Best super strong barbless eyed hooks?

[Ken L]

Yes, it was good fun. I had a bit of a hiatus in the afternoon on the predator lake but a bit of thinking landed me cats of 40 and 35 as well as the arapaima in the last 30 minutes. When I return in a week or so, I'll implement the new tactics from the get go and see if I can do some serious fishing. I still haven't figured out how to avoid pacu bite offs yet though, without resorting to wire -a no-no with arapaima present.

 

The carp lake session was fun too, but I was fishing alongside an English guy who had paid through the nose for a package and I was out fishing him better than ten to one. When I offered to change the rig, his guide properly got his arse in his hand and wouldn,t let me touch the tackle.

 

Now that I have a better handle on these species, it'll be interesting to see how the ideas translate to a different fishery.

 

BTW. If you ener feel the need to put you hand into the mouth of a big redtail,...........Don't..

I couldn't get the hook with pliers despite being able to see it so I reached in and slipped it free. Mr catty decided to have a chew and my hand came out bruised and bloody - not quite so clever after all......

[Dales]

BTW. If you ener feel the need to put you hand into the mouth of a big redtail,...........Don't..

I couldn't get the hook with pliers despite being able to see it so I reached in and slipped it free. Mr catty decided to have a chew and my hand came out bruised and bloody - not quite so clever after all......

 

They do have some power on them but I have managed to avoid any mishaps with them, but I came stuck (literally) a few years ago with a Sawai. It kicked and just by instinct I craddled it "Carp style" and impaled myself on its pectoral fin. Went in about 2". It's funny now when i think of a cat fish thrashing about while stuck to my forearm but it hurt some when trying to peel it off my arm and work around the hooked end of the spike.

[Ken L]

Managed to pick up a cone disgorger today so no more hand in mouth silliness. I'll leave it with the guides when I go. It'll be especially handy with the arapaima because trying to force their mouths open to unhook them can apparently cause them to drown.

[Ken L]

Fished a Thai run fishing park the other day. Only 50 Baht a day (138 with bait) and it was fun for a while but the Thais turned up latter and their fish handling skills are discusting.

One local set himself up next to me with at least £500 worth of custom rod and reel and like every other local, he was lifting 4-6 kilo catfish from the water by the hookhold and swinging them onto the gravel bank.

At one point, he tangled my line and dragged his fish onto the bank and would have been quite happy to leave it there while I tried to untangle the rigs if I hadn't suggested that he unhook atnd return it.

No wonder the pond was only stocked with catfish - nothing else would survive that sort if treatment.

Certainly contrasts with the carp boys and their wound treatments and unhooking mats.

[Dales]

The average care shown by many thai anglers while fishing is rather shocking by any ones standards. I think we can get over "preachy" in the UK about fish welfare but watching a Thai fish would leave most UK anglers dumb struck.

 

I don't think the idea of playing a fish ever comes in to the mind of an avrage Thai. I do find it odd that many like using huge reels with a clutch when no one uses them. I have also seen many with bait runners but never use the function! The method seems to be strike, hook and hold. The line will either break as the clutch is locked up or If it does not break you winch it straight in as quickly as you can. Hauling it over a concrete bank or gravel path seems to be mandatory, along with leaving it on baking hot concrete while you finish your cigarette or chat to your mates. Those Sawai and Mekongs do seem rather indestructable.

 

I have come to the conclusion that having an expensive high end top spec Japanese reel is seen more as a status symbol in Thailand rather then a useful piece of kit.

[Ken L]

Fished the pond that has the carp in again yesterday. The Thai guide wouldn't let me use my own hooks and insisted that I use theirs because they "Don't damage the fish". This despite the fact that theirs would leave a five times bigger hole. Predictably, their hooks were bloody great meat hooks.

 

I still caught fish but I also lost more as the hooks came adrift because I wasn't prepared to do power strikes to drive then in. There were also plenty of occasions where fish were bumping the feeder but refused to touch the big baits that I was forced to use to cover the hook.These were almost certainly carp.

 

Will fish the other pool tomorrow, where the bigger hooks won,t make a difference. A lad fishing yesterday had a gar out that would have been over 40 kilos. It was a beast of a fish.

[Dales]

That sounds like a right pain with the hooks. Small hooks and small light weight baits does make a big difference with the Carp.

[Ken L]

Yes, small hooks/baits and a braid hooklengh so the bait can move about like the freebees coming off the feeder is the way to go.

I suspect that the imposition of the strict hook policy had more to do with me making them look like muppets in fomt of their premium paying customers than anything to do with fish welfare. I was after all massively out fishing the punters paying almost three times the rate I pay, who were using their rigs and baits.

My counter to the big hook problem was to shorten the hooklink down to three inches. This isn't something that I'd planned on because potentially, it places the feeder right on the fishes cheek but in reality, it always seemed to lock in place well up the line.

I ended up with 7 carp to 40lbs, 2 rohu, 13 sawai, 2 redtailb (on bread!),and a pacu.

On leaving, I spoke to a guy who had fished the other pool and he'd had four fish all day. I had more than that in the last 40 minutes the last time I fished it. In the morning though, I'll implement the tricks that I only worked out in the last couple of hours of my last trip from the get-go.

Screaming reels!

[Ken L]

Didn't quite go as planned. I got bites from gar regularly during the first hour, including from the big one but couldn't get a hookup. I did land a bunch of pacu on suspended fish baits (including some big ones) and then, finally I secured a hookhold on a gar. Not a big one but at about 35lbs, big enough for a trophy shot.

I'd love to have got a photo of it in the water. I swear it was starring straight at me and thrashing and snapping - you could really see where they get the name "Alligator" from - it looked more angry reptile than fish.

After that, it was a change of tactics and the first cast brought me a big red tail in the 40lb range. After that. A hord of small red tails moved in and I alternated between them and the pacu for the remainder of the day.

Several comments were made by the guides about catch rates and I think they got sick of netting fish after a while - especially when there was an instant hookup and they hadn't even had a chance to settle back into a comfy chair. Still, although I only landed two big fish, one of them was another new species.

Edited November 21, 2014 by Ken L