How to properly arm a kona

The inspiration for this article comes from the awareness, which is spreading more and more among deep-sea fishermen, according to which this technique (often mistakenly considered simple and not very technical) is complex in many aspects... and, therefore, from the ever-increasing need to fish correctly.

A technique that has often been, and still is, practiced by those who take advantage of a transfer to spin some lines in the water, has undergone a sort of "trivialization", ending up being considered simple: after all, it is enough to spin a bait and wait for the fish to bite, right? No, nothing could be more wrong!

But leaving aside, for the moment, an infinite number of technicalities regarding the set-up, the current, the noise and vibrations of the engines, the position of the baits based on their shape and size, the speed, we want to concentrate on the topic that is perhaps the most important, but too often overlooked: how to rig a kona !

Too often I come across images of lures armed with clearly unsuitable hooks, perhaps spaced with beads… because in the common imagination the idea prevails that when the fish reaches the bait, any hook can be fine. Once again, nothing could be more wrong! Offshore fishing is no exception and, like all other techniques, it requires ITS SPECIFIC HOOK !

Would you ever go drift fishing for tuna, using a treble hook instead of a circle hook? Or, would you ever go live trolling for snappers, baiting cuttlefish or squid with a single circle hook, instead of using a trolling hook and a hookset? I think the answer is no for both questions... so why should you neglect the hook in such an expensive technique, like deep sea trolling, risking wasting hours (and liters of gasoline) to get a fish in the wake that might not hook properly?

Just as often I notice such confusion about the correct position of the hook … a topic in which the belief that the hook must be “hidden” inside the skirt, as if the fish could see it, is still rampant!

What is the rig?

This is the way we decide to rig our kona. The rig can be rigid, soft, single hook or double hook… and can be made in different ways.

For example, when using very double leaders, as in the case of big game fishing for marlin or large tuna, you can double the final part, crimping it to the right length .

In other cases, the rig can be made specifically with steel cable and , possibly, heat shrink tubing if you want to make it more rigid . This is the choice also used by us at White Monkey to make the rig more suitable especially for use in the Mediterranean, where leaders of not excessive diameters are used.

What's the right hook?

As we have said, not all hooks are suitable. Absolutely not suitable are : circle hooks, live bait trolling hooks with crooked point and eye, double hooks, treble hooks.

The deep sea trolling hook is strictly long-shanked , with the tip in line , a wide curve that can end up parallel to the shank or slightly closed towards it . The tip must be long, pointed and very resistant. For Mediterranean fishing the size, depending on the model and the bait used, can vary from 6/0 to 8/0.

At White Monkey we use MUSTAD hooks in the 7732 and 7691 models in sizes 6/0 and 7/0, which have always been synonymous with offshore trolling around the world.

What is the correct position of the hook?

The answer would involve another question… for which fish? Because, to continue with the example of live bait trolling - in the same way that amberjack is trolled with a circle positioned on the head of the live bait, while two hooks are used for dentex - even in deep sea each fish attacks differently and therefore would like the hook positioned in a specific way.

I will never tire of repeating it, or maybe I will, but the concept should be clear and simple for everyone:

• Billfish HIT the bait with their beak continuously and, almost always, with their mouth open, trying to stun it and eat it… In this way they remain hooked. For this reason, it happens that billfish are hooked outside the mouth, on the cheeks, in the eyes, on the head… but the best place to hook a billfish is at the base of the beak, on the upper palate! Which rig helps us to hook in more solid points? A single hook rig very backwards, THAT COMES OUT COMPLETELY FROM THE SKIRT ! For reference, let's consider leaving only the eyelet in the skirt, with the entire external shank. Isn't there a risk that the fish will see the hook? No, not at all!

• Tuna and dolphin fish (if we want to stay only in the Mediterranean area) attack the bait by BITING it in the center of the body or on the head . In this case, therefore, the hook positioned in the most advanced point possible, near the head of the kona, allows us to hook these types of fish correctly. Which rig should we use? If we wanted to fish only for tuna and dolphin fish, no rig, but a single hook not distant from the head. Why the double hook rig? It should be used in the case in which we want to dedicate ourselves to fishing for both billfish and tuna, thus having a hook positioned in the most advanced point and one in the most backward point, outside the skirt.

It should be noted that in the case of small-sized kona (such as the Jet Monkey, the Cube, the Fat Monkey, the Bullet and the Reverse), the single-hook rig, even if specific for billfish, is able to correctly hook even tuna, which would swallow the bait entirely. Therefore, our single-hook and double-hook White Monkey rigs have the hook furthest back that almost completely comes out of the skirt , and the most advanced hook that hits the eyelet against the head of the kona .