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

We haven’t just been testing this new assist hook technique in the estuary like our last article implied, it’s been working really well for us off the rocks and beach for all sorts of species. (click here for previous article)

Again, we think it has to do with the increased attraction of the lures with assist hooks versus trebles, doubles or singles. The main features being the more natural, less intimidating profile of the lure, and also the actual flashiness and attraction of the hooks and chords themselves.

Our last expedition we purposely made the assists MORE visible with flash on some and little white plastic squid on others. They were put on some unusually heavy lures for their size (great for casting long distances) being the Pin Tail Lures (bibbed lure), Muscle Shot 90 (small bibbed lure) and the Athlete 9JM (stickbait). The results backed up our theories big time, we caught plenty!

Another huge advantage for us 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 gone down 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