When I started offshore kayak fishing, I played it safe and used what was considered the best leader material and hooks since I wanted to give myself the best chance of catching a fish. Seaguar Blue Label fluorocarbon was thought to be nearly invisible and had great knot strength. Gamakatsu hooks were sticky sharp and strong. But both were so expensive.
Made the switch to VMC extra strong saltwater hooks a few years ago and haven’t been missing fish. They’re almost as sharp as Gamakatsu, thicker, and waaaay cheaper. Almost disposable cheap but I still try to reuse them until they get dull. This year I switched from the VMC Heavy Duty 4X Live Bait hooks as the front hook on the double hook setup, to VMC’s standard Live Bait hook, to be stealthier.
I’m using VMC 1X Inline hooks on the rear hook because the gap is open and a hard hitting fish will hopefully get snagged on it no matter how it approaches the bait. This inline hook is most often used to replace treble hooks on lures, and the hook point rides “inline” with the lure body, facing up or down.
It was hard to break away from Seaguar Blue Label since I believed it was the least visible fluorocarbon leader available, but I tried some 40 lb Sufix Invisiline this year and didn’t notice any decrease in performance.
The Invisiline was a lot cheaper than Blue Label, and was also stiffer, which is a good thing for leader material.
I replaced the VMC ball bearing snap swivel that was connecting my Invisiline shock leader to my Invisiline leader with a VMC ball bearing swivel and no snap. So from my braid (Sufix 832) to the hooks, all that was visible was this small, 110lb strong swivel.
These changes resulted in an increase in fish landed but as I began hooking bigger and better fish, I also experienced cutoffs of the rear hook. Shea, on the Big Island, suggested I try the Knot2Kinky titanium leader. I started by just using the Knot2Kinky between the first and second hook, called a “stinger” rig. On the first try something got hooked, couldn’t cut through the titanium leader, taking 300yd of line in 90 seconds before breaking off. Here’s a short recap.
On the next trip a 6lb uku wasn’t deterred by the titanium stinger rig.
So it seems like these tackle changes have improved my catch rate.
I’ve been using the stealthy leaders and terminal tackle on my kayak but they can be used from shore and other watercraft as well. All but the Knot2Kinky are available in the Store at lower than MSRP.
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