Assist Hooks on Hard Bodies

Assist Hooks on Hard Bodies – Rock, Beach & Offshore Fishing

by Fergo’s Tackle World – Taren Point & Wollongong

When fishing off the rocks and beach, assist hooks have been working extremely well for us for a variety of species.

We purposely made the assists MORE visible with flash on some and a little white plastic squid on others. We attached them to several lures, the Pin Tail Lures (bibbed lure), Muscle Shot 90 (small bibbed lure) and the Athlete 9JM (stickbait), unusually heavy for their size. Perfect for casting long distances. The results backed up our theories big time as we caught a heap of fish!

Another huge advantage we found in this session was that with the assists we were far more capable of bouncing these lures off the bottom, like a cross between a metal jig and a hard-body lure. At the back end of the session the fish had dived deep and we were only catching them very close to the bottom. We simply couldn’t have done this with normal hooks, they would have hooked the bottom too easily.

The strength of the hooks was another big advantage as these fish went hard and fought dirty around the rocks. We were able to fight hard back without worrying about trebles tearing out as can often happen in these circumstances. Where we fished with two assists, the fish were always caught on both which obviously spreads the heavy load even better.

This all might not sound like big news for some, but the more we test different lures in different situations with assists, the more excited we get, because it’s a completely new technique for standard hard body lures. If you love using lures, we would love you to help us experiment and show us your successes, send them to us on Facebook!

Happy Experimenting!

“Fergo” Brett Ferguson

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