Nearly all of the charter boats in Guatemala specialize in catching sailfish on the fly. After years of trial and error, these crews have the rigging down to a science. And when you're using a 20-pound class tippet, you're going to break off a lot of fish and lose a bunch of flies. It's just part of the deal. 
 
On the Release, a classic 37-foot Merritt run by Capt. Chris Sheeder, the mate, Nico Malendez, keeps all of his rigging material in one area so he can quickly tie up several leaders and flies. Next to his rigging station, Nico secured a large, wide-gap circle hook to one of the tower legs using some rigging floss. He clipped the barb off the hook and smoothed the edges down so no one would get snagged or stuck on it. 
 
He uses the secured hook as an extra hand to securely hold the rig as he snells the tandem hooks. By making a loop with the tag end of the trailing hook's snell, he can pull down on the rig to tighten the knots. The hook also gives him a firm grip when tying the Bimini.

Charlie Levine
Winter Park, Florida