Pilchards for bait - hooking them on single and snooded rigs

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Baiting up pilchards on single and snooded rigs

I have decided to break the how to hook up pilchards section into two as there is just so much to cover in order to show you the correct method. It seems so simple when you do it but putting it into words and accompanying photographs takes a lot of work and room. Apologies in advance for both the quality of the pillies and some of the pics, its hard to get good help these days but my young fellow does work cheap.

Anyway these are a few of the main ways I connect to pillies with single and snoods. All are effective and make what is otherwise a very soft bait surprisingly good to use.

One thing to be aware of is if you don't have smooth casting action most softer baits will be hard pressed to stay on your hooks. Explosive and dragging styles are better suited to tougher baits.

Whole pilchard on a single hook
This is a bit of a speculative way of getting a whole pilly out fast rather than taking the time to change to a set of ganghooks. With smaller pilchards it can be deadly on big bream and flathead.

Whole pilchard on two hook snooded rig

I actually forgot to get pics of this, sorry. No biggy however as a very similar (I think better) offering can be produced and a 2 hook gang. I can't say I am overly impressed by the positioning of the hooks on snooded rigs and the additional flexibility it offers can be introduced with the use of a swivel between hooks or removing some of the backbone.

Half pilly on single tail
Because this section of the fish has no good anchor and the hooks can really only go into the flesh we need to find another way to securely fix our bait to the hook. A start is to penetrate below the backbone then hook above it. The best move to finish however is a half hitch over the tail which makes this a pretty secure bait.

Half pilly on single head
Funny as it seems the head and tail sections of a pilchard are best hooked on in very different ways. The hardest most durable parts of the head section are the skull, just in front of the eye and the eye socket so most tow points should be in this area.

Pilly fillet on a single hook rig
While some people think this is like trying to hook on a piece of jelly it really isn't as bad as you might think with the help a the magic half hitch. Slowly push the hook through the fillet 4 times and finish with a half hitch at the tail end and one of the most succulent baits available is now wafting toward the bottom.

3 baits from 1 pilly - one fillet, half side tail and head
Almost a compilation of the above 3 the only difference being a fillet is missing on the head and tail pieces. This method offers 3 juicy baits from each pilly with very exposed hooks.

Remove the fillet and cut the remains into two pieces

Hook through the hard part of the eye then into the gut cavity

Tail section, start toward tail then into the thick section. Half hitch to finish, good fishing!

I treat pilchards as not only a great bait but self burleying which can be increased depending on the method used. Instead of just cutting up a few pillies I will fillet the first few and cut up the back bone to throw in. The lightly weighted fillets hit the bite zone around the same time as the fish zero in the back bits. If pickers are a problem go to half pillies or smaller whole ones. Persistent small bream can still be a problem but at least while there is some activity you might attract the attention of some better quality.

Fishing baits and how to rig them

How to bait up a pilchard on gang hooks

Hooking pilchards on single and snooded rigs