not hookin up on sp

[joelmennie]

hey guys i used soft plastics for the first time the other day and omfg. third cast and caught a thumping 3.5-4 kg 700mm snapper on light gear. thought i had a tiger shark on lol. then i lost about another 4 after that alot smaller probably round the 1kg mark. they would have a small run then boom gone the only things i could put it down to was they were only grabbing the tail of the plastic and not the hook or im not striking correctly. any help would be great ps it was my brothers first time on sp to and all he got was a rock cod bigger than the lure. lol

[Scalem]

Joel

I'll take a wild stab in the dark and say that the plastic might be too big for the hook. ie: not enough of the hook exposed. Can you post a photo of one setup? The Hook should normally come out of the body of the plastic somewhere between 1/3 to 1/2 of the body length.

Other than that you might be surprised how little you need to strike into the fish, especially if you are using braid. Hard to get used to, I still strike too hard! Check the tip of the hook is razor sharp too.

Scalem

[tunaticer]

replied to your other post for the same question.

[caster226]

comment removed

[Damned67]

Agreed, those hooks can go blunt very quickly... The issue could be as simple as that.

Still, a big congrats on that awesome snapper!! Where abouts did you catch it?

[Micadogs]

Hi Joel, from my experience (the above is very true) and also snapper usually strike twice. Once at the tail to disable the baitfish (i.e. plastic in this case) and then the second time at the head. The large fish most likely hit the tail, but as mouth is bigger, hit the hook. It was a good observation that you made, you think they may be picking up the tail, this is probably what is happening with the smaller fish. I know it is not intuitive, but unless you feel like it is on then dont strike, let it have its first run, then dont move, the fish will turn and you will be on - always strike on second hit/run. Snapper in 99% of cases will hit the lure on the drop. Once it has its first strike, in its head, the fish will start to fall to the bottom, hence dont strike or move it. It will only be a few seconds, as long it is falling the fish will smash it again.

[joelmennie]

thanks for all your help guys unsure of hook size and lure size at the moment but the setup was given to me by the guys at tackle power. im goin out again tommorow so hopefully i can get some more . oh i caught the fish just off bar beach. theres a whole reef system running threw there just beware of the pike there bloody everywhere lol i was surprised they didnt have a go at the sp.

[devocean]

Try this www.spines.com.au

[devocean]

sorry www.spinesfishing.com.au