Short Vs Long Hooklengths

[Tom]

Well, the great debate. What do you think is the ideal hooklength when fishing a hard lakebed (without silt). I was always of the opinion that a hooklength should be kept as short as possible but i've seen other people doing quite well using a longer (12"+ hooklengths). So is there anything other than depth of silt that influences peoples decision as to how long a hooklength should be.

I mean I think that with a short hooklength the fish comes into contact with the lead sooner so may result in less occurances of the bait being ejected but then again if its too short the fish might feel some resistance when picking up the bait.

[sqwat]

i start of with a 5 inch hooklenth the reason for this is looking round fisheries most people tend to use between 7 and 9 inch hooklenths so my thinking is that fish get use to dealing with hooklenths of this lenth another thing is most anglers tend to use coated braids so ill start of by using braid i find it a good starting i will chop and change if i need to

[zebs]

Thanks for the reply i'm learning lots on this site it's brill....zebs

[koiguchi]

I dont change my hooklenght based on what other people do.

[zebs]

I think it pays to be a bit different from the norm don't you think??..zebs

[sqwat]

i agree zebs it doesent hurt to be different i dont do it couse other people are doing it i do it becuse i know it works

[Tom]

Well, on that note, how short would you consider too short.

[sqwat]

one inch is a bit to short

[Tom]

In comarison I always tend to use a longer hooklength when surface fishing with a controller float (about 1ft long), so do people normally seem to use hooklength that are shorter or longer for surface fishing.

[sqwat]

i always use long hooklenths when surface fishing start off with 18 inches see how that goes