# Salmon lures



## RhubarbTheYeti (Oct 28, 2013)

I know this question was the subject of a previous thread but as it was a while ago I just wondered what current thinking was on hooks to minimise loss of salmon when beach fishing due to their violent headshakes.
StevenR mentioned his initial testing of singles vs trebles with little difference in catch rate. Any update from this season?
I also seem to remember different ideas for limiting the leverage the salmon on the lure when headshaking such as using several split rings between treble and lure or rigging it as a stinger.
I have had a few frustrating sessions on the beach lately losing fish to headshaking just as I had them beached


----------



## Stealthfisha (Jul 21, 2009)

Owner hooks?
8 in 10 are landed....not sure apart from good quality hooks and constant pressure...does this help?


----------



## RhubarbTheYeti (Oct 28, 2013)

Well, not having changed the treble before the last session as I had intended didn't help. Dragging the lure through the sand at the end of the retrieve definetly doesn't help with sharpness.
My question was more about ideas I have read on here and heard elsewhere that connecting lure to treble with a more flexible method (multiple rings, mono, braid) reduces the inertia imparted on the lure by headshaking.


----------



## spork (Jan 21, 2012)

Gaff hook? :lol:


----------



## suehobieadventure (Feb 17, 2009)

I have found that keeping the tension on the line and using the incoming wave greatly decreases the losses on the beach. You will always lose some though, my beach fishing mate always outfishes me still :shock: Still love it though.


----------



## Guest (Jan 3, 2014)

This season here is so far not the season. They seem to be hanging out wide and when they do come in they don't seem to be interested in lures  Just the odd bait fisho catching one only. There are very few birds about so probably not a lot of baitfish yet.

My most recent experiment with hooks was Mustad Big Guns. The point of the hook ends closer to the shaft than any previous hook types tried and they seems to have a better retention rate. My record fish landed without loss using them is a session of 24 about July or maybe August. However I'm not prepared to say they are better until big salmon turn up again in good numbers. Recently tailor (40-45cm) have been sporadic at best. Between too many doughnut session I've lost 3 from 21. Two of those were due to a reel seizing (later found to be a spare loose screw under the spool - not my doing)!

EDIT: I don't feel Big Guns dig into the sand at my favourite fine-sand sand flat location.

Meanwhile, I'm fairly sure salmon spit 15g lures far less than the 50g lures I find necessary to reach wide sand banks as the fish retreat from shore. With the effects of weight and leverage in mind, in the last week or so modification began on salmon lures to remove rear hooks and add home-made assist hooks. I'm not happy with my first attempts pictured below but its a start.

The one on the left (Halco twisty) has no glue on the knot (but will test fishing it as is, relying on shrink wrap to stop knot slippage) 
The next lure was the first attempt. The super glue made the knot a fraction loo large for the shrink.
The third was done as a second unglued knot test. 
The next two (cast into a gale lures) will get glued & finished after finding right diameter shrink wrap.

Aside from sorting the shrink wrap/glue issue, next step will be to fiddle with the position of the hook to try to minimise deep hooking. Once happy, there's 20 meters of assist cord on the reel to make up batches and making assist hooks for King jigs is on the list.

The hooks in the photo are not Big Guns but are eBay cheapies. Very strong, very sharp but they rust (not a problem at the price) and the eye is small, making it difficult to get 150lb assist cord through once, let alone twice. Angle-trimming and a lot of patience is required. A different strong hook with larger eye is on the shopping list.










If you want to try some 25g assist hooked lures ready made and at a very reasonable price:
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/5-X-25g-...Accessories_Tackle&hash=item461223e706&_uhb=1

or 50g
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/4-X-50g-...Accessories_Tackle&hash=item46144b4103&_uhb=1

I bought a pair of less gaudy ones from the same supplier early last year (2013) but they came with bad mojo - both lost in about half an hour without hooking a fish.


----------



## rodrocket (Apr 24, 2012)

Hiya Rhubarb,
I am a convert to single hooks now.
Have replaced every treble on almost every lure.
I use only one single at rear and my hookup rate has not changed. I still catch nothing :lol: 
No, I jest. There is no real change.
What is a wonderous thing is that I no longer catch trebles on everything they touch, and am able to release fish easily if needed with minimal damage  
I am using straight eye hooks of different sizes. Black Magic do a range, and Owner do upright straight eyes, so you don't even need to add an extra split ring. I rig hook so point is facing upwards.
Try a couple. Nothing to lose really  
Cheers, Rod
btw. This fu***** wind is driving me spare :twisted:


----------



## RhubarbTheYeti (Oct 28, 2013)

rodrocket said:


> Hiya Rhubarb,
> I am a convert to single hooks now.
> Have replaced every treble on almost every lure.
> I use only one single at rear and my hookup rate has not changed. I still catch nothing :lol:
> ...


Tell me about it. Blowing an absolute gale here today and have hardly had any yak time in last week or so coz it won't stop blowing. Hence the beach spinning for salmon - fine with an offshore wind. Not so good when wind suddenly turns northerly when at the southern most end of walk down the beach spinning - was only able to cast half as far on the way back.
Thanks for hook advice too, I will give a try for the same reasons - less damage to fish for release and less damage to everything that those pesky trebles seem to catch up on


----------



## rodrocket (Apr 24, 2012)

Owner, size 1 Model S-75M are the ones I use for flathead and salmon. Also good for large trout if you can find them ;-)
There are other sizes, but these ones are a good allrouder and suit 3-4" H/B lures as well as spoons and blades.
Cheers.


----------



## RhubarbTheYeti (Oct 28, 2013)

Thanks rod, will make the change soon.
Have given up on trout - have never made the licence pay for itself - either in fish or fun


----------



## Agro (Jan 4, 2013)

and another thing, back the drag off. Tight lines...


