hook advice please

[starlight]

The carp in the barrage that i am fishing have never seen hooks before and they fight like absolute head cases!. I lost my best fish to date this morning an easy 20 plus mirror. After managing to turn it from 2 immense runs towards snags, i got it in front of me when the hook pulled i straight away noticed that the hook had straightened. I use drennan super specimen size 6 and in 20 years it is the first time this hook has let me down. The last thing i need is to lose confidence in my hooks but these carp are awesome and i am flat out trying to keep their heads up, so i think that i might need a change. Any advice any one can give me on a really good carp hook that is definitely better and stronger that the one that i am using would be greatly appreciated.

thanks.

[poledark]

Caught hundreds of carp up to mid thirties on Super specalists, never had a problem yet

 

The other good hook is a B175, heavier in the wire.

 

Den

[starlight]

Caught hundreds of carp up to mid thirties on Super specalists, never had a problem yet

 

The other good hook is a B175, heavier in the wire.

 

Den

same here Den, they have never let me down but the way these carp fight has to be seen to be believed! is the B175 a kamasan?

[carphead100]

same here Den, they have never let me down but the way these carp fight has to be seen to be believed! is the B175 a kamasan?

 

Yer I agree with Den in that I have never had any problems with Super specalists.

[trevor2003]

Have you considered ESP Raptors or Korda wide gapes, if you fancy a change, but the hooks your using are normaly ok, could as with all hooks, be a bad batch, but normaly if it's that, tends to be the hook point being blunt or the edge coming off easly, but it could be possible they can be straightning if a dodgy batch.

[Dick Dastardly]

Anglers pull hooks out not fish.

[starlight]

Anglers pull hooks out not fish.

i agree Budgie, so what do you suggest i do? just let them run where they want and hope they miss any snags?

[Elton]

When I get round to it, I'll list the last of my Ashima RDS2's and RDS3's for sale. If you can break one of those, I want a ticket to wherever it is you're fishing!

[Newt]

Gamakatsu makes a series of hooks they call G-point. They might be worth a look. I suspect they will land a boat if you happen to hook one and your line does not give up.

 

When Hoppy4 hosted the Burgess brothers and me on his Potomac River swim last weekend I had a chance to try rigs he'd tied with them and am as impressed as this reviewer was.

 

http://www.fishingwarehouse.co.uk/section/...mp;categoryid=3

 

The make a similar one called G-carp with the A1 version a 'camo' hook. I intend to order some of them to try myself. Not sold in the US as far as I know so I will need to source them from the UK or Europe somewhere.

 

http://www.gamakatsu.nl/html/english/camou.asp

[Dick Dastardly]

i agree Budgie, so what do you suggest i do? just let them run where they want and hope they miss any snags?

 

No of course not.I would sugest that you look at the type of rod you are using and your playing technique in this particular situation.

 

Most times you can work it out and land most of your fish but in some situations this is just not possible and then you really need to evaluate the percentage of lost (and often therefore damaged) fish to see wether you should really continue fishing the particular swim.

 

More specific to the situatyion you describe in your initial post though- you mention the hook pulled at the net.This is inevitably the time it happens the most as this is when the angler is putting/is able to put the most pressure on a fish.Easy answer is to go a lot more carefull at the netand not get over excited and try to bully the fish those last few inches over the cord.

 

Im still suprised to here of the hook straightening as Drennan hooks normally break before straightening! Try a thicker guage wired hook such as one of the many Owner heavy hooks.This will help in two ways one by not straightening/breaking and secondly will not cut/rip through the flesh so easily.

 

Ive hooked carp all over the world and never came across any "super fighters" just different conditions which help them.