Northwest Fishing Reports

Suffering from spring fever and jonesin for some spring time pike fishing, I went back and was reading some pike fishing posts. I was reading one by Fish n Fool and saw where he said he had missed several fish that bit on swimbaits.

During the 2010 season, I took a young man pike fishing, and he was throwing the soft plastic swimbaits. I watched him miss a half dozen fish and listened to him complain about how he always gets bites on them but he has trouble hooking up. I had the same problem in the past and got tired of being in the right place, throwing the right bait, at the right time, only to see the fish strike the bait and swim away unhooked. I actually had several of this type bait in my boat so I started thinkin, "How can I get these fish to hook up on this bait?" That kid missed one more fish and I finally had the answer pop in to my head. I have a plastic box in my boat that contains leader making components. I took a new red treble hook, and attached it to a figure 8 made from 30lb test coated wire and a crimp sleeve.(see attached photos) I had a bait threading needle in my boat from a previous invention. I stuck the needled through the top of the swimbait just in front of the tail and out the slot I had cut in the bottom of the bait. I pulled the wire "8" through the bait, and embedded one leg of the treble hook in the top of the bait. I screwed the bait onto the front of a 7/0 swimbait hook and threaded the tip of the hook through the front loop of the figure 8, then out the top of the bait like normal. I tossed it back to him and said, "Try this and see how it works". He went 6 for 6 using that setup. No misses. I know there are stinger hooks available out there but I have never liked the line they have hanging out on top of the bait. It would be easly for the teeth of a pike to shread that line since it appeared to be a braid of some kind. My stinger attachment line was wire and was threaded through the bait where it couldn't be seen. The loop around the hook allowed the tail of the bait to continue to work just as it did without the extra hook. The two legs of the treble hook sticking out made the bait less weedless but it didn't seem to be a big problem. We did this with about 2 hours left in the day. I would like to have seen how many fish he would put in the boat if he used it all day. The kid took that same bait pike fishing with him a few days later and claims he caught every fish that hit it. I suppose it would be possible for this trailer to come off the main hook but I would say 6 for 6 was pretty good. It would be tough for the loop to make it's way over the barb and off the main hook. I just don't see it happening. Maybe others have tried this before, I don't know. I'm not claiming to be a genius or anything, I just thought I would put it out there for others to see and try. I remember seeing another forum post a while back asking how to get more hook ups on swimbaits. Sometimes the answer is right in front of us and we just don't see it until a pike comes along and bites the tail off of our swimbait.

Happy Fishing

Is that a yum money swimbait? It looks like your able to increase or decrease the size of either loop. By off centering the crimp. If slipping the loop over the swimbait hook point and barb. Then sliding the crimp forward, before crimping, making the loop smaller or tight to the shank if desired. Would be much like snugging a neck tie tight around the collar. This would be more permanent, but could not come off unless cut with wire nippers. I like what you have engineered.

I have been taking treble hooks, tie 8 or 10lb test to it. Cut the line to a working length. Thread the opposite end through a needle. Then the needle through the swimbait from the bottom, at a angle, up towards the bend in the hook of a lead head jig. That is in the swimbait. Pull the needle and line threaded in it, completely out of the swimbait. Pull on the tag end until the treble is just shy of entering the swimbait. Tie the line to the bend of the lead head. Cut off the tag end. Push the shank if the treble up into the soft plastic or embed one of the treble hooks into the body like you are doing. Except, this is done from the bottom. Also in a way to not impede the tail action.

I am not having much luck with swimbaits swimming true if they come prerigged with hook that has the weight embedded inside the body of the swimbait, an example would be the storm wildeye. What is your experience with different types of swimbaits. Like curly or shad type tail best?

Hey Mark,
I started doing kinda the same basic thing after missing that bunch of fish last year, but with a slightly different setup then yours although it's the same basic idea. Just goes to show you brilliant minds think alike. I used a Duo-lock snap in a fairly small size and added a size 1 treble hook to it and rigged it in about the same way you did. As you said it didn't seem to hurt the action any and I did get better hookups.
Here is my setup; it's simple, but Marks may be a better way to go. I haven't had any real problem with this so far though. This is 6" Basstrix Swimbait with the Gammy 7/0 keel weighted hook with the screw eye in front.







