It's tune up time

by Jarrod Day on 1 Jul 2011 With a plethora of lures available on tackle shop walls, anglers just can’t reframe buying a collection. Whether it is an obsession or just buying a few for an upcoming fishing trip, even the best branded lures may require a tune up.

Tuning up lures is a common occurrence amongst anglers and those that are unaware of this practice need to be made aware.

The reason for upgrading lures is for a number of factors. Firstly, some lures come straight from the manufacture with cheap components with hooks and rings that might not be up to the challenge of dealing with a certain fish. Should the lure be used straight from the box, the hooks could fail resulting in a lost catch.

Another reason is that there is a lot of wear and tear bestowed on hooks, especially when exposed to saltwater. Nearly all metal that is exposed to saltwater will begin to rust at some point weakening the metal structure. If used when rusty the hook or ring can break or buckle under pressure resulting in a lost fish. Thirdly, tuning lures also allows anglers to experiment with hook set ups to find a configuration that might work for them. This might mean removing all the trebles and using just one single hook on the rear or replacing both trebles with singles. Different hook placements and styles can bring different advantages to fishing and experimentation will find out what works best for what fish.

Change the split
The first part of upgrading often begins with the split rings. At closer inspection, you’ll notice the reason a split ring is so called a split ring is because it can be opened. This is the weakest part of the link between lure and fish so upgrading split rings should be paramount.

When a fish is hooked, split rings take all of the pressure. Often a fish might twist and turn and the split rings will be twisted, thus upgrading to the highest poundage available for the size of the split ring required is recommended.

Choosing the right sized split rings might sound easy enough as you should be able to match the correct size by looking at the factory fitted ones on the lure against new ones in the packet. The only problem with doing this is that the diameter of a new set will often be thicker than the already fitted ones making them not freely run through the attachment point on the lure. The right split rings should comfortably turn when attached to the lure.

Replacing the rings is a very simple procedure. Firstly you need to make sure you have the right size rings and secondly a pair of split ring pliers. Split ring pliers are available in a wide range of sizes and not just one pair will open every sized split ring so make sure you have the right size pair to open the split rings you’re changing. Too larger pair of pliers will stretch small rings while too small pliers won’t be able to open large rings.

The sharpest point
After the split rings have been replaced, it is now time to replace the hooks. While many lures are factory fitted with VMC hooks and although these will stand the test to many fish the slightest twist or turn can see them bend and buckle easily. Depending on the fish species targeted will be the determining factor of which hooks to be replaced with.

Owner branded hooks would have to be ones of the best in the business and while making a wide variety of hooks have styles to suit every lure.

Small bream and trout lures can be fitted with the ST 36BC model while Barra trebles should be 4x or 3x strong in the ST 66TN or ST 56TN models.

Those fishing for Giant trevally offshore warrant the very best and strongest hooks available whereby the ST 66TN 3/0-5/0 or ST 76TN 3/0-5/0 models reign supreme.

Trebles or singles
With every hook choice there will be advantages and disadvantages especially when deciding on using treble or single hooks.

Though most lures do come with treble hooks, they do cause a lot of damage to a fish’s mouth and are highly prone to being stretched open under pressure yet are the best hook to securing a good and solid hook-set.

Single hooks on the other hand do far less damage, tend to be stronger and subsequently are harder to straighten yet you’ll often miss a strike having only one point that can penetrate a fish unlike the three with treble hooks.

Hooks also come in various sizes and using to larger hooks can cause the hooks to catch on themselves. This can occur during a cast or on the retrieve, yet with the owner branded hooks having shorter shanks, this issue is very uncommon.

Hooks are also available in either barbless or barbed. Barbless hooks are more so designed for catch and release fishing whereby the hook can be easily removed without tearing the fish’s mouth. Just because a hook is barbless doesn’t mean the hook it less likely stick. Rather the opposite. When the fish takes the lure, the hook will stick easily enough but providing you have a tight line, the hook will stay connected. It is only when the fish is ready for release that the hook can be easily removed.

Either way, knowing this valuable information when tuning your lures may give you the upper hand on the next fish you choose to target.