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.

Gamakatsu: The Affordable Hook for Carp Fishing

When Resistance Tackle closed down its website the cost of carp fishing increased. There are other sources of carp gear, but in my experience when there are fewer sources prices tend to rise. So I decided to begin looking for ways to reduce the cost of some of the basic carp fishing supplies.

I decided to look for some more affordable carp hooks. My normal hooks sell for about $8 per 10 hook pack. I found the Gamakatsu G Carp Wide Gap hooks, which are fairly new to the carp tackle scene, although Gamakatsu has been making fishing tackle for many years and is very popular in other fishing styles and fishing pursuits - think bass, crappie, blue gill, walleye.



My new carp fishing hooks in size 6

These hooks have similar features to other "brand names" known for carp tackle in Europe. In fact the G Carp hooks have a lot in common with the Korda wide gap hooks I have been using very successfully for a couple of years.

10 pound common

PTFE coating, wide gap, micro barb, and upturned eye are all key selling points of the G Carp hooks.

I have been testing the hooks now for a few sessions and I really like them. And at a 50% discount compared to the Nash and Korda equivalents I can afford to buy a lot more of them too!
Here is a carp I caught on the hooks from the packet above earlier in the weekend.

In the interest of full disclosure and so you can benefit from my testing and experimentation, when I re-order more G Carp hooks I will be getting them in size 4.

I spent some time looking for them on Amazon, Wacker and Carp Kit but they seem to be in short supply right now.

I suspect the size 4 hooks will provide an improve landing percentage by ensuring a quality hook hold and therefore a reduction in hook pulls.

I will continue testing these hooks and will update my results here on the blog from time to time.

Gamakatsu Wide Gape Super G-Carp

Gamakatsu Wide Gape Super G-Carp hooks

My primary hook for the past couple of seasons has been the Korda Wide Gap in size 4. I purchase them from a carp fishing vendor for $7.99 per pack of 10.

When Gamakatsu introduced a specially designed carp hook series I decided to explore whether they might work for me as either a substitute or replacement for the Korda hooks. I have been testing these Gamakatsu Wide Gape Super G-Carp hooks for my last couple of carp fishing sessions. The G-Carp hooks sell for 50% less than the Korda's I have been using.

My only regret is that when I requested feedback from another well-known carp fishermen who has been using these G-Carp hooks exclusively for several months as a "tester" he recommended a size 6 hook. After using the hooks for a couple of sessions I wish I had picked up some size 4's instead.

I have landed a few carp using these G-Carp's, but I have experienced some unexpected hook pulls too. With the Korda's, I had a streak of more than 6 months without a hook pull. In the past couple of sessions I have had 3 hook pulls with the Gamakatsu's. I do not think it's a fair comparison though at this point. While the size 6 G-Carp's are close in size to the size 4 Korda's, the G-Carp size 6's are slightly smaller.

I regret this experience because I do not think it's a good indicator of the potential these hooks provide. Compared to the Korda wide gap's they are very similar. The structure, point, shank and overall design are quite close to the Korda's.

When I place my next order for some carp fishing tackle I am definitely going to include some size 4 G-Carps in the mix. Once received my testing will continue.

Prepping for the Upcoming Year of Carp Fishing

A nice 17 pounder from the fall

I like this time of year. It's still much too cold to fish here locally with temperatures at 2 degrees this morning. But this is the perfect time of the year to begin preparing for what's to come. I love the anticipation and expectations for bigger and better fish when spring finally arrives.

I use this time to scout new spots via Google Maps/Earth and talk to friends about potential new fishing spots. I found a spot on the River Raisin today using that technique.

I also use this time to tie up a bunch of hair rigs. With 14 weeks until warm weather here, if I tie 5 or 6 hair rigs each weekend, I'll have more than 70 pre-tied rigs ready to go. That will keep me fishing for quite a while once the weather breaks. Preparing hair rigs bankside is a highly inefficient use of valuable and what's becoming scare fishing time for me. I prefer to keep 15 to 20 in my Korda rig box safe ready-to-go.

I plan to hit it hard in the spring because starting in mid-summer my time will need to be focused more on my day job responsibilities for several weeks (and possibly months). My time will be limited to weekends and holidays exclusively for a while, but hopefully things will free up toward fall when the bigger fish return.

For anyone trying to build up their supplies for the season, it's a great time to take advantage of a fantastic sale going on at ResistanceTackle.com. I ordered leads, hooks and baiting needles there myself last weekend. When the season gets a little closer I'll pick up some flavored maize, dips and a few dumbbell pop up boilies to round out my carp fishing supplies.

Reusing Old Fish Hooks

Size 4 hook

Before I started carp fishing I didn't really worry a great deal about the hooks I used to catch bluegill, bass and crappie. But fishing for carp is a different story. Sharp hooks are a basic necessity to increase success rates for landing big, bad carp in the net.

I use braided line and when it starts to fray a little I replace it. The line below the swivel down to the hair rig always frays first. The reasons are obvious - the rig drags along the bottom of the lake or river on the retrieve, scrapping against rocks and debris along the way. So early on in my carp fishing exploits, I started replacing old hooks nearly every or every other fishing trip.

Today I found a stash of old hooks in my tackle box. I checked them for sharpness and decided to re-tie some of them (the sharper ones of course).

I'm heading down to Sterling State Park tomorrow, so I might get a chance to try some of them out. If re-using old hooks turns out to be a bad idea, I'll write about it in a future post.

Longer Hooklinks and Shorter Hair Rigs

Last weekend's carp fishing exploits didn't yield many fish. I hooked 7 fish at one point and lost them all to hook pulls. It's time to change it up a little because, although my current techniques using a 3 1/2" hook link and 1" inch hair rig length, yielded me 40 - 50 carp year-to-date 2014. The hook pulls are concerning. I received a tip from a fellow angler with more experience that in warmer weather sometimes a longer hook length and shorter hair rig length work a little better.

I am heading out for a early session tomorrow and tied up some rigs tonight to prepare. I tied up some rigs with size 6 hooks, 5 1/2" hook lengths and 1/2" - 5/8" hair rigs.

Those tips sound reasonable to me. Check back tomorrow evening to see how they worked. Hopefully I'll have plenty of pictures as evidence.

If you want to read more about hook lengths and hair rigs; and how they apply to carp fishing, the article from Big Carp News is a good source of information.