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Posts: 1220
| OK, here’s another possible winternet topic: Like most here, I have stuff I always do, and stuff I never do. But, I’m willing to change my mind. What have you changed your mind about? I’ll lead off with changing out salt water hooks. Not fully aware of when, where, or why, I was one who recognized the usefulness of a lot of saltwater baits but immediately, “right now” changed the hooks. There seemed to be no real argument about this. But I was wrong! Now, fishing actually in salt water half or more of the year, I believe they are superior enough to change out many freshwater baits to saltwater hooks. So, what do you want to admit to having changed? |
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Posts: 3472
Location: Elk River, Minnesota | I've gone back and forth on Fluorocarbon leaders vs wire leaders.
I have switched twice and really the first switch was because it seemed I was getting hits just maybe more often with Fluoro, my hook up ratio went down. Was using heavy fluoro, but decided to go back to wire and hooking ratio went up (I cast about 99.9% of the time). Decided a few years ago to give it a try again, but then had one fish shear right through the Fluoro, so I'm back to wire again.
Steve
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Posts: 20180
Location: oswego, il | Interesting on saltwater hooks, do you find the to be sharper or more durable?
Going back to using slower reels for gliders and jerkbaits. While the high speed is great for picking up slack I don't think the mental cadence is giving the baits enough pause. |
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Posts: 1220
| There’s actually a lot I like with those hooks in addition to the obvious ability to resist corrosion. But you’re right on the chief characteristic, it’s “durable” to an amazing degree. For the most part, they will not bend, straighten out, or fail. You can troll a relatively cheap smallish bait down here in Florida for a whole afternoon, catch twenty huge Jacks or other species that will test your opinion on how tough a Muskie really is, and never sharpen or adjust the bend. The bait will be destroyed, not the hooks. This translates to the confidence to use a lot smaller hooks which can really useful in a lot of musky applications. There are a lot of baits where you might want a smaller hook but don’t want to see it straightened out by a trophy. This provides an option. Obviously, it also allows for a much smaller bait altogether which is appropriate far more often than most of us believe. |
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Posts: 75
| Would the saltwater hooks be more difficult to cut through if you found yourself in a tough spot? |
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Posts: 688
Location: Already Gone | Marty, these are all good points. :0)
You are very fortunate to be there. Salt water is amazing. |
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Posts: 612
| Saltwater hooks are usually made of a stainless steel. Tough stuff hard to cut or break. Personally I prefer them. Go barbless so little need for cutting hooks. |
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Posts: 1220
| NPike - 12/19/2018 2:51 PM
Saltwater hooks are usually made of a stainless steel. Tough stuff hard to cut or break. Personally I prefer them. Go barbless so little need for cutting hooks.
Warning: Here's the "Junkman" side, but there is 400 Series stainless (18%
chromium/balance iron) and the more expensive and corrosion resistant 300 Series which also has 8% Nickel you can ID because it won't stick to a magnet. These saltwater hooks take hard to the magnet and have the tell-tale gray coating which is likely zinc and are probably just "galvanized" steel. Since galvanizing with zinc is a substitute for adding chromium, (Think gray chain-link fencing material) I'm going to guess it is not stainless under the zinc, simply electrolytically applied zinc to ordinary steel. It's the steel making chemistry and process itself that grants all sort of capability and characteristic to the hook, the coating is just to stave off rust for awhile. SORRY...nearly 50 years in the junk biz is hard to shake.
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Posts: 70
| I have switched back to all slow reels 5.1 or lower. I want to fish slower, I have seen some awfully big fish get very interested in slow retrieves. |
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Posts: 612
| Junkman - 12/19/2018 5:21 PM
Warning: Here's the "Junkman" side, but there is 400 Series stainless (18%
chromium/balance iron) and the more expensive and corrosion resistant 300 Series which also has 8% Nickel you can ID because it won't stick to a magnet. These saltwater hooks take hard to the magnet and have the tell-tale gray coating which is likely zinc and are probably just "galvanized" steel. Since galvanizing with zinc is a substitute for adding chromium, (Think gray chain-link fencing material) I'm going to guess it is not stainless under the zinc, simply electrolytically applied zinc to ordinary steel. It's the steel making chemistry and process itself that grants all sort of capability and characteristic to the hook, the coating is just to stave off rust for awhile. SORRY...nearly 50 years in the junk biz is hard to shake.
After thinking about it your right most of the saltwater hooks are high carbon steel construction with a corrosion resistant finish. I'll add that I've never seen a saltwater hook by say Owner or Gamakatsu rust, corrode, break, etc. |
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