Cutty fish are strong

[DaveS]

Originally Posted by Nebe

how long was your leader slip? once i started using leaders that were 12 to 15 feel long i never bent a hook or ripped out a hook... hook to land ratio was almost 100%

Eben hit the nail on the head As we all know braid has zero stretch, thats good for detecting hits, but sometimes bad for landing them. I believe that once the hook is buried good into the jaw, the lack of stretch can do several things. One, it can wear a hole in their jaw to the point of the hook falling out completley, or it can cause so much strain on the hook that it just plain straightens out due to the pressure.

Think of your line as the shock absorbers on your car or truck. Mono would be a set of nice new shocks, taking the bumps and potholes with ease distributing the ride evenly over the under-carriage of the car, while braided line is a set of bad shocks in a 1978 Ford F-150, you feel every bump and pothole and soon need front end work. Not only do I believe the braided line - no stretch theory causes you to loose fish and straighten hooks, I feel it's the main cause of rods breaking and damaging reels. When monofilament was king, I never broke a rod on a hook set or while fighting a fish, however I have broken 3 rods using braid, and destroyed two 706z's.

Our over-confidence in the braided line's strength leads us to believe that we can just winch our fish in like Superman. I'm gonna try the Yozuri Hybrid line next weekend on my trip to Rhody and see how it behaves.

[DZ]

Treble hooks failing is as old as the books - there isn't a treble hook around that is guarranteed not to straighten or bend when attached to a plug. This is magnified when multiple trebles are used. When a big girl gets hooked on a plug adorned with multiple trebles the force applied to the trebles is tremendous. The trebles tend to work against each other AND the plug itself. I've even had strong trebles bent by "measly" 20 pound fish that were full of piss and vinegar. Add some rockweed to the mix and you'll have a set of "corn on the cob holders" in no time flat.

Straightened treble hooks is the most common cause of many of the cows I've hooked over the years in gaining their freedom (other than me putting them back).

The only consistant way to avoid this problem is by using a plug with one strong SINGLE hook. A small "stubby" needle with a single fethered hook was developed (by Pichney) just for this purpose. Most stubby needles on the market today are built too large - ideal size for this is 3 - 4 inches. Add a fethered hook and the profile is 6-7 inches. This will work fine IF the bass will take them.

Of course sluggos and live/rigged eels will also allow single hook presentations and a greater hookup/land ratio.

But sometimes they want full size plugs and if that's the case you have to put up with occasional straightened trebles. Better to hookup with a bunch and loose a few than to not hook-up at all.

Adding large heavy duty split rings to your plugs will also help on occasion - it will allow your trebles more room to rotate.

DZ