Double Fluke Rig

At the MTC I used a double Fluke rig to catch some fish, and Chris
switched to one after I had several bites and he caught a keeper
smallmouth. Several people rigged one after that but it did not work too
good in the tournament.

I rig it by running my main line through a barrel swivel then tying on a
hook for the Fluke. I then tie on a 18 inch dropper on the swivel and
tie the other hook on it. The rig looks great coming in, with one Fluke
chasing the other, sometimes darting behind it and other times in
opposite directions. Seems to attract fish sometimes
when just one Fluke doesn’t.

I warned some folks in Tennessee that the rig had some problems and my
tournament on Sunday at Lanier showed two of them.

I was pretty groggy after driving all night, and I started throwing that
rig in shallow water at Lanier. Almost immediately a big fish swirled on
it. The glare on the water was bad but I could see a Fluke near the
surface and I thought the fish had missed. I waited a few seconds and
twitched it again. Unfortunately, the bass had the other Fluke and when
I twitched the rod tip I felt the fish - it had run back toward me.
Too late I tried to set the hook but the fish had felt me, too and I
missed. Maybe if I had been more alert I would have hooked it. The fish
had apparently taken the Fluke on the dropper and was swimming back
toward the boat and the Fluke on the main line did not move much.

A little later I threw across a treetop in the water. The water was
about four feet deep and the limbs were all a foot or so under the
water. Sure enough, as the Flukes came over the tree a 2.5 to 3 pound
bass swarmed up and grabbed a Fluke. When I set the hook my line broke.

When I reeled in the last two feet of my line was curled like it had run
over something. I looked and a Fluke was hung on an upper limb on the
tree in the water. I went over and got it, after several more casts to
the tree, and the one hung was the one on the dropper. Apparently the
fish grabbed the Fluke on the main line and the dropper Fluke hung on
the limb. When I set the hook I pulled the line through the eye of the
swivel, curling it and making it break. I was using 15 pound
extra tough PLine so it was pretty strong line.

I have tried a three way swivel and it works and solves some of these
problems, but the rig just does not swim as good, to me, and seems to
tangle a lot more.

The double Fluke rig is good and works sometimes when others don’t work
but be aware of the problems it can have.