What this rig is all about:
Monkeyface eel, also known as the monkeyface prickleback, is a sought after coastal fish among amateur fisherman for their edible white meat. This rig will be for the technique of “poke poling” to catch the monkeyface eel. It’s a very simple yet effective setup and can be made with just a few things. Continue reading to learn how to set it up.
Here is a list of materials/items that you will need to make this rig:
Links include pricing info on Amazon and are the suggested products for this rig.
- A long thin pole (any sufficiently stiff pole will work)
- Duct tape
- Wire coat hanger
- Snap swivel
- Hook (size 4-2)
- Pliers
How to use this rig:
A great bait to use is squid. Just cut it up and hook it to the hook as securely as you can but with the hook just barely exposed.
When poke poling, it’s really important to go when the tide is low and preferably, when there’s a negative tide. A negative tide allows you to access spots where you normally wouldn’t be able to like underneath certain large rocks. This will maximize your chance of landing a monkeyface eel.
When looking for a poke pole spot, you want to look for an area where the rock extends out into the ocean. These locations tend to have the highest chance for monkeyface eel.
Upon sticking the pole into holes, the fish tend to bite pretty quickly. However, leave the bait in the hole for roughly a minute or two before moving on to the next hole.
Once you’ve hooked one, you want to have a bucket ready right away because they can come off easily. If you do catch one in a hole, try putting the bait back in the same hole because there’s a chance that there is another one in there.
Since you’re going to be walking in, on, and around wet rocks, be very careful and be sure to have some shoes that have enough grip!
Setup guide:
- Undo the wire coat hanger using your pliers and coil it around the one end of the pole. Make sure there’s anywhere from 6 inches to a foot of wire from the end of the pole to the end of the wire. Wrap the duct tape tightly around the coils.
- Feed a snap swivel through the free end of the wire and use the pliers to bend the wire into a loop so that the snap swivel doesn’t come off.
- Finally, snap on a hook to finish up the rig. The final setup should look like this:
Catch monkeyface eel with this setup is almost guaranteed! Go out there and test it out! Let me know if this rig is working for you and rate it at the top of this article.