Pet peeves

[ronaultmtd]

One of my pet peeves is cheap parts on expensive products...when you buy "name brands" and pay full retail prices you expect decent quality...Thursday evening I was fishing in one of my favorite spots in Southern Maryland waters- planned on fishing till dark- the bite was on- just about every cast hooked up to some really nice fish averaging in the mid to high twenties...then bam! My brand new Penn Clash 3000 is screaming, rod bent double and pulsing....I have the drag set fairly tight with 20# Fireline on the reel but the fish is taking it like it is in free spool...suddenly the line goes limp...reel it in and one of the hooks is bent at a 45 degree angle...I get the pliers out and rebend the treble back to its orginal shape- I cannot change lures- this one color XRap is all they are hitting on and I didn't bring another- cast back and bam anothe nice fish taking drag- a 31 inch- I estimate it- my Hog Trough only goes to 30 inches and its tail was covering the 30 inch Mark- but it didn't really matter, minimum size until Monday is 35 inches and it wasn't a three foot fish, so back it goes- three fish later another nice fish takes drag- 28 inches...and the hooks hold on both the 31 and 28 inch fish...Friday- I replace every hook on all my Rapala lures (13 XRaps) with quality made in the USA Eagle Claw Lazer 4X trebles...why do these high dollar lure manufactures use these hooks on an XR10 saltwater lure? It can't be that much cheaper...can it?

[D3NAL1]

that is exactly one of the reasons I do not fish with treble hooks for rockfish, they cannot withstand the abuse a "j" hook can. You might have run into some of the ones ive caught and released. Kevinfry is out today, hope he gets on them

[ronaultmtd]

I spoke with Kevin Thursday night after sending him pictures of the fish- Kevin, Bill and I fish together a lot...

[Yak Fish]

The 10's are a pretty small lure and they come with tiny hooks, which are fine for 20" fish. The 12's are better but I've had to change all those out when catching the really large ones. I switched to the Gamakatsu trebles and love them. I like the extra wide gap, 2x. They are sticky sharp and strong. It's funny that you mention this. I was just complaining about the same thing. These are not cheap lures and then I have to go and put another $2 worth in hooks on them.