Light vs. Heavy

[BoldBear]

I can't remember what hooks they were but I used to have some fairly fine wire size 6s that I used to use for breadflake when the chub were extra shy. anyone remember who made them? as I wouldn't mind buying some more. I was able to fish a large piece of breadflake without it behaving abnormally because of the hook weight. and as long as I used a through actioned rod and lightish line I didn't have any hooks straightening.

 

NB. I think they were Drennans but Ill have a look in the shed tonight to see if I still have a packet.

Edited February 12, 2008 by BoldBear

[MikeT]

It's a good point- and I'm absolutely no expert! I'm sure you're quite right, although I don't seem to suffer with any failure to set the hook on a strike. I keep them as sharp as possible with a little sharpening stone every few casts, so perhaps that helps. My rod is very forgiving- a Normark Titan II- which allows very fine hooklengths. But I'm probably doing it all wrong!

 

[cross-posted: in reply to John (gozzer)]

Edited February 12, 2008 by MikeT

[gozzer]

The distance your fishing at comes into it as well Mike. If your using mono' then the stretch will take some of the'sting' out of the strike at a distance. But I would be careful if fishing close in.

 

I too used to have some large fine wire hooks, that were handy when the weight of the hook was a problem, i.e. still, or slow moving water. But find that in faster swims the fish don't have as much time to 'examine' a bait, so slightly 'cruder' end tackle can be used.

 

I can't remember who made them either Boldbear, but I remember that they had a 'blue' tinge to them, and were very sharp.

 

John.

[MikeT]

John Weddup mentioned the Kamasan B511 pattern, above, which has a nice fine wire. The can be used in bigger sizes for bigger baits, and proportionately finer hooklengths. That tip about using such hooks on waters stocked with more powerful fish than your target species (so they straighten or pull out rather than breaking off) is brilliant.

[kleinboet]

Being restricted to still waters (with one or two exceptions), I tend to compromise - I have hollow elastic fitted in my pole and use 4lb prestretched line and an 18 hook, which allows me to catch Roach, Rudd, small skimmers and small perch, but allows me a safety net if a big lump comes along (which they often do!)

[Dick Dastardly]

Au Lion D’Or make some extremely fine wired,blued hooks. Were they the ones? When I to have used bread flake for chub on trout waters I tend to use these with a 3lb mainline/hooklength as they can take a good sized lump of flake,land anything if you go carefull but straighten easily if you wish.I've only used them up to size 10 but belive they went up to a 6?

[Stretpegger]

Although i would now class myself as an allrounder i too have a matchfishing background so i suspect i still fish lighter than a more " traditional " big fish angler.This is due in no small part to the fact that maggots,casters hemp & tares still play a massive part in my fishing.These baits my their very nature will always be more acceptable to the fish on fine tackle.I definitely do not advocate light tackle just for the sake of it but modern rod technology and the new breed of hi tech lines will allow you to excert considerable pressure on light tackle.

Some of the more enlightened specimen anglers have taken match techniques on board,i believe Andy Little recently attributed some of his success to his willingness to adapt to a lighter approach where necessary.

[the golden one]

Light all the way as long as the tackle you are using is strong enough to land your chosen quarry

[Steve Burke]

For me the fight that a fish gives isn't the main consideration, although I like a good scrap as much as the next angler.

 

The more difficult it is to catch the fish the more pleasure I get. The fight is only the culmination of a campaign to catch it. Before then comes other factors such as location and feeding. This will start before the day of the fishing trip, which is why I call it a campaign.

 

Of course the most difficult fish to catch are often, but not always, the largest of their species. So in that respect I'm often a specimen hunter.

 

However, unlike a lot of my specimen hunter friends, I do sometimes use light tackle. That might be because I've done a greater percentage of my fishing for the smaller species, often landed unexpected bigger fish and so have more confidence in light gear. Additionally, in my perch fishing I've had to learn how to catch bait quickly, often in difficult conditions, and that almost invariably means using light tackle and thinking like a match angler.

 

That said, I'd much rather catch just the one big fish I'm after rather than a succession of smaller ones and lose the big one trailing line as my tackle was too light.

 

In that respect I'm like Dick Walker, who put forward the same view in his introduction to the classic specimen hunting book "Still-water Angling". That was the bible for anglers of my generation and many of us were immensely influenced by it.

 

Dick pointed out for the first time that you could catch big fish deliberately and often. Before then specimens were considered "fish of a lifetime".

 

To target them he explained that we'd catch more specimens if we deliberately use tactics to avoid small fish. One of the problems of catching big fish is that there are so many more little ones that get to the bait first. However in the majority of cases you can increase your chances of catching a big fish by using a big bait that the small fish can't manage. Not always of course, as in some circumstances you may need to use a small bait even for the big fish.

 

If you're using a big bait there's less need for light tackle. This is because on most waters it's not so much the visibility of the line that puts the fish off, rather it's the lack of suppleness as this affects how naturally the bait behaves. All other things being equal, the thinner the line the more supple it is.

 

In turn this means that with big baits you can get away with heavier line. Which is just as well as you may need the extra strength to land the bigger fish that eat the bigger baits, especially if you fishing in weedy swims that often attract the bigger fish anyway.

 

However, and this is I'd like to stress, I don't always fish for difficult fish. There are days when I just want some action and then I'm quite happy to go "tiddler bashing" as some of my friends call it.

 

Today is one such day. I'm taking my brother-in-law and his son (neither of whom are experienced anglers) to a commercial. In the bright conditions bites are likely to be a premium so light tackle will probably be needed.

 

And as they've just arrived I better disappear!

[BoldBear]

I was looking for some information to give another angler last night when I came across one of my old fishing logs from 1975 and was surprised at the light tackle I used to use for Tench and large Chub (well they were large in those days) ie, I used to fish a local pit for tench from 0400 till 0800 then go to work but I was amazed to see that I regularly used 2lb line to catch large bags of 3lb to 4.5lb plus tench on the float and didn't lose any (or hardly any). I also used to fish Kings Weir on the Lea when the old weir was there and caught lots of Chub from 3lb up to 5lb 6oz legering with 3lb line and a small link leger (5AAs) and still didn't lose fish even though we were fishing amidst loads of potential sunken snags in turbulent water.

 

Today I would generally use 6lb line for the chub in a snaggy weir and a minimum of 4lb for those Tench, maybe it was because the line was much thicker in those days and I needed to fish finer to get the bites? I'm not sure; but it shows that you can fish finer if your tackle is well balanced.

Edited February 13, 2008 by BoldBear