Snelling a straight shank hook

[Jeff Hahn]

Last year I started to snell straight shanked hooks when I'm flipping. It is the real deal! The hook does pivot against the lead and all of my hook-ups are solid. But, I have noticed one thing that's an issue. When flipping grass...no problem. But, when flipping wood, if the hook point penetrates the plastic and I get hung-up, it's darn near impossible to free the bait without going in and poking it off. Every time I try to shake, twitch, jerk, or pop the bait free, the hook pivots and seems to drive even deeper into the wood. This is especially a problem in really heavy cover when it's very difficult to even get the rod tip down to the sinker. Anyone else notice the same problem?

[Transom]

Yep. I don’t know about the wood problem though as I only flip and pitch grass.

[dabassking]

Are you pegging your sinker too? I’ve noticed that when the weight is pegged close to the hook, it’s easier to pop off of a snag. With that being said, a straight shank hook will always hang up more in wood because you can’t keep the hook point protected as much. It’s a sacrifice to make for better hook ups.

[DrewFlu33]

It's the angle of the hook point relative to the plastic on a straight shanked hook. I won't use them for flipping as I've just had too much luck with Superline EWGs and too many misses on snelled straight shanks (Brandon Palaniuk did a video discussing the snell vs no-snell debate that really hit home and made me go away from it...I won't post it as you've said you're happy with what you're doing and don't want it to seem like I'm trying to talk you out of it), but I've noticed something similar with shakey heads comparing screw-locks to those with a baitkeeper on the shank itself that in my mind is exactly the same concept for why they snag worse.

On a straight shank, the point comes through the plastic (and into whatever else it encounters) much more perpendicular than compared to rigging one on an offset hook where the point runs much more in line with the bait. To be fair, the reason you're getting snagged up and having issues freeing it is probably exactly the same as why you're having such good luck with solid fish hookups.

[Jeff Hahn]

Are you pegging your sinker too? I’ve noticed that when the weight is pegged close to the hook, it’s easier to pop off of a snag. With that being said, a straight shank hook will always hang up more in wood because you can’t keep the hook point protected as much. It’s a sacrifice to make for better hook ups.

Yep, I always peg when flipping.

[Jeff Hahn]

It's the angle of the hook point relative to the plastic on a straight shanked hook. I won't use them for flipping as I've just had too much luck with Superline EWGs and too many misses on snelled straight shanks (Brandon Palaniuk did a video discussing the snell vs no-snell debate that really hit home and made me go away from it...I won't post it as you've said you're happy with what you're doing and don't want it to seem like I'm trying to talk you out of it), but I've noticed something similar with shakey heads comparing screw-locks to those with a baitkeeper on the shank itself that in my mind is exactly the same concept for why they snag worse.

On a straight shank, the point comes through the plastic (and into whatever else it encounters) much more perpendicular than compared to rigging one on an offset hook where the point runs much more in line with the bait. To be fair, the reason you're getting snagged up and having issues freeing it is probably exactly the same as why you're having such good luck with solid fish hookups.

Thanks, that make sense. I did a little experimenting today when flipping. On one rod I rigged a beaver on an EWG and on the other rod a worm with an off-set hook. Both seldom got hung and when they did seems to come free much easier than with a snelled straight shank hook. I'm going to keep experimenting. But, if this plays out like it did today, I'll stick with snelling a straight shank hook when flipping vegetation, but stick with a EWG or off-set hook for wood.