Adding an up front stinger hook to a paddle tail soft plastic

 

This is a set up I use when I am fishing big paddle tail soft plastics in the dark or in discolored water.

By big soft plastics I am talking about baits like my 20cm swimbaits or 18cm Castaic Jerky J Swimmers.

stinger-i

 

In the dark or in discolored water, I prefer to fish my big soft on a single hook such as Mustard Big Game Jig Head in size #10/0 or Mustard Headhunter/Warhead Jig Head in size #8/0.

Unfortunately, it’s conceivable that the point of those hooks just never comes in contact with a any part of the barra that it can penetrate for various reasons. A barra may just roll on or hit your bait but just completely miss the business end of the hook. Or, whilst the barra may have inhaled the whole lure into it’s mouth it may have instinctively realized it’s not what it was looking for and spat it straight out … that can happen in a fraction of a second and again the business end of the hook may not touch any part of the barra. Alternatively, whilst the barra appears to be hooked up, unfortunately during the fight, the hooks pulls. That is sometimes the case when the barra start jumping and head shaking trying to throw the hook and the barra’s momentum is transferred down the length of the soft plastic causing the momentum of the soft plastic itself to help dislodge the hook which may not be that well set anyway.

To increase the hook up rate when fishing big soft plastics in dark or discolored water my preference is include a single stinger hook directly in front of the soft plastic. One of my fishing partners, Scott, introduced me to running a single stinger in front of my big soft plastics but he tied them on snelled to the leader which I had difficulty mastering in the dark. In any case, if he wants to change his lure he has to cut the lure off above the snelled stinger and that costs him about 6” of leader for each lure change and of course valuable fishing time.

I have worked out the process below and set up my stingers connected to my big soft plastics at home so that I can carry a couple of each of these big soft plastics in my kit ready to be tied on with my leader attached to the eye of the stinger and with the stinger already connected to the big soft plastic.
The stinger hooks I use are either Gamakatsu Live Bait hooks in size #5/0 or Mustard Hoodlum hooks in #5/0.
The line I use to attach the stinger to the lure is my 50lb fluorocarbon leader material.

photo1

 

Process

A
  1. Take around 40cm of your leader material and from the hook point up side poke the tag end through the eye of the stinger hook.
 stinger-a

 

B
  1. Keep pulling the tippet material through the eye of the hook until half of it is through the eye of the hook.

stinger-a1

 

C
  1. Take the tag end back through the eye of the stinger hook leaving a large loop hanging below the stinger hook.

stinger-a2

 

 

D
  1. Take hold of the loop just below the eye of the stinger and take eight touching firm wraps of the leader material down the stinger hook shank.
  2. Keep you finger on the wraps of the leader material to ensure they stay in place.

stinger-b

 

E
  1. Whilst holding the wraps of leader material in place pull the tag end through the eye of the hook gradually tightening the knot.

stinger-c

 

F
  1. Wet the knot and apply pressure to both tag ends to make the knot very tight.

stinger-d

 

G
  1. Trim away the excess leader material that is protruding through the eye of the hook.

stinger-e

 

H
  1. Create a loop in the knot opposite the barb of the hook.

stinger-f

 

I
  1. Tie the balance of a loop knot.

stinger-g

 

J
  1. Wet the knot and tighten it right up.
  2. Trim away the excess leader material.
 stinger-h

 



Last Updated: May 30, 2021
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Categories: Articles parent, Barramundi
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