scratching

Hello all,
I fished the Mossy Roche Open yesterday in Woodstown and couldn't believe the amount of fish caught by a lot of the anglers.

I'm new to this type of fishing as the majority of my fishing would be bass and cod. Big hooks and big baits would be my norm.

I used size 1 hooks as i thought they were small (by my standards) and 2 people that I spoke to while fishing commented on how large my hooks were. I'm sure there is more to it than just hook size but did miss a lot of bites that I felt should have been hook ups.

Anyway just looking for some pointers or your preferences when fishing for our smaller fined friends

3 hook flappers armed with size 4 hooks....a bit of worm up the shank, long thin sliver of skinned squid to tip with.

Did I hear somewhere that Grauvell make the 'smallest' size 4 hooks on the market?

dam 'sumo'(or suma?) or varivas semi-circles are a very small size four. heard grauvell do a small spade end size four. used for gars when a lightweight hook is needed to keep bait up with a small floaty. have not seen the grauvell in tackleshops yet?

Haven't seen the Grauvell one's myself. I have a few different brands of circle hooks - they are pretty small. Might be just the job for after dark when there are piles of little coaley and whiting about.

While I'm not a fan of hooks under about a 2 myself as you get too many non-counting flats, a small 4 is probably the only way to get the small rounds in.

Thanks for the info lads. I have never used semi-circles. From what I gather they are supposed to help with lip hooking the fish :?:

Would you, for example, on a 3 hook flapper use say 2 snoods to small hooks and then one to something bigger say a 1/0 or whatever in case something bigger comes along or is it a case of if something bigger comes along its as likely to hit a small bait as a large one....?

I tend to use that setup when I think there might be a chance of a Bass Pete. :wink:

I fish a 3 hook flapper with the 3rd snood just above the lead. Size 1 or 1/0 on the top hook with a bigger bait. Last two snoods are Circles , semi circles (both size 1 or 1/0) or size 4 Aberdeens. I'm still working with the circles and semi's when pleasure fishing and so far out of 20 plus flounder on these hooks only one has been gut hooked. Semi's need to be razor sharp as they tend to sometimes hook in the roof of the mouth as well as the edge or lip.

I'll keep you guys informed.

Kev

pleasure fishing...whats that - non competition :P

only messing

Spot on Coby..... I haven't tried those hook in comps yet.

Kev