It makes me wonder why manufacturers don't pay more attention to the views of highly experienced and knowledgable anglers who use these lures but are obliged to adapt them as discussed here. Surely they must engage people with a bit of common sense as field testers ?Eric Edwards wrote: ↑Thu Sep 21, 2017 8:56 amThe top hooks on some lures (Fox Replicant in particular) are dangerously big.
The same problem is prevalent in fly fishing for pike with the great majority of flies available commercially and via Ebay tied on hooks that are ridiculously large. I was recently given some pike flies by a friend, who is a very experienced fly fisherman (both fresh and saltwater) but they are tied on size 6/0 hooks, which I just cannot use. Some of these flies are almost a foot long and, interestingly my friend did concede that there are times when pike hit them but completely miss the hook. Surely that is a design fault. Most of my flies are 5-7 inches, usually tied on size 1 or 1/0 hooks and it's very rare that a take doesn't result in a positive hook up.
It's almost as though there is something macho about fishing with huge flies on 'meat hooks', yet it is perfectly possible to create pike flies which look big and have a real presence in the water without resorting to size 6/0 hooks. I think the same can be said for Replicants and other soft plastics. It's quite possible to rig them in ways which don't diminish their hooking potential but are much less hazardous to use.