Worm Hooks: Another Option for Surfcasting?
For many anglers, much of the fun of fishing is found in dreaming up new ideas, figuring things out, and testing theories.
Once you get your head around the different techniques and learn why they work the way that they do, it's only natural to start thinking about ways you can do it differently, or do it better.
Why Softbaits?
The humble soft bait found it's way into the hearts of many kiwi anglers as it offers an easy and effective way to fish - all you need is an appropriate hook and some soft baits. They can be re-used, store easily, they’re less messy, they're cheap, they don't really go off like real bait does, and many of our favourite fish devour them readily - so it's not a surprise that this style of fishing took off the way that it did.
Soft plastics in surfcasting scenarios is nothing new - it's been done by many with varying degrees of success. For the most part, soft baits are swum with a cast & retrieve technique, meaning weight is required for the casting distance and to get the lure down deeper. But with surfcasting the natural bait is cast out and left to linger in the surf, relying on scent more than anything else, to draw fish in.
Trying New Things
As anglers ourselves, and as a brand that specialises in hooks for many styles of fishing, we often think about theories that we could test out. How could this hook be used differently? Can it be used elsewhere? And how else could it be used to solve a problem we face?
In this case, we were looking at the BKK Titan Worm Hook. For those who're a bit newer to the fishing scene, worm hooks are an old-school method of fishing soft plastics, and they offer some sweet benefits, such as a snag-free design, a wider range of hook sizes, better presentation of the soft bait, and often feature a wider hook gap than your modern jig-head, meaning the hook point is more likely to find the mouth of any fish willing to take a bite.
Now, the key thing with the standard BKK Titan, is that it is completely unweighted, meaning the softbait is free to waft and wiggle in the water - giving it a nice and natural presentation.
So, what if we incorporated this into our surfcasting rig?
The classic ledger rig allows you to run two or more baits in tandem, why not switch out one bait for a Titan wormhook and a soft bait? The soft bait will hang in the water column, moving naturally with the flow of the water, while the natural bait brings in nearby fish with the scent. In theory, you’re diversifying your rig and getting the best of both worlds.
It's worth a shot, we thought, so we tried it, and it worked great!
On a slow morning, we pulled in three fish total, two of which were hooked on this Titan system.
Are you dreaming up new things to try this season?
Why not try the Titan and softbait surfcasting combo? You might just find it works better than expected, and if it doesn’t, at least you have tried something new and now have a little more experience. It’s a win-win.
Disclaimer: We aren’t claiming to be the first people to rig and fish a softbait and titan wormhook in this way. Like we mentioned previously, us fishermen are a creative bunch, so this method has likely been tried by others in the past. The point we’re trying to make is to get out there and try something you haven’t tried before!