The Taste Of A Hook

[Peter Waller]

Going to the rejection of a lure factor. I have no doubt that since the advent of soft bodied lures my catch rate has definately increased, and I put this down to 'feel'. There have been times when a soft bodied bait is almost rolled into a ball and at the back of a pikes mouth. That doesn't happen with plugs! It might also explain why circle hooks are good, they lay flat rather than proud, as a treble does.

 

Zehead, only very partially Asian, Gran was Romani. If the great Asian Migration theory is right, and I am sure that it was, then that will explain my craving for curries, and why I hate being cooped up in an office, like now.

[chesters1]

maybe a herring liking pike

[Peter Waller]

They are rare, Chesters. At 10p each longshore herrings are good value, but try telling that to a pike. Smelt up my way are a 'yes', herrings a definate 'no'.

[chesters1]

fussy at 10p a throw ,are they fit for humans i fancy a herring grilled in oats

[Peter Waller]

Perfect grilled.

[Guest rabbit]

I would have thought hooks would not be that important as to why pike eject. Surely a perch dorsal fin would be as least as a potential pain sensation as a hook or hooks. Maybe the pain receptors are switched off the moment the pike attacks? Perhaps the taste receptors too.

 

Do pike have a covering over the eyes like sharks when they attack?

[Peter Waller]

Perch fins, if taken from the front, lay flat, which takes us back to the way an eel deadbait is best rigged thread. A treble hook doesn't lay flat!

 

I don't think that pike have an eye covering whatsoever, and they can't see what they hit, apparently. Their eyes are set back, in groves, so to speak, presumably so they can aim at their prey. I understand that they can't see a small fish at the end of their mouths at the time of contact.

 

I do know that when jerking a surface bait, if I use too much wellie, the pike will strike but often miss. Apparently, in that last fraction of time, if the bait / target is jerked out of where the pike judged it to be, then it will probably miss. So small jerks are the better option.

 

Not always a case of a pike veering off at the last moment, more a case of the lure taking avoiding action.

[Dick Dastardly]

Cor! lots of stuff hear.

 

Peter, re salt Increasing the amount of "salt taste" in soft plastics has been a very common thing amongst the US Pro Bass guys for some time now Peter.I didnt realise this was part of the basic manufacturing process for plastic though.

 

A lot been made about salts attraction for fish both with soft lures in the US and carp here in the UK.

 

Never bothered flavouring lures myself but I know Newts country men are in to flavouring both soft plastics and hard baits.They even have little foot operated "flavour pots" on their boats to dip the lure in each(?) cast.Im sure Newt could post a picture for us.

 

The US anglers have always lead the way with artificial lures and its taken us a long time to switch on to this method,maybe we should take note of this lure fl;avouring lark? How is it viewd in the US Newt,as a standard practice or just a different idea?

 

This old buisness of smell/taste.Both are similar but also different! A bit double dutch but I will try and explain.

 

With artificial flavourings (which is a bit of a misnomer in itself!) the smell and taste often bear no resemblance! Go on get out a bottle of carp flavouring and try it.For instance a lovely strawberry smell can taste bitter and not at all pleasant.No doubt in my mind why the fish like the "taste" of some of the flavourings that "smell" terrible.

 

The particles that form the smell for us humans are carried by air,a fishs is carried by a different medium ie water.This means that for a fish the actual "sense" of taste and smell are more or less the same. A fish can therefore "taste" something without direct contact much as we can smell some thing. Im struggling to explain this but hope you see what Im saying!

 

All fish can be easy to catch or difficult to catch.More acurately in this instance we are discussing fish that are "wary" or "confident".I feel there are two main reasons for these two different feeding modes.One is that the fish is either hungrey or not and the other wether it is "at ease" or feels "threatened" Nothing much we can do about influencing the first one but the second we can try to by a stealthy aproach and subtle presentation. Using smaller hooks for any "threatened" or cautious fish has long been standard practice regardless of species.

 

I dont think pike learn as they arnt caught enough times for them to learn from experience.Even though carp are repeatedly caught I think that far to much is made of them learning from experience and becoming "clever" enough to "learn" ways around getting hooked on various rigs etc. I base this on hours of actual observation both in and out of the water.This is the only way to really understand whats going on as the resulting bleeps,knocks etc at the rod end can easily be mis interpreted.

As an example I will quote the buisness of "twitcher hitting" back in the late 70's early 80,s when the problem was caused by confident feeding and not cautious feeding as initialy thought!

 

As for pike "blowing" baits out I will say one thing,I bet every time any of you have seen this its been in the margins eh? (oh BTW Ive seen this with both lures and naturals) I put it that the reason they have ejected the bait is because they have become aware of you.

 

On the subject of bare hooks.I know some of you on here have seen the rig I caught the now record carp from Collingbrook on. (yes Im that sad I kept it and still carry it around in my carp box as a memento!) For those who havnt its a Rod Hutchinson size 6 with an "up and down" hair arrangement,the top hair having a couple of beads and poly balls painted to look like hemp and the bottom hair some beads and shot painted the same. This was fished over a massive bed of hemp.As it was critically balanced the carp only had to suck up some hemp nearby and the rig would shoot (as indeed it did) into the carps mouth. If I had had the ba11s to fish just a bare critically balaced hook Im quite sure the result would have been the same.

 

Scared of the taste of the hook? No Im still not convinced.

Edited December 4, 2005 by BUDGIE

[Newt]

Gary Yamamoto started making soft plastics with some sort of process that was new at the time. They were so salt loaded that they had significantly higher weight than the usual types. Fairly expensive for soft plastics and much more fragile than most - a byproduct of the high salt content I think.

 

We did (and still do) buy them because they are so effective. The pros who fish the big money tourneys are allowed a day or two for prefishing the venue where the tourney will be held and most of them opt to fish lures with no points on their hooks since they are looking for feeding fish but don't want to catch them. I've read a number of articles where they would pre-fish a yamamoto soft plastic and actually net some of the fish when the fish refused to turn loose of the lure.

 

Is this a matter of 'taste'? Beats me but I can tell you I've caught lots of fish on high-salt plastics and these days, there are lots of companies with their own version of salty lures.

 

Budgie - there are lots of pred anglers in the US who would as soon fish without their rod as without their scents. When the fish are really active I don't bother but you can be sure that when the bite is slow, I reach for my bottle of Bang! although I haven't gone to the extent of a foot-operated container. OTOH, I do not fish competitively.

[TheMargins]

Excellent post Budgie.