A few weeks ago I mentioned that my catching to boating ratio, when using the horny toad, was substaintially lopsided and I couldnt figure out why. Well, I think I have it figured out because I made a switch and now im 5 for 5 on landing the bass that I have hooked.
I was using an 4/0 wide gap on a Zoom Horny toad, and had some success, but mostly failure as of recently, especially with the larger fish. It seemed that the larger the fish, the quicker they threw my hook. Initially, I was using brand A and switched to brand B, while maintaining the same size, 4/0. The problem wasnt as bad, but it still occured more often than I would like. I switched to a 5/0 Gamakatsu hook, but thought "JEEZ, this hook is HUGE, no fish is going to swallow this". 5 boated fish later, I believe I have found the solution to my problem...a BIGGER hook. I was quite startled at the difference, and decided to compare the two hooks and there is a HUGE difference in the gap. When comparing both hooks to the Horny Toad, the size 4/0 was maybe two or three millimeters wider than the thickness of the frog while the 5/0 had plenty to spare. That would explain why i could hook them, but but had a hard time keeping them hooked. I think the hook simply wasn't penetrating enough because the body of the lure was impeding the hookset, and would get jerked out after a short fight. With the past 5 fish, almost all were hooked dead center between the nostrils and I had to get pliers to get the hook out.
ps, a 4/0 in one brand is not the same size as a 4/0 in another brand, I failed to realize that at first as well.
Also, the bass tear the snot out of the frogs on the 5/0 Gama's on the hookup. I will have to find some 5/0 Owner Twistlocks to keep the frog on. With the Twistlocks, I can generally get 4-6 fish minimum out of each soft plastic, and even then I usually trash them because of torn legs, rarely a torn head or body. The twistlocks are expensive, but they save money in the long run, I urge them to anybody fishing rubber frogs.
Frog Problem Solved!
