Land more fish with a stinger hook

Sometimes a few tweaks are needed to increase your hookup ratio on swimbaits. The top bait is a factory Live Target Mullet Swimbait. The bottom one has the dorsal fin removed to expose the hook, and a treble on the bottom.

Sometimes all you need to turn bites into landed fish is another hook

Fishing a swimbait is one of the more productive methods of landing trout, redfish and bass because of their realistic appearance and swimming action. However, because form sometimes comes before function, a few tweaks are needed to increase your hookup ratio.

I was recently throwing a LiveTarget Sardine and Mullet swimbait for trout and the baits were getting hammered. On each cast I’d get multiple hits, but I was only getting a hook in about half of the fish. The lures were obviously attracting the trout, but I needed to stick more of them. Examining the bait told me that I needed to make the hook more exposed so that the chances of sticking one would be better, so I cut off the dorsal fin. It’s a great weedguard around grass and submerged vegetation, but because this was open water it could safely be removed, thereby exposing the hook point more.

To add a stringer to cocahoes, either use a spinnerbait trailer hook or tie a treble onto the jighead’s hook via a short segment of braid.
After this Live Target Sardine was modified, it landed just about every fish that struck. More hooks mean more chances of sticking fish.

After that, I added a treble hook on the bottom of the baits that snagged short-striking fish, and I was landing more fish that struck. Not all baits have a nice provision like the Live Target Swimbait series, but don’t fret. If you’re throwing a cocahoe on a jighead, you can add a treble with a short length of braid tied to the bend in the hook that will trail nicely behind the lure and not impede its action. Or, you can buy a spinnerbait trailer and add it to the jighead’s hook.

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