Best Sharking Tip Ever….
Whenever I attended a seminar there was always, at the very least one great tip or bit of information that would get me thinking. It might have seemed small at the time but it would sure stick in my mind.
Years ago I used to participate in seminars given by the late Captain Billy Verbanas. For my part I would give a presentation covering wind-on leaders etc. As I’m sure most of you know Captain Billy was without a doubt one of the best shark fishermen there was and would readily share all of his experiences without hesitation, on and off the water.
During these seminars my presentation was short so I would sit in the back of the room and listen to all of what Captain Billy would be saying. One Saturday while in position in the back of the room, once again listening and taking in all the valuable information he was offering he came out with one of those tips that got me thinking. This one tip made so much sense to me I never forgot it.
At one point during the seminar Billy was talking about shark rigs and the hooks he preferred. His reasoning for his selection made a whole lot of sense. He preferred a needle eye over the ring eye hook for one reason. According to Billy’s theory, when a shark would take the bait and start to run with it, the sharks jaws were most likely closed tight and the rigged bait sitting in its mouth. Line is peeling off the reel and at some point early in the run the angler locks the reel and starts to set the hook. Now here’s where it gets interesting.
With the reel locked up and the slack out of the line the angler starts to set the hook by rearing back hard with the rod. Normally he’s going to do this several times to ensure a secure set. Know everybody settles in for a fight but not long into it the line goes slack. The shark is off the hook. What happened? Well, according to Billy when the angler was rearing back thinking he was setting the hook, all that was happening at the business end was the rather large eye of the hook was banging against the upper and lower rows of teeth as they were locked together. There was no way the hook point could penetrate any part of the mouth. All the pressure was being put on the eye of the hook not the point. Now this made perfect sense and for this reason Billy would only use needle eye hooks.
This was his explanation:
Needle eye hooks, which are made for use with wire leader, are thinner overall and have a much smaller profile and overall diameter. He felt this rig resulted in a better chance to actually have the haywire and smaller diameter needle eye hook make it through the rows of teeth when setting the hook. With a closed mouth the ring eye just didn’t have a chance.
Think about this as I have and I think you will agree this thinking is one of the main reasons he was so good at what he did. And even though I did quite a bit of shark fishing prior to attending his seminars this was one tip that has stuck with me and will never forget. It made sense to me.
