BOOST YOUR CATCH RATIO
Hard-fighting fish can take quite a toll on your lure tackle, so here’s why you should pay close attention to split rings and hooks for surf-based lure fishing
Great advice for lure anglers.
When compared to the likes of smoothhounds, common skate and tope, it’s fair to say bass are not exactly a big fish. I’d back a 5lb mullet, for example, on suitable tackle to run further than a 5lb bass. Now put a regular 2-3lb bass in the surf and it’s like these magnificent fish are on steroids because they fight way above their weight.
On many occasions when I’ve hooked bass in the surf, I’m convinced I’ve got a 5lb-plus fish on the end, only to see a two-pounder coming in all angry and thrashing around like crazy.
Recently, I was out on a beach where a bit of a bank results in slightly deeper water on a big tide at high water. Although I favour metal lures for surf fishing, with that extra depth and some stunning green fizzing water, I clipped on a Shimano Japan hard lure that was meant to be perfect for heavier surf conditions - and it was!
After a few casts, a bass of about 3lb jumped on the end and gave me a fantastic scrap in all that turbulence. I got the shock of my life when I grabbed the fish for unhooking and found one of the treble hooks had come away from the lure. All my hooks are barbless, so I managed to remove the hook from the bass before releasing it.
Upon inspection, I saw that one split ring had straightened and the other was nearly fully open. Bass in the surf often fight well above their weight, but why all this damage to an expensive lure from a 3lb bass?
THE BIG SWITCH
Having seen this damage to hooks and split rings on other lures, I conclude that bass twist and turn so hard as you get them close, that even relatively small fish can straighten weaker split rings and hooks. However, I have never had issues with my lure clip in the surf.
Hit the surf just right and you can sometimes get among a lot of bass. While some anglers love to catch as many fish as possible, to me, it’s the perfect chance to experiment and see if something might work a bit better and
so on. I had a few sessions in the summer when my metals rigged with size 4 treble hooks were producing hits and bangs, but not hooked fish. In addition, a few too many bass that did hook up were getting off during the fight.
A couple of local anglers, who had been doing a lot of this surf fishing, told me that they had switched to big single hooks on their metal lures, and the result was a much better hook-up and landing ratio. That was good enough for me. Back at home I rigged some Savage Gear Seeker metal lures with size 2/0 and 3/0 VMC 7266 or Mustad Kaiju single hooks and larger, stronger split rings and was back on the beach the next morning. Without a doubt, I hooked more hits and landed more fish on my single hooks than the previous session. It’s been that way ever since.
I still crush the barb, which doesn’t worry me because I always keep a tight line to the hooked fish.
I like how far more bass are hooked cleanly in the edges of their mouths rather than a big treble often ending up further down, which then makes it hard to get these fish unhooked quickly for an easy release.
ADDED STRAIN
You could say that I have deliberately beefed up my end gear for my surf fishing. I have dropped down to 18lb Sufix 131 braid for my mainline, fished, as ever, on a Penn Slammer III 3500 spinning reel.
I use a fairly thick and robust fluorocarbon leader of 0.50mm diameter and above. Due to the turbulence I don’t worry about the fish seeing this leader. My thinking behind a thicker leader than I would use out on a shallow reef is that, in the surf, I can usually grab the leader, put a couple of turns around my hand - it’s not cutting into me at this diameter - and then grab the bass far easier.
What is this doing? Yes, it’s putting more strain on your lure, split rings and hooks. A fish doesn’t need to be big to damage rings and hooks when you grab the leader. If you take a metal lure, such as the 23g or 28g Savage Gear Seeker, and are thinking that a size 2/0 or 3/0 specialist single lure hook is surely too big, then worry not.
While I’m not completely sold on single hooks in all situations, I’ve used them on regular hard lures and found that a bigger
single results in more hooked fish.
Whatever the size of fish I might catch, without a doubt I am hooking more bass. You get lots of nudges and bangs on your lure when the bass are really on it in the surf - and more of these fish are staying hooked as well. I’ve not seen a single sign of damage to any bigger split rings or single hooks since I went over to surf fishing like this.
Scandinavian way
As with metal lures, not all split rings are equal. Bear in mind that I have adopted the Scandinavian way of thinking. Their theory is that two split rings connected together instead of just the one between lure and hook means that a hooked fish is less able to lever a hook out of its mouth.
I can’t prove that this works any better for bass, but since I started surf fishing like this – bigger split rings and single hooks in the mix as well – I am convinced that I am losing fewer fish due to them coming off. It works out a bit more expensive to buy extra split rings and single hooks, but think about how few lures you ever lose in the surf and it all makes more sense.
You can find all kinds of split rings if you go looking, but I have absolute faith in either the 5mm/60lb and larger Varivas Avani Ocean Works Power Rings or the Savage Gear Stainless Splitrings in the 9mm size.
Again, as with the single hooks, if these seem a little large, let me assure you they are not. A wonderfully subtle, measured approach is not called for if you end up fishing proper surf conditions for bass, so why on earth go light if you don’t need to?
I am not worried if I hook into a really big bass because on a clean beach and with the kind of end-tackle I am using, I back myself to land the thing. While I would rather not have to re-rig lures that come already rigged, everything set up as I have described is lasting and working so well that I don’t even think about it anymore.
I would suggest that landing as many of the fish we hook is what we are all after, is it not? ■