Oils ain’t oils and lures ain’t lures… or so they reckon… I personally don’t think that colour is as important as many people make out. I prefer a lure with good light and dark contrast, a rolling lolling action, the right depth for my target aggregation and most importantly, a good set of hardware/hooks.
The latter is what I want to talk about today – Lure hardware.
For smaller fish, your average Joe Bloggs barra, the standard hooks that come with most lures on the market today are certainly adequate.
For the bigger fish however, upgrading your hooks to not only a larger size but a stronger hook is not optional; it is a necessity!
I pretty much change all my hooks from 3x standard to 6x (extra strong) and for minnow type lures with three sets of trebles, I ditch the one in the middle and go up 1 to 2 sizes on the remaining two.
Why is included in today’s video; including some footage of a standard treble decapitated so to speak by a smallish fish of 72cm last week. If it was a bigger fish we wouldn’t have got it to the boat.
Now on my charters I NEVER use standard hooks but on this family trip I got a bit lazy and very nearly paid the price of losing the fish.
So although it seems a bit annoying to pay big money for lures and then have the added expense of changing the hooks, but big fish don’t come along every day and a missed opportunity is a missed opportunity.
You don’t need to spend a fortune to catch barra.
I certainly don’t believe you have to spend a fortune on gear and have top of the range everything. In fact, to the contrary.
Good value for money gear well maintained will get your fish to the boat every time… But an added investment in some 6x hooks will be well worth it.
I personally use VMC hooks. They are reasonably priced, really good value and in my experience they won’t let you down.
Oh and a set of split ring pliers makes the job very easy. I get my kids to do it in return for a fishing trip hehe (bribery and manipulation I know).
So on the next rainy weekend, head on over to the BCF website and get yourself some VMC 6x hooks here and treat your lures to a well needed upgrade.
For those of you new to Ryan Moody Fishing, welcome and we hope you find our content helpful.
Hope you enjoyed the video. Until next week, ciao for now.
