hooks and rings - what suits various lures?

[artesian]

G'day

When fishing for impoundment barra, fish are sometimes lost due to 'as issued' hooks straightening. Yet replacing hooks and rings can change lure action.

If you felt like sharing the info, it would be good to know what lures are strong enough out of the box, and if upgrades are necessary, what works, and are increased speeds (trolling or retrieve) then necessary?

Last trip I lost a fish on a biggish halco lure due to straightened hooks. According to Harro's book, this particular lure is big enough that the barra's jaws and gillls can really go to work on it.

Another mate who has more Monduran runs on the board than me, tends to use all his lures, as is, straight out of the box, and gets good results.

On another point, an article in a recent mag suggests getting rid of snaps, hawainan clips and week links, and instead putting a split ring on, then terminating the leader with a solid brass ring. There was then some chat abouth which forceps etc to use

[MitchCalcutt]

That’s an interesting dilemma that a lot of fisho’s go through, hook strength versus lure action. I don’t like your chances of a perfect outcome. I have been toying with some new single hooks that replace trebles with some promising results, but Bass aint Barra.
After reading your thread I went into the garage and destroyed a few supposably quality hooks by tying them off using 30lb braid to my Cruiser. Nothing good came out of that experiment. The only way I opened up a hook was when the pressure came directly off the barb, from the circle the direct pressure broke the line first. Perhaps your opened hooks came off the jaw bone and not set in far enough?

Good luck with your quest

Mitch

[damobows]

Boys this could maybe be put in the tackle section, like the topic though -

Another aspect to consider is balance, for example with a lure like the Rapala X rap putting one size smaller treble on the rear helps the presentation (nose down) when suspended in the water.

Cheers

Damo

[Barraboss]

I always upgrade my hooks on lures, as have had too many return (in the early days) straightened. For me owner hooks are the gun, and not only are they stronger, but my hookup rate is far better due to hook sharpness. Sometimes I willl opt for the ST-56's which is lighter, but only do this on my Storm soft plastics when I want to go for a bigger treble, hence counter-balancing the size for weight ratio. Most of my lures however end up with ST-66's and if the barra manages to straighten the hooks on those, they deserve their freedom.
Tight lines
Matt

[Jeremy87]

There's plenty of barra lures on the market, if a lure doesn't swim properly with heavy guage hooks (and you want to use heavy guage hooks) simple, doen't buy or use that lure. Remember the saying that lures catch fishermen, there are plenty of lures that will come in the same colour swim to the same depth etc. When i first went barra fishing to awoonga i took a charter with John Mitchell, who explained that barra generate their hook straightening strength from their neck and shoulders (through head shakes) and that the lures on the outside that catch on the gill plates are most at risk of being straightened out (both trebles are set and the barra gathers purchase off each treble and generates forces many times stronger than what your drag pressure is). Since then i have experienced this first hand often enough to believe this statment. It's the reason why first timers can go up to the dams using bronze trebles and land fish and experienced fishos get owners straightened out, plain luck. In saying this an owner is going to shape up alot better than a fine wire bronze hook, and beginners are probably less likely to run the drag settings that a more experienced fisho is.

So anyway the point i'm making is there is no excuse not to run heavy guage hooks other than being too cheap and lazy to swap them over. 6x vmc's are good owners are better and while your at it check that your split rings are at least 4H. This applies even for small barra at lenthalls i have had a really bad run up there (i don't actually think i've landed a barra there) of timber lures getting the wire ripped out of them hooks and rings straightening and getting ran into timber. so the little ones can be just as bad.

[Roo]

I was looking at the Owner st66 and the VMC 6x forged hooks on the weekend. I noticed the No.1 vmc seemed smaller than the No.1 owners.....particularly in the belly of the hook (is that the gape?).