Gang Hooks for pillies and mullet strips (Rock and beach)

[MudRiverDan]

Went fishing last weekend and because I like a bit of surf and wind I headed south and ended up fishing off the Northern side of the Brunswick Heads outlet wall, casting into some nice green water from the rocks just on high tide.

I was mostly out for the fresh air, since I work graveyard shifts lately, you get to look forward to a day in the salt air, sea spray and sun. Blows the cobwebs out.

Anyway on the way down I bought some gang hooks and the were inter joined, not by the hook eyelets but by a swivel between each hook.

Well I put a nice generous strip of mullet on and cast out, about 10 minutes later something took the bait and I was on!
After stuffing around on the rocks for about 10 minutes I managed to sight the fish a few times and it was a pretty thick salmon going close to 60cm.
Just then the fish turned and twisted and spat the hook..

I blamed the swivel gangs and put a set on that were joined through the eye-let of each hook, about 20 minutes later I was onto another nice salmon of similar size, after a shortish fight I brought the fish into the rocks and it jerked and tugged its way to freedom..bugger, that's two

Anyway on closer inspection of the hooks I notice the fish had actually busted off the bottom two gangs and got free leaving me with one hook intact (size 4.0 gangs).

So I feel my gang hook choices have failed me and I was wondering does anyone else get these sort of problems?

Also does anyone know of a good online store I could order some 4.0 gang hooks of good quality preferably loose and ready to be assembled?

Is there any preference when it comes to gang hooks? I notice a lot of them from tackle shops come in unmarked little plastic clip up bags these days, so you wouldn't know where they come from or what the quality is.

Cheers

[kingtin]

Go the Gamakatsus...................razor sharp and stay that way.

kev

[miss be have]

hay mate i have been having that problems salmon busting hooks when they were linked through the eyes so now i use youvella gang hooks with 40lb black rolling swivels in beteween each hook i think the hook ups are better this way and they dont spit the hooks as much when they jump around

[nigelr]

VMC in 5/0. The Gamas I've gone off because the eyes tend to open up and I found it darn hard to close them properly so the barb of the other hook wouldn't slip through. Certainly the sharpest though!
I bought an old box of stainless Mustad O'Shaughnessy 5/0s off Ebay, I like these because they are thin and not quite as soft the Gamas IMO.
The VMCs are strong and dependable, but a heavier gauge than either of the above.
Problem I have is finding light gauge gangs in 6/0s......
lol, I had a 3kg+ salmon attached to me via one of these stainless gangs recently, had to get the hook out at the local ED. As you can imagine, I was very grateful I had my daughter and her boyfriend with me, they held the fish still while I unhooked it. Then old mate in carpark had a pair of wirecutters, which made it easier to drive home.......watch those salmon they are bu%%ers lol!

[Noelm]

why not just use single hooks and forget the gangs if they are causing you drama? there is not a Salmon alive that will wear through anything over about 5KG line, you might miss a Tailor maybe, but you can't have everything (can you?)

[MudRiverDan]

I stopped off at woolies and bought a kg of mullet.
So I was throwing out some nice big strips.
Mind you I was giving the fish a good feed there for a while, but a few big ones did hit it, with results.

Guess you could say I had large baits out, it can be very effective at times, the less picker fish are around the better it is.

cheers

[honda900]

I have also found the gama's to come undone at the eye, no matter how hard you crimp them, but agree with kingtin, they are razor sharp.

Mustards, I have gone off as they are blunt out of the box, dont want to have to sharpen my hooks, when I want to put a set on.

So at the moment I am using youvella's and have found them to work pretty well and are sharp and remain sharp. I dont use swivells though.

Regards
Honda.