lost fish

[BushBabySafaris]

Hi guys, I was fishing yesterday at Chelmsford and did quite well for a winters day. Some good fish but here is where I need some help, we lost a lot of fish. After the first one lost, I played the others like babies and was so careful not to put too much pressure on them. You could feel that the lost fish were sizeable (aren't they all). I was fishing with a small white floatie and SWD backing.

Now were we loosing the fish because they had their "winter lips" and therefore the hooks pull out easy, or was the hooks to small (Daiichi 08)or lastly one of the guys I was fishing with said the fish wanted the SWB and the floatie was causing a bad hook-up, so I should loose the floatie. Unfortunately this advise came at the end of the day, so could not be tested. What do you guys say.

 

[steelpulse007]

How do you hook the floatie, is the barb exposed? If the floatie covers the tip of the hook, you might have a problem, but if you're pushing the floatie a bit down so that the tip and barb are exposed, I dont think the floatie should cause a problem.

 

[BushBabySafaris]

Thanks for that. I always expose the hook. In this case the floatie is a small soft one and I place it on the bend of the hook with the hook point nice and exposed.

 

[steelpulse007]

Personally I dont fish with small hooks, I prefer something a little more manageable, coz I dont usually fish with small floaties, and like to be able to use up to two floaties (not the small ones) on the hook, typically a size 5 I would imagine. The frequency of a hook pull for me is less than 5%, if not less.

 

[BushBabySafaris]

I have always sworn by the Daiichi 08 hooks and have never lost fish like I did on Sunday due to hook pulls. I think its time to try something a little bigger for the winter months and see how that goes.

 

[Enigma]

Floaties become so soft after 3 minutes in the water watt they always pull off (SCast/Stevensons/MG and not Carp Hunter) and expose the hook 100% so not necessary to expose the hooks although I do recommend it.

In future if you get a hookpull then try one hook with just a floatie and the other with just a dough.

With the 0.8 play the fish according to the hook size. Remains the best all round hook for conventional angling and if the style of playing the fish is matched to the hook you should have 99%+ success rate

In our nationals in Chelmsford this year we fished floatie /dough combo hookbaits and even bread / floatie combos and found that the bite tempo was 20% faster on the 0.8 vs #1 and 150% faster on 0.8 vs #3 so we fished 0.8 and adjusted the way we played the fish, especially since our average was over 1.5kg a fish.

Always adjust in the fishing and look for solutions while fishing and not afterwards

Also consider the manner in which the fish feed is slower and less aggressive in the colder water and more oftern than not increasing the hooklink from 11cm to 13cm produces more solid hookups and even up to 15cm can make a difference on a very difficult day

 

[BushBabySafaris]

Thanks Enigma. Can you explain a little more as to how the hooklink length can help. Is this just for cold slow days. From what you stated your normal hooklink length is 11cm. is that specific for Chelmsford or for all dams.

 

[Enigma]

Standard is 11cm + swivel + hook gives around 13cm total and pretty much works in any dam in the country and as a competition angling family we have 300 traces pre tied at all times so we go with what works almost anywhere.

If the fish are skittish and sucking up food from further from the bol you will hook them in the lip with a shorter hooklink and lengthening it you get the hook into his mouth for a better hookup

 

[BushBabySafaris]

Great thanks very much. will try it.

 

[Carp king]

I have been fish for 10+ years competitivly and social and if someone gave me a choice of one hook it would be a 0.8 i have landed xcarps of over 4 kgs with ease in the vaal river and even landed a 7kg barbel on a 0.8. try scale you baits to your hook. if you wanna fish with more dough rather make a long bait.one other thing is with a 0.8 you dont really need to ram the hook into the fish just pic up the rod tip and play the fish. hope this helps

 

[willem wikkel spies]

ek nou nie n pap gooier nie.
ek drop eerder groot aas, soos in die ou dae.
ek gebruik groot dik hoeke.
die 2o van der merwes wat ek sukkel om te kry.

hoe dicker die hoek shank hoe moeiliker trek die hoek uit.

 

[chandre]

hi bush baby to make it much easier for your self is to cut the main line between your two swivels were your sinker on your strop is tied a few cm maby 3 cm shorter and sea if ou woukd loos any fish on that way but yes 0.8 hooks are the best to use hope it help a little