John Keane
Well-known member
She’d certainly help to avoid any pelvic or hip damage for us older blokes.
Be like bumping a big marshmallow! mg:
How the heck do we get from spade end to minge, phhht.
Blame @mikench for fantasizing about Nigella. :wh
Mike, what do you need hooklengths for? Unless your targetting particularly shy educated fish your creating a weak spot in your set up for nothing .
There's one minor snag here, if Mike is ever going to use spade end hooks, he still needs to learn to tie them somehow. Whether he persists in using hooklinks (as he does with pre-tied) is largely immaterial. Besides, having a deliberately created weaker link is hardly a terrible thing, especially for a relative novice. I would suggest that the majority of experienced anglers won't fish straight through, preferring the safety first aspect of using a hooklink that will break before their mainline.
That's fair enough, but Mike still needs to learn to tie a spade end hook somehow. Whether it's direct to mainline or a hooklink is largely immaterial.The waters i've fished where I know Mike frequents there is no need for a hooklength unless there's a lack of bites. The places aren't at all snaggy being purpose built commy type venues so the chance of being broke off by a fish puulling back are very slim and can be practically eliminated by playing the fish rather than trying to scull drag it out. Regarding the loss of floats in a tree, more often than not the mainline gets wraped up amongst the twigs also and so the lines gonn'a snap anyhow....that's why there are so many floats with an acompanying bundle of line hanging in trees on venues. I've found that my hook usually opens up before my line snaps when fishing straight through or the line snaps off around the shotting area.
Thanks for all your replies. I remain on a learning curve and there are waters which do have snags and overhanging branches. I enjoy the trials and tribulations of fishing, including messing, tying hooklengths, respooling reels, buying tackle and trying every known bait. I only started this lark as a lad of a certain age and won't live long enough to master it but I will, literally and metaphorically , die trying. I've got a new pin to try next along with a few new rods, my hooklengths, new boots and a few other gems. I still have fish to catch.
I also do mine all by hand. Down to an 18s then it's my fingers that are too thick. Learned the trick before all the hook tiers and most hooks were spades in the older days, honest? You just have to keep a tight line off the spool.