mackerel are the target, it’s often a case of the more hooks the merrier.
In tropical Queensland a whole wolf herring is arguably the best Spanish dead bait going around.
Rigged with a chin weight, up to eight hooks will give good exposure on these long silver baits, as mackerel are masters of the tail snip.
It’s possible to buy ready-made gang hook rigs, but most people choose to make their own, customising them to suit the bait in use, its length, and the eating habits of the species sought.
In the old days you’d use a pair of side cutters to slightly open the eye so the barb would slip through, and this might still be necessary if you have a particular style in mind.
Fortunately, a number of manufacturers make open-eyed hooks suitable for ganging, so making up a batch takes no time at all.
Unless you're using heavy mono or wire leader, adding a swivel to the top of the gang will prevent line abrasion (as well as combating line twist), as it’s nigh on impossible to close the eye back up as neatly as would happen in the factory. The line can become abraded, or even slip right through the gap.
With the fine, and especially the chemical sharpened, barbs found on a lot of hooks these days, a soft glow bead can stop the bottom hook working its way back over the front hook - annoying at the best of times, but an absolute tragedy if there was a fish on the other end.
Not all hooks are suitable for ganging, though. Some are inclined to become brittle, especially high-carbon fine-wire, small barb and chemically sharpened designs.
Even if you get the eye open and then shut, they often break under the pressure of a fish.
When baiting up, the kirb, or offset, of the hook can make a difference as to how successful a gang is.
Some dress left, and some dress right, so to speak. What we want is the points pointing away from the baitfish’s body, not into it, to give the hook as clear a trajectory as possible on the bite.
And if trolling dead baits off chin weights or similar, the hooks in the gang need to be straight shank, not offset, otherwise the bait won’t pull straight. A spinning bait is an unattractive bait and probably won’t get eaten.
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