12-11-11, 12:12 PM | #1 |
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Dean Rojas tip for hooks for soft plastics
I had a great opportunity to visit one on one with Dean Rojas yesterday. One of the things we discused was the hooks he uses for soft plastics. He had a few packs of EWG hooks laid out and had some baits rigged up for demonstration. I recently had talked to a jig designer about hook choice and we had discused the different hook styles and bends. This guys opinion was that the EWG hooks had a flawed design in that the hook point was in a direct line with the line tie. His thoughts were that the hook point can easily be pulled through the fish's mouth without grabbing anything . This guy only uses round bend hooks with a wide opening. That style of hook has a leverage advantage that drives the hook point into anything it touches. I asked dean about his thoughts on that and he just grinned. At first I thought he was thinking I had said something stupid. Well, I was wrong. Dean picked up a rigged bait with a 3/0 EWG hook and then told us that he agreed with that statement, but that he still preferred the EWG hook for the way it sits texposed, but only after he tweaks it. He said that he tweaks every EWG hook he owns and does it as soon as he gets them and before they go in the boat. What he does is to grab the hook point behind the barb and bend it out just a bit so that it has a slight leverage effect away from the line tie. He then uses 2 pairs of pliers to tweak the hook sideways at the throat so that the hook wont lay flat on a table. That puts the point of the hook angled up just a bit but also out just a bit and causes it to grab and drive home better on the hookset, he said he has to have every advantage he can get and he firmly believes that his tweaked EWG hook helps him land more bass. I didn't think to ask him, but i bet he does the same thing to jigs.
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12-11-11, 12:31 PM | #2 |
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There have been a couple hook brands out there to come with the point offset to the side. I tried some a while back and found that they cause the bait to spin while retrieving it. I got tired of the line twisting up from them and stopped using them before I ever really got to give them a good workout.
I've heard the same thing about EWG hooks, so I recently got a pack of Owner Wide Gap Plus hooks. If you haven't seen them before, they like like a standard EWG, but the point of the hook is about 1/4" above the plane of the eye. I wonder if this would have a similar effect to bending the point up. BB
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12-11-11, 01:05 PM | #3 | |
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Quote:
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12-11-11, 01:36 PM | #4 |
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Kevin, I'll give the cardboard thing a try with some various hooks I've got including the Owner Wide Gap Plus and Twist-Lock hooks.
The hooks I used also had a slight bend, nothing as drastic as the tru-turn. I'll see if I can find them and get a picture or at least a name. BB
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12-11-11, 01:52 PM | #5 |
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I'll have to give that a try, it sounds like a good idea. I have used the Youvella hooks before but they are hard to find. They have a funny bend in them:
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12-11-11, 02:07 PM | #6 | |
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Quote:
BB
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12-11-11, 02:29 PM | #7 |
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Interesting. I've always favored straight shank and round bend hooks for worms. They really seem to come through grass better then EWG hooks. I'll have to try tweaking my EWG's though, interesting technique.
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12-11-11, 02:33 PM | #8 |
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That's another really good tip. I have never heard or thought about bending the hook to the side. That makes sense though. The ability to rig a bait perfectly straight has kept me using EWG's even though I do believe offsets have better hookup rates. I will definitely try bending my hooks slightly.
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12-11-11, 03:04 PM | #9 |
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here is what the tweaked hooks look like. You can see the difference between the stock hook and the tweaked one.
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12-12-11, 01:37 AM | #10 |
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I gave that test a try with the Owner Wide Gap Plus. It didn't stick... However, I think it may have a lot to do with the slightly curved shaped of Owner's Cutting Point. I'll be doing some more testing on this this winter. I'll report my results and take pics.
BB
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12-12-11, 09:42 AM | #11 |
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It has been a while, but if I remember correctly the hooks with the point sticking out at a slight angle are harder to texpose and do hang up a little more in the weeds. I do tweak the hooks on my frogs and if they roll over they do hang in the pads. That is just an issue when fishing around here in Michigan, where the weed lines are thicker than a jungle.
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12-18-11, 01:03 AM | #12 |
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12-18-11, 10:22 AM | #13 |
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12-18-11, 10:33 AM | #14 |
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Never thought about this until I saw a vid on T-rigging large plastic swimbaits,(Mickey from 3:16), makes sense though, no matter which way you pull it the hook grabs the top or bottom of the fishes mouth, because the swim bait lays flat in the fish's mouth. Not sure I would use it for other baits like worms, or creatures that aren't very wide. Definitely going to start doing this.
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