But it does catch alot more weeds and in some of the areas I fish, it just didn't work as all I hooked was weeds. Now I fish them with the stinger in any of the more open water and I came up with a more weedless stinger setup I fish in the trashier stuff with. It does kill the action some, but the fish still seam to bite it fine.
I thought this stinger was my little secret but now that Mark went and let the cat outa da bag I might as well share this too. I use the trailer hook made by I think it's Eagle Claw, but I got them so long ago I forget for sure. I know I got them at Black Sheep in CDA. Anyway take the rubber stuff they put in the hook eye out with a knife to open the hole up. This makes the action of the bait much better with out it. Then I put it over the hook pointing up and rig it a as shown just like you rig the swimbait hook. Even done this way it does take away a little of the action, but not so much the Pike don't still want to eat them. I fish this in the trashy water when I'm having hookup problems. This hooks slightly less fish then the treble hook stinger, but a whole lot less weeds.

MotoBoat wrote:Is that a yum money swimbait? It looks like your able to increase or decrease the size of either loop. By off centering the crimp. If slipping the loop over the swimbait hook point and barb. Then sliding the crimp forward, before crimping, making the loop smaller or tight to the shank if desired. Would be much like snugging a neck tie tight around the collar. This would be more permanent, but could not come off unless cut with wire nippers. I like what you have engineered.

I have been taking treble hooks, tie 8 or 10lb test to it. Cut the line to a working length. Thread the opposite end through a needle. Then the needle through the swimbait from the bottom, at a angle, up towards the bend in the hook of a lead head jig. That is in the swimbait. Pull the needle and line threaded in it, completely out of the swimbait. Pull on the tag end until the treble is just shy of entering the swimbait. Tie the line to the bend of the lead head. Cut off the tag end. Push the shank if the treble up into the soft plastic or embed one of the treble hooks into the body like you are doing. Except, this is done from the bottom. Also in a way to not impede the tail action.

I am not having much luck with swimbaits swimming true if they come prerigged with hook that has the weight embedded inside the body of the swimbait, an example would be the storm wildeye. What is your experience with different types of swimbaits. Like curly or shad type tail best?

Moto,
Yes that's a YUM Money Minnow.
I have a pile of those wild eye baits in my boat but I barely use them. I don't like the weights they put in them. I have used the shad type paddle tail ones and caught pike on them but I feel like they sink too fast. When I have used them, I have hooked up on every bite. The ones I have are only about 4" long overall so the bait goes in the mouth of a pike pretty easily. To solve the weight issue, I cut through the bottom of the bait and use a pair of side cutters to remove a portion of the bait, then I just pull the soft plastic back down over the weight. I suppose a drop or two of super glue would put it back together better, but it seemed to work well without it.

Fish n Fool.
Your stinger looks much like mine. However, I started using the duo lock snaps on my leaders last year. One thing I found is that I will NEVER use the smaller ones like you have on your stinger. Last year I was getting my butt kicked on the Coeurdalene Chain lakes. I had maybe 2 bites the whole day, then I put on my new favorite bait and used one of the smaller duo locks. I watched about a 5 lb pike pick it up and when I set the hook, like a manly man mind you, the line zipped back at me like a rubber band. I thought he had bit me off. When I looked at the line the duolock was still there but it was as straight as an arrow. When I got home I threw those little ones away and bought some bigger ones at Cabelas. The small ones were of a good quality, they were just too light. I would hate to see you hook up with that 40 lber again and have your snap straighten out on you. I like the figure 8 and crimp method. Like Moto said, the loops can be made longer and get the hook right at the back of the bait. It's not that big a deal to grab the bait threader out of the box when you need to set up a new bait. I use the ones with a big eye and an open slot to get the line in. They're cheap to!

Happy Fishing Guys

Moto,
Making the forward loop large enough to slip over the barb rather than shugging it up against the hook like you mentioned, allows me to make these hooks up in advance then just pop them on at the water.

Happy Fishing

Hey everyone,

Looks like you guys certainly have learned the importance of the stinger hook like I did when I first started Pike Fishing. I don't think there is 1 Pike lure I have that doesn't have either a single or treble stinger hook on it. One thing I can't preach enough about stinger hooks is make sure that the loop or thing holding that hook in place has some kind of backing in front of it so that it doesn't slip thru the hook holding it during the initial fight. I have learned that Surgical Tubing backed against the eyelet or in front of the hook is a great option as well. Here are a few pictures of how I have mine set, and I can tell you that 9 times out of 10 the stinger is the life saver in not losing the fish during an intense fight. I learned my lesson the hard way about 15 years ago during an intense fight where the Pike was hooked but needless to say I hadn't became passionate about the stinger yet. I ended up losing her and that moment has always haunted me and from that day I swore to myself that I would always use a stinger or trail hook when fishing for Northern Pike. Don't make the same mistake I did and go out without a stinger or trail hook and lose a fish that could be that once in a lifetime type moment. Tight Lines and good fishing!

Nate