Weaker hooks, hard lesson to learn...

[Putershark]

This past weekend the fishing was pretty poor and nobody I knew or heard reports from on the Flats, got much of anything

Be that as it may, Bill and I went out Saturday and was working some grass flats in hopes of scoring on some Gator Trout before the tide turned, and we would then target Redfish... So out comes the Skitter Walks and time to the let the games begin

Three casts into the early morning sunrise, and a good sized Sail Cat thumps it and I was thinking "at least we will not go home without getting any hits" and after dumping that nasty dude back into the water, back to "Walking the Dog" we go...

So I am getting a few missed strikes from some non-committed fish, this even after I modified my tail hook at home for testing on this Skitter Walk with a small ball bearing swivel so that one of the hook points is always pointed down and then it happens... Something very large crashes my lure like a Gorilla (sounded like Flipper landing) and then turns (flashing bronze) thus I suspect it is a big Red Fish and the war then starts.

So for a few minuets this dude and I are swapping tugs as the drag is singing and then the rod goes light Bill who was watching the whole ordeal (not pitching a Rapala either and getting nothing) looks at me as I reel in this huge clump of grass and some bottom sponge junk

"Figures" I say as I clean up the lure from the bail of grass left on it as I drop the Power Pole so I do not drift too far way from this location... About 10 casts later and some more blow ups by smaller trout, and I cannot figure out why I am missing so many fish and then I see way after a closer lure inspection! The reason I had lost this last big fish was because the dude had straighten out the forward treble hook

Now before we go into shock thinking that Rapala has mounted up some lower quality hooks (which is unheard of with VMC quality) I have always changed out my front hooks for red ones in the hopes (which I have pretty much proven to me) that they go after the gill flash look of the forward red hook set, and even if they miss that one, the rear one will still get them... And my survey of such has pretty much borne that out over the years with most of my hook ups being on the front set even though the bait is running away from them.





So Sunday's lesson and project was...

• Going out and finding the correct size red VMC hooks and swapping them all out "again" on all my lures for those (other brand) ones that let me down
• I also picked up some 30 pound test mono leader for all of my surface lure rigged rods to "test" the theory of having some leader stretch in the hopes, that it will help keep a few more online to make it all the way to boat.
• I also, now knowing that there are some larger Reds prowing around on this grass flat that I have never seen before... Picked one some of these puppies just to target those dudes with! Ha-Ha

And maybe Bill will (someday) learn how to "Walk the Dog" and use the correct lures instead of just watching Dave get most of the action as the fish go ahhhhhhhhhhh on my Rapalas! Ha-Ha...

[cagrove]

I learned the same lesson a few years ago when I started targeting the trophy Catfish in the local river. I got tired of having the cats swallow the hook and me having to cut the line to not harm the fish so I could release them. So I went with a brand of circle hooks due to their price tag and they worked out pretty well for a while. But as I learned how to target the bigger fish I had a few close calls on straightened hooks and lost one really "pig" of a cat at the boat due to hook failure. I finally sucked it up and bought some "Owner" 6/0 circle hooks and haven't looked back. I have complete faith that when I hook up that the hook isn't the weak link.

Moral of the story: Big fish come around all to infrequently to trust the catch to cheap hooks.