Hookless sucker rigs

[box]

Larry
When you go hookless with suckers do you simply tie the sucker to your main line? If nit can you give me an idea on how the set up should be rigged? I just froze my tail off pulling cranks on White Bear tonight under a beautiful full moon. That said other than a cold tuccuss I have nothing to show for my efforts so I'm going to try dragging meat the rest of the weekend. Also, with water temps at about 37-41 would you stick close to the edge or venture out over deeper water. I tried a bit of both tonight and saw plenty of bait on the depth finder but no big arcs.
Thanks. Erik

[Collin]

Hey Box
I dont know if you have seen the episode where Larry goes hookless but it is pretty cool. What he does is laser welds an eyelit to the bottom of a circle hook. I am not sure if the laser weld is necessary, because if you get a good hookset there really shouldnt be any tension on the bottom eyelit. Plus laser welders are not all that easy to come by. Then from there he ties a piece of line on the bottom eyelit. I dont know how long that bottom line is for sure but if i had to guess I would say anywhere from 6 to 8 inches. And then Larry sews that piece of line through the nose of the sucker. So the sucker is not attatched to the main line. If you try it you will probably have to play around with the length of the bottom line, and the placement of the second eyelit on the bottom of the circle hook. Hope this helps you, its hard to describe it without drawing it out. Let us know how it works.
Best,
Collin

[dahlberg]

On hook rig, not using circle hook, just standard hook with barb pinched down. Easy to fashion tiny loop from copper coated steel wire, silver solder it on to hook, securing with light copper wire.
I won't try to describe it.

For no hook, just thread wire thru nostrils and crimp. Use 27# wire. A light jerk with a little slack and it pops free from the nose of the bait, leaving bait in tummy of fish.

best,
L