Tail hook thoughts

[Rockfish9]

Nummy pretty much echoed my thoughts....because I fish at night, slow is my montra, the tail hook works to keep that in check in most ( not all) cases...

as he said for the most part, big bass enhale their meal.... back before I carried a camera on board and everything went to the market, I had a 54lb bass enhale a goo goo eye that was being trolled on wire in the mouth of the river.... an average outgoing tide runs around 3 knots... I was crawling up against it.. this fish sucked in the plug and blew it out it's gills, how the plug made it by the rakers is a mystery to me.. the plug was imbedded in the back of the fishes skull....all three hooks...what that means I dont know.. a single hook would have been enough that night actualy no hook at all... 90% of my surface caught bass ( swimmers and poppers ) are caught on the front hook, the rear one, usualy acts as a gaff ...smaller fish tend to be the ones caught on the aft hooks...and I hate blue fish and would rather catch nothing... all that said.... I put rear hooks on most of my baits...

[Tagger]

favirote set up is 2 belly trebles and a flag .. I dropped the siwash tail hook ... Too many fish gaffed in the side or the eyeball with the dam thing ..

[PNG]

Originally Posted by Tagger

Too many fish gaffed in the side or the eyeball with the dam thing ..

x2+everyone else whom said the same. While I would be upset if I had and have dropped a biggy it wouldn't last long there's more out there...its just a fish. the big fish I have lost have been because of the siwash straightening. However some plugs need it so when I can not use one I dont

[Diggin Jiggin]

I usually go out of my way to avoid having more than 1 belly hook.
Almost every time I've ended up with a hook in me, its been unhooking a fish on a plug with 2 belly trebles.

Most of the tubes in my bag are narrow so a plug with a tail hook and 1 belly hook slide in with the belly hook hanging on the top of the tube. I think I've only got 3 spots forplugs with multiple belly hooks.

I decided to fish bigger plugs this year and most are set up with 2 belly hooks and need them to swim right. I'll probably end up doing 2 belly and a siwash tail. And now I think I need a bigger bag...

[Tagger]

do like a tail hook on a needle and a darter though and a spook .. I guess just metal lip flag .. ..

[Back Beach]

Originally Posted by Diggin Jiggin

And now I think I need a bigger bag...

I'm just thinking about how easy eel fishing is compared to this plug crap and wondering how long I'll stay with it....

[Mr. Krinkle]

Originally Posted by Back Beach

I'm just thinking about how easy eel fishing is compared to this plug crap and wondering how long I'll stay with it....

With all these plugs your making, i'd say your hooked! Ever since I started building I rarely fish eels, which is probably stupid.

I can honestly say that I have never caught a bass over 10lbs that has been caught on the tail hook that I can remember.

I fish one location that has an extremely fast current. While fishing this location, The rear treble has allowed me to catch a bunch of decent size bass, high teens to 30lbs, that I feel I would have not been able to land if the rear treble hadn't stuck them along the side of the body. I fish lures in this spot with rear trebles just for this reason.

[Ed White]

Front Hook = Bass!
Tail Hook = Blues!
Middle Hook = Me!