Hooks & Hardware

Successful fishing outings happen due to a variety of reasons, especially while surfcasting.  The opening of John Skinner's book A Season on the Edge begins with, "If surfcasters were interested only in catching fish, they would buy a boat. The anglers who choose to constrain their pursuits to the very edge of our marine environment do so to meet challenges that provide benefits that are least tangible than a cooler full of fish. Make no mistake, they want to catch and this desire often spawns an obsession that drives these anglers into the surf under conditions that most people take shelter from, often during hours when the rest of the world is asleep."  John is an exceptional surfcaster, he puts in his time on the water, understands moon phase, tides, currents, wind direction, and keeps a fishing log of his outtings to pin-point what made for a successful trip.  

With everything being equal by removing the effect of all of those things such as wind, wind direction, high tide, low tide, season, etc... all of it removed from the equation, we are left with our tackle.  Rod, reel, & lures.  Taking it one step further, let's assume the rod and reel are fine, you are using braided mainline, with a 50# fluorocarbon shock leader.  Lures! Lures! Lures!  Are not created equal.

We all have our go-to's for certain situations, as one person may only fish a specific plug such as swimmers and another may only fish Needlefish.  If the plug being purchased comes without hooks, great, you can set it up with VMCs and when the hook pulls you can only blame yourself.  However when you purchase a lure with factory hooks that are sub-par it is a good idea to change them immediately if possible.  Here is one example of a Superstrike Needlefish with factory hooks after two uses:

As you can see, this lure does catch fish, but here are a couple of things I noticed after aproximately 40 fish on this lure.  The hooks are already rusting, and their points are not sharp.  The lure was hit many more times and I lost a decent amount of fish either not finding a bite in the fish's mouth or pulling-out altogether.  Also, the thru-wire wrap at the tail is loosened, and I am afraid of it unraveling during a fight.  I am not saying to avoid this lure, I'm saying that it is probably retired but the next one I purchase will get new hooks before I begin fishing.

Another example is the Diawa Salt Pro Minnow:

This lure is another great lure with the exception of the hardware.  Both the split rings and hooks it comes with are weak.  Out of the box I hooked a small striped bass at 16" that now has a diawa hook in its lips because it pulled off the hook bending open the split ring.  So if you buy this lure do yourself a favor and change the split rings to something heavier, and the hooks to the same size in a 4X strong VMC.  Bottom line is to recognize when the hardware is sub-par and to change it before you lose a fish to hardware failure. A lot of lure companies are now coming factory equipped with VMCs right out of the box but as a fisherman or woman it is our job to check our own equipment.

Good luck & see you out there.