I've had a number of questions about the rig which I described that was developed during the week at Shoalwater and I have had some difficulty describing it to people so what I decided to do was rig a stickbait up so people could see what I meant. I sincerely doubt that noone has ever tried this before but I've never see it so I've decided to attribute it to the person who thought of it that week, Tim Baker.
As some of you would know, Nomad are very strongly of the view that single hooks hold much better than trebles. On the other hand, there is an acknowledgement that the hookup rate isn't as good. Also, while a single hook can be rigged to run very well off the tail, it doesn't work as well off the middle as the hook tends to point upwards.
I had some doubts about how effective this system would be - would the two single get tangled up? Would the lure swim effectively? What I can say is that while a few of us used this over the last three days, I saw enough to say I am absolutely convinced that this rig works brilliantly. As an example, one of the hardest fish to hook around is a long tom (who would want to?) but Damon hooked up continually with this rig.
The hooks system looks fantastic in the water as they seem to spread out when the lure is being retrieved.
I think I'll be rigging up a lot of my lures this way going forward. My only reservation is I think it is possible that a big fish may be hooked in a way whereby the two hooks are presed against each other and the split ring will bear most of the pressure. I sincerelyt doubt that a GT could straighten a SJ-51 so the split ring would be placed under enormous pressure. Anyway, we shall see!!