----------



## Geoffw (Jan 23, 2011)

Yeti , In relation to single versus treble I cant say either way with sambos as I havent tried however I have tried single rear hooks on hard bodies when trolling for snook. I have missed more strikes for sure. The good news is those that are caught are easily removed from lure and net! I am happy to lose fish. Look forward to hearing how you go. PS looks like another week of strong winds to go.


----------



## Geoffw (Jan 23, 2011)

Another thought..... I have heard a local fishing guru talk of a home made salmon lure. Line through whatever size ball weight you need to get out, through a piece of plastic tubing attached to a single hook. Apparently the tubing being pulled through the water creates a stream of little bubbles that are very attractive to the sambos.


----------



## RhubarbTheYeti (Oct 28, 2013)

Similar to a technique I picked up in WA for catching Tommy Ruff off the rocks - one of those hard plastic floats with a hole through the side, rigged pointy end to rod tip, with a short leader off it to a hook with thin red tube above it. Cast out, wind in, float creates that bubble trail, tommies leap onto the hook


----------



## RhubarbTheYeti (Oct 28, 2013)

Well not having been to the tackle shop for singles yet I replaced the treble on my lure (for a slightly smaller one coz thats all I had) and went down the beach for a quick spin before the rain set in again and look what happened 








For scale thats my size9 boot.
Put up a great fight with heaps of leaping from the water like a barra  
A few casts later and my leader got caught on a guide and the lure disappeared over the horizon and then the rain set in so its off back to the tackle shop I go
Happy Yeti


----------



## Guest (Jan 6, 2014)

Nice fish.

If you leader passes through your guides when you cast, check your leader knot. If the tag end is more than a couple of mm long, its a recipe for disaster as a couple of New Zealanders learned when my 50g lures knocked their hats off. I now use just enough leader to cast without the knot passing through the guides (which is where using a quality clip to change lures quickly instead of a loop knot becomes useful). However, it's not really necessary to use a leader at all for salmon and tailor. They really don't seem to care about anything other than catching the flashy thing trying to get away from them.

Where did you get the waterproof surf boots?


----------



## RhubarbTheYeti (Oct 28, 2013)

SteveR said:


> Nice fish.
> 
> If you leader passes through your guides when you cast, check your leader knot. If the tag end is more than a couple of mm long, its a recipe for disaster as a couple of New Zealanders learned when my 50g lures knocked their hats off. I now use just enough leader to cast without the knot passing through the guides (which is where using a quality clip to change lures quickly instead of a loop knot becomes useful). However, it's not really necessary to use a leader at all for salmon and tailor. They really don't seem to care about anything other than catching the flashy thing trying to get away from them.
> 
> Where did you get the waterproof surf boots?


Righto, might try doing without the leader and see how I go.
Tag ends weren't the prob, was a nice smooth knot, leader broke a couple of inches from knot. Not having the knot pass through the guides isn't possible as with my 10'6" light surf/spin rod I find I get my best casts with the 25g lure only a few inches from the rod tip - but I will try with the braid straight through to the lure.

As for the boots - haha - its new in the range of Rossi boots


----------



## Guest (Jan 7, 2014)

RhubarbTheYeti said:


> Not having the knot pass through the guides isn't possible as with my 10'6" light surf/spin rod I find I get my best casts with the 25g lure only a few inches from the rod tip - but I will try with the braid straight through to the lure.


It sounds like your are casting like Lee Rayner. There's nothing wrong with that but to get around that issue of the amount of lure drop from rod tip, you may need to think about your casting technique. John Holden has some good material on his youtube channel. I don't use any of his techniques but worked out something after looking at the easy cast and pendulum cast that tosses a lure a reasonable distance without tumbling and still gets it relatively close to the target.


----------



## RhubarbTheYeti (Oct 28, 2013)

Each to their own, thats the technique I've found that suits me and my rod which is very light by surf rod standards with a whippy tip and fast taper. I find I can cast a 25g lure an absolute mile with it with a comfortable action pivoting on my left leg like a baseball pitcher


----------



## Firstfrontier (Dec 29, 2013)

I too change from treble to single hooks on my hard bodies (halco twisty love it


----------



## spork (Jan 21, 2012)

Just got home from a week @ Swansea (aka windiest bloody place ever) and the fishing was crap.
Did smash the salmon yesterday however. While they will hit just about anything, the "steel blue" Striketiger was very effective as always, but the real standout was the Damiki Ripper in clear motor oil, closely followed by the shrimp and D-grub in the same colour. I could only fish one rod at a time with these and had a ball with the MCF mhx 2-4kg rod, 2004 size reel and 4lb leader.


----------



## RhubarbTheYeti (Oct 28, 2013)

nezevic said:


> There's a bloke on Noosa north shore called Lindsey Dines. He fishes the surf for tailor amongst other things on a lure that he makes himself. It's a chrome slug style lure which slides on a wire trace. The idea being that a jumping fish cannot use the inertia of the lure to dislodge it from the jaw. Could be worth thinking about.


Heard the same thing in SA but without the wire, for salmon. Thread heavy mono through rings on lure, attach to treble via another split ring or swivel - when fish shakes head the lure just slides up the line rather than applying sideways pressure to hooks.
Should have tried this before. Will give it a go if I can get my tendonitis sorted


----------



## Guest (Jan 13, 2014)

My experience is when chasing salmon you need a hard lure for the days the tailor find it first. Even then, any coating gets chewed off before too long as per the example picture. Some of the enamel missing from that lure was due to wear on sand. Obvious missing chunks were due to mean fish. That level of damage was done in about 1 month (fishing 3 hours most days). It remained a prolific fish catcher another week or two after the photo before retiring on a rock.

That's front and back, not before and after.


----------

