Have you ever found a perfect logjam with just the right current flow, depth and all the indicators of it being flathead heaven. The only problem is that if you try to present a bait to the best spots you just know that you are going to get hung up. If only there was a way to get your bait in the right spot without getting hung – I think I may have found a way.
I was paging through the Catfish Connection catalog and found these weedless jig guards in the crappie part of the catalog. The item is called “Stick Guard” and is a small plastic tailed weed guard that is slipped over the jig hook and slides up to the jighead and then the small plastic tail is stretched back over the jig hook point to make the jig weedless. As I looked at it in the catalog I thought to myself that should work for making a cat hook weedless – so I ordered a couple of packages of them. 1 large pack and 1 medium pack – they cost all of $1.35 each so I figured I’m not out much if they don’t work.
I got them today and the large package of Stick Guard worked fine on my 5/0 and 8/0 Circle Hooks but they were a little too short to work on my large 10/0 Gamakatsu Octopus hooks. But I was inspired by the concept and came up with a work around that makes a perfect weedless 10/0 Octopus hook. I had some small 3” plastic worms and I adapted them into a long Stick Guard type weedless hook guard. Look at the attached picture and you can see how I did it:
#1. Shorten the 3” plastic worm to about 2 1/4″ inches.
#2. Run your leader through a large needle and thread the needle through the end of the plastic worm. Slide the worm down the leader to the head of the octopus hook.
#3. Take the tag end of the plastic worm and stretch it down and over the end of the hook.
#4. Now I haven’t tried these out yet and I’m not sure how well they will work with a live bullhead bouncing around. Live bait may just spring the weedguard. One thing for sure – you should be able to hang a nice chunk of cut bait on this weedless hook with no problem. I’ll do a follow-up post and let you know if they work or not.
Just one more tool in the toolbox.