Showing posts with label Korda Wide Gape X. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Korda Wide Gape X. Show all posts

Wednesday, August 10, 2016

Solved My Hook Pull Problem

Question:  Why have I been having so many hook pulls?

Answer:  The length of my hair rig was too short.

I have been targeting carp in my fishing efforts for more than 3 years at this point and never in that time have I had so many hook pulls. In fact, I once went more than 6 months without a single hook pull.

During my session on Sunday I figured out a solution to the issue I have been experiencing.

I am very particular about my hooks. I like sharp, micro barbed hooks that are bronze in color and coated in the non-stick PTFE treatment. I change hooks every other session and sometimes in the middle of a session if I sense that my hook has become dull.

I tried sharpening them myself for a while, but tired of that quickly and decided to just buy hooks when they are on sale and change them out regularly. It's so difficult to catch nice sized carp consistently, I made a decision not to let the hook stand in the way of a new personal best catch.

I am also very particular about how I tie up my hair rigs and I often tie hair rigs in groups. I sit down with a goal to tie 5 or 6 at a time, which helps me have more uniformity in the rigs. I have found out this summer that uniformity can be a help or a hindrance. I have a bunch of consistently tied hooks, which is great, but I did not take into consideration that the most recent batch I tied up have a slightly shorter length for the hair.

I have discovered that it doesn't take much to throw a kink into things.


I have always tied my hair lengths at 3/4" and used 3 pieces of corn (1 fake and 2 flavored maize). After closely inspecting my current batch of rigs I discovered that my hair length is shorter than 3/4" and is actually closer to 1/2" or 5/8" on some of them.

That is a problem sometimes if you fish with 3 pieces of corn, as I have concluded after about 15 hooks pulls over a 3 session time period. Using 3 pieces causes the corn to rest too closely to the hook and impacts positive hook holds. If the hook hold is weak then the chances of a hook pull increase significantly; especially in summer when there are more weeds, moss and lily pads in the carp swims. But luckily it's an easy-to-fix problem that can be remedied by fishing with 2 pieces of corn (1 fake and one flavored maize). This adjustment caught 6 carp for me on the shorter hair rigs on Sunday.

With that knowledge I can now fish confidently with 2 pieces or 3 pieces of corn, depending on the length of the hair rigs I am using.