Braided hook lengths

**ekyone** · 05-04-2004, 18:30

Hi ya folks,
Has anyone used braid for hook lengths? I get the feeling it may be too supple and tangle easily, but I want somthing that spider crabs can't snip through or destroy. Its a real pain to make a nice bomber rig only to retrieve it after one cast with the hooks missing. *

**fishingrhod** · 06-04-2004, 11:58

You're right, it will be prone to tangles just like light mono hooklengths but a #### sight harder to sort out. As far as I can see there are two solutions to your problem.

1. Increase the strength of your hooklengths so that you get more abrasion resistance, and make up lots of spares with those dinky Gemini snood clips.
2. Add some sort of float on the hooklength to lift the baits off the bottom. The only problem with this is some species like the bait hard on the bottom, so it may not be appropriate.

Any more ideas out there?

Hope this is of help.

Cheers,
Rhod.

**andy** · 06-04-2004, 13:20

Braid is relatively tangle free if you keep hooklengths short, 9 to 12 inches max. It will however be far to supple for standard paternoster, a running lead set up (or something similar) would have to be used.

I have never used baid in the sea, but I have wondered if it would make a very supple hooklength for Bass?

**ross_the_fishing_dude** · 06-04-2004, 22:09

there was an article by mike thrussle in anglers mail on this subject i think, if i can find it ill type it up.

**ekyone** · 07-04-2004, 17:48

Thanks for the tips lads. does everyone get this problem with spider crabs?

07-04-2004, 18:03

Hi Guys,

Here is that very article:

BAIT ROBBING SPIDER CRAB TACTICS by Mike Thrussell
On south coast, and now unfortunately even in Wales, spider crabs are reaching plague proportions. Cast a bait out from the shore, and often off the boat, and you’ll find your bait shredded in seconds and more often than not your hook will be bitten clean off the mono hook trace.

You can stop the spider crabs nipping through the mono by switching your mono hook snoods for braid. Use 30lb braid for smaller fish like flatties, whiting, gurnards etc, but switch over to the heavier 50lb to 80lb braid for general fishing. The braid is way too tough for the spider crabs claws to sever through, nor can they appreciably damage it. Try cutting braid with normal scissors and you’ll see what I mean.

Stopping them stripping baits in seconds is less easy, as their voracious appetites seem happy to consume anything. The best way is to protect your normal baits with a protective skin of squid. Literally wrap a lug worm, mackerel strip or shellfish fully around with a flat section of squid, then bind it up tight with bait elastic. The tighter the package, the harder it is for the spiders to nip chunks from it. Puncture the squid with the point of a knife to let the bait juices flow out. Not ideal, but it holds them at bay for a few minutes longer giving any nearby fish more time to follow up the scent trail.

Fishing inside estuaries will often find you plagued by shore crabs stripping baits to the bone too. Again you can wrap soft baits like lug and rag in envelopes of squid. Crabs mind, are cannibalistic, but do tend to take much longer to strip away peeler crab flesh than they do mackerel, sandeel or worm baits. It’s worth bearing this in mind.

You can also employ buoyant beads or even bottle corks positioned about 8-inches away from the hook bait to give the bait some lift off the seabed to limit the constant attack of the crab. Think about how much buoyancy you need though. A couple of typical 8mm float beads might lift a small ragworm off the seabed, but it can’t lift bigger baits like mackerel strips, whole small sandeels or small chunks of peeler crab. That’s where cutting suitable half or longer sections from a bottle cork to get the right amount of lift can make all the difference.

It’s a true observation though, that when the crabs are taking your baits, there’s usually no fish around. When the crabs go off the feed and the baits remain intact, trust me, the fish are moving in and you can expect a bite.

Tight Lines

Mike Thrussell Jr - Webmaster