Fishing the Wreck of the SS Stanwood 26-05-14

The Cornish coast is littered with wrecks and although most of those wrecks are out of reach for the kayak angler, some wrecks are accessible.  One of those is the Steam Ship Stanwood, which lies in the Fal Estuary.

At certain times of the year, the wreck holds shoals of Pollack.  The large majority of those Pollack are small however, on light tackle they can offer some sport.  Below is a video of fishing the Stanwood wreck for those Pollack.

 

Divers image of Stanwood wreck supplied by Aqua Photography www.aqua-photography.com

Bass Plugs - Replacing Trebles with Single Hooks

At the beginning of each season, I like to replace the hooks of my Bass plugs.  The plugs came with trebles and I have always replaced them with trebles.  However, this season I have decided to experiment with single hooks.  Two reasons for deciding to use single hooks and the first is to make it easier to remove the fish from the kayak net; trebles can be a nightmare when tangled in the net. The second is singles should cause less damage to fish that I intend to return.

The problem with replacing trebles with ordinary single hooks is the eye is too small for the split ring, which means the hook cannot rotate correctly and sometimes sticks on the ring hampering the action of the lure and hooking potential. However, replacing trebles with singles is becoming more popular and now you can purchase single plugging hooks with large eyes.

The hooks I purchased are Decoy Pluggin' Singles 27, which come in packs of eight.

Most of my Bass plugs are between 125mm and 130mm and the size 2 hooks I purchased appear large enough and rotate on the split rings with ease.  The other good thing about these hooks is the eye sits parallel to the hook, which means the hook point hangs in line with the lure instead of at right angles.

Time will tell if removing trebles reduces hooks ups or increases lost fish during the fight however, one thing is for sure, it should make removing fish from the net easier and quicker meaning more time fishing in the sometimes short windows of opportunity when the Bass are there and feeding. In the future, I may experiment further by reducing the number of single hooks from three to two, which I know some plug anglers are doing.