# King Rigs 100



## ORF Pete (Sep 26, 2009)

I saw some recent posts about the lack of pics in the King Rig 101 Bible topic, so hopefully this little guide will help a few people. It's much shorter than Neils guide, hence why it's King Rigs 100 and not 102. It’s just a guide on making the tackle, not on the method of fishing itself or how to do it with success. 

Disclaimer: Most of my knowledge of making the rigs has come from watching other people them a couple hundred times. I don’t fish for king mackerel really, and I’ve never caught one off a pier. Areas where I fish you’re much more likely to catch a cobia on a king/pin rig than you would a king. 

Before you start making rigs familiarize yourself with the haywire twist, and one of the various methods of “cutting” the wire by bending it or twisting it until it breaks. Cutting wire can leave you with a very sharp tag end that will eventually draw some of your blood. Neil gives great advice in his King Rig guide when he explains how break wire by looping it around your finger once and giving it a few good twists until it breaks. Others just bend the wire back and forth until it breaks. I use 220lb. wire, and cut it with a semi-dull cutter that never seems to leave a very sharp tag. For wire lighter than this you probably want to bend and break it, but for heavier wire you may be able to get away with cutting it. Experiment for yourself, possibly draw a little blood, and see what works best for you and what pound wire you use. Other king/pin rigging basics such as rod and reel requirements I’m going to presume you already know, if not, go read the beginning of Neil’s guide.










*Making your pin:*

Supplies I use:
- Malin Hard-Wire. I use 220lb., seen others use 120-280lb.
- Snap swivels. I use 110lb. or higher, mostly for the size and ease of sliding down the anchor line. You can get by with whatever you think will survive a king/cobia/shark strike though.
- Beads, ones of various diameters if possible. Beads that will barely fit around your twisted wire can help lock the rig down and reduce the chance of larger beads or your egg weight falling off.
- Bright colored floats (about 2-3 inches long). This is just an optional visual aid to see where your pin is.
- Egg weights (1oz. to 8+oz.). The weight depends on wind, where you've casted your anchor line relative to the wind, bait size/weight, etc. I like to keep a dozen pins of different weights on hand, but that’s just for the convenience factor. It’s not that hard to switch out the egg weights on your pins for heavier ones if you haven’t used crimps or superglue to lock the rig down.

Optional supplies:
- Crimps for whatever lb./dia. wire you have (and crimpers obviously). You can add a crimp to the end of your pin after float/weight/beads/etc. to lock everything down a bit more.
- Superglue/epoxy/crazyglue are options for locking down the end of your pin. Use it on the last bead. Neither this or the crimps are really necessary imo. You should be able to lock your pin down with a few good twists at the end. 

Basic Supplies:



1) Cut or bend & break a section of wire about 20+ inches long. Give yourself some leeway if this is your first time making a pin. 

2) Slide a snap swivel onto the wire from the barrel swivel end, down to the halfway point on the wire.


3) Join the two ends of the wire.


4) Cross the ends, and begin to work this “cross” closer to the snap swivel. This action creates a loop in the wire at the snap swivel.


5) Slide the cross to the point where you’ve got a 1-2 inch loop at the snap swivel, and twist the wire together evenly a few times to lock the loop down.


6) From here it is just evenly twisting the wire for 4-5 inches, or whatever it takes for you to add your egg weight, float, and beads on. Personally I do: 1 large bead, float, 1 large bead, egg weight, 1 med/small bead.

7) Once you’ve added all of your tackle to the wire, you want to leave two tags below the last bead. They can be anywhere from 1 to 2 inches or so. May want to leave them a little longer, as you can always trim them shorter later

8) Test your pin and see how much pull it takes to pop it. Below is a pic of how you’d attach the actual rig to your pin. Squeeze the two tag ends of the pin together and pass them through the ring of a barrel swivel that is on your rig. If the pin pulls too easily, pull the tags further apart. In the below example, the mono on the left is 5-6ft. of 100lb. mono that I run down to my wire rig with the hooks. The right side of the barrel swivel is where your main line going to your fighting rod would be tied.










*Making the rig:*

All hook sizes depend on the bait size and what you’re trying to catch. Smaller hooks for king macks, larger for cobia:

4x strong treble hooks
Live bait hooks (3/0 to 7/0 I suppose)
Either some single strand wire, or some seven strand wire. Recommended brands:
-Malin Hard-Wire (I don’t normally use single strand wire for my rig, but I’ve seen people use anywhere from 60 to 120lb.)
-SevenStrand wire (I use 60-90lb. coated)
Crimps for whatever size seven strand wire you’re using (if you’re using it)
Barrel Swivels (80lb. and up)
Heavy mono (80-100lb.)
Crimps for 100lb mono (1.0mm double barrel)


There are numerous ways of making the rig, and I’ve seen all sorts of combinations. Wire is a must when fishing for kings, but when there are only cobia around I’ve seen guys get by fine with an all mono 60lb. rig. I like to use SevenStrand coated wire and crimps for stringing up the hooks, and leave a short bite leader of wire after the hooks before I put on a barrel swivel. On the other side of that barrel swivel is 5+ft. of 100lb. mono. Below is a basic example of what I just described. It’s quite larger than what I’d normally make to give a better example.



In the above example the live bait hook in the front and the rear treble are fixed points, with the middle treble sliding between them as needed. Live bait hook goes in the fish’s shoulder, sliding treble in the butt, and the back treble dangles past the tail (“stinger” hook). If you’re not confident with your crimps use two crimps on the rear treble when using a sliding setup like this. 

Making a rig with single strand wire isn’t all that different, you just string the hooks together with the haywire twist instead of crimps.


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## stripperonmypole (Oct 24, 2009)

seems pretty straightforward. thanks! :fishing:


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