Anyone ever heard of this?

[stumper]

I asked my neigbor what the best way to hook a smelt  was and he said that he always takes a bamboo skew and slides it lenght ways through the smelt and then sticks the hook through below the skewer. this keeps the fish from pulling the bait off to easiely.

[OZZY]

Never heard of that but it does make sense, harder for the fish to pull your bait off

[pirkaus]

Try it out and see if it works
I think it would be okay for dead bait, live bait would not swim so well

[stumper]

LOL, thats what I was refering to, dead bait pulls off so easy compared to live bait.

[fish_finder]

 Sounds like a good idea to me

[AirManCam]

I think that is probably one of the best ways i've heard to rig dead bait!

[NickN]

Check out this link...  This may help you guys out.  I have used this rig with both live and dead bait.  Oddly enough I believe if you do it right the bait stays lively longer.  As are as the dead bait goes it may also help you with your problem,

http://www.weaverlure.com/mini-latch.html

[pikekiller]

didn't check out the link yet, but before I forget:

I just talked to someone who said they did this with live bait, and he called it "threading" the minnow.  he takes some kind of big needle with a little hook at one end and sticks it down the length somehow.  then he pulls his steel leader through and attaches the hook.  he too says the bait stays lively. 
probably a terrible description, but that was the basic idea.