Hooks

[Seti the 1st]

Hiya all. Why do sea fishing hooks have such long shanks? In my experience (which is very limited) the bait, particulaly after casting, slides down the shank and finishes up on the bend of the hook leaving a lump of steel sticking out of it. Does this mean that sea fish are less wary than their freshwater cousins? I seem to remember in the far distant past that you could get sea hooks with barbs on the shank to secure the bait, are these still available?

[toomanyhounds]

Hi seti,

the hooks you are talking about are baitholder hooks (not very original name i know) and are ok. but you cant go wrong with a good few turns of bait elastic round your worm at the point just as it passes the hook eye on to the line. if your bait is going to squish during cast then it will only squish up to the elastic, still leaving an attractive (from the fishes point of view) piece of nicely presented worm with the sharp bit of the hook protruding.

[Spahill]

Hi Seti
Good advice above, also try not trimming the line to short when tying your hooks. the tail helps to hold the worms up the snood. Also winding the bait back in may cause the worm to bunch more at the base of the hook - so it may not look like that on the sea bed.
Sea fish less wary - I think so, they probably don't get caught as many times as there freshwater mates. Especialy the hard fished venues.

[Seti the 1st]

Thanks for this my friends, good advice, as usual. If I wanted to, could I use large 'normal' hooks instead of long shanks?

[pingu]

you can no problems
the long shanks are better for worm presentation though

dave

[Seti the 1st]

Thanks for this Pingu, my intention is to make up a Pennell setup to aid with the bait presentation.