April 26, 2024

Land more fish with a stinger hook

August 16, 2017 David Hunter Jones Field Notes, Fishing

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.

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.

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.

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.