Fishing Victoria Forum

Ganged hooks.

Has anyone every used them down in Victoria for fishing for snapper or gummies?

I did a stint of a few years living on Fraser Island and ganged hooks were standard up there for fishing pilchards from beach for Tailor etc but also we use to fish the reefs offshore for big reef fish with whole pilchards on ganged hooks.

They work with pilchards perfectly, easy to use and hold the pilchard together and doesn't matter where the fish chomps you get a hook up.

As long as they dont cause bait to spin they would also be perfect in fast flowing water as hold bait nice an firm and hold pilchard straight.

For those who have never used them here's a video to give an idea
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7d2Ce_kM6fo

In my understanding they're used a lot on Tailor because Tailor like to attack the tail, and with the sharp teeth the gang helps keep the pillie on and protects the leader from the teeth.

20 years ago people used them in VIC, i've barely seen a ganged hook setup in the last 5-6 years, most people seem to prefer either a big circle or a double snell.

I use them sometimes when surf fishing just so the pilchard stays in shape. The hookup can be pretty brutal, I try not to use them anymore.

if you are after dinner use them because you would be catching bigger fish that aren't going back so you might as well hook them so they don't getaway but if catch and release just 1 hook is fine.

I might give them a go again for whole pilchards, i find it annoying when you need to do a half hitch with your line and your line ends up all kinked.

Also sometimes find keeper hooks pull through the bait or the pilchard ends up moving into a banana shape and possibly spinning, from memory the ganged hooks kept the bait nice and straight.

Learn to tie a snelled rig.