I was out the other night throwing the large rising son (for the first time) while my two buddies were throwing a slammer and a rago rat. The only three bites of the night came on the rising son. I landed two of the fish and they were only about 2.5 lbs, the other didnt get the hook.

As I was breaking down my rods, I noticed that my 1/0 owner stinger was pretty bent. I was really surprised since the two fish I caught were both less than 3 lbs (see pic of hook and fish below). Has anyone had trouble with the owner stingers? Ive caught fish up to 7 lbs on those hooks and never had a problem before now, but I am definitely going to replace all of my owner stingers w/ the 2x owner stingers (unless anyone has any other suggestions).

Also, the bait got a little ripped up from the fight. Its nothing that a little soft bait glue cant fix, but im curious to see if anyone has any suggestions for minimizing the wear/tear on swimbaits. I already debarb the point of the hook that I push into the bait...anything else I can do? I am thinking about cutting off one of the points and using just a paper clip to secure the hook in the bait. Perhaps with a straight paper clip, rather than a bent hook, it can pull straight out of the bait and not tear.

--nate

http://www.calfishing.com/dc/user_files/3778-2-7_woodbridge.jpg


http://www.calfishing.com/dc/user_files/3779-bent_hook.jpg

I bend the hooks that I insert into the plastic stright so that when you hook a fish they just pull out of the bait I also debarb them aswell.

....Ive had some experiences with swimbaits that totally surprised me. Ive had everything go wrong that you can think of. First and foremost, dont skimp on anything when throwing swimbaits, any cast can be a fish of a lifetime, and even small bass can bend hooks and split rings and tear baits.

If you are fishing at night, visibility doesnt mean a thing IMHO. Go with the strongest hooks you can get. And at night, I let the stinger hang instead of sticking it in the bait. After every fish, I check the hook point, one fish can completely dull even the best hooks. Keep many stingers on hand, and carry split ring pliers with you. And dont forget, ya need to change the split rings to the owner hyperwires (#6). With increasing temps, bass are much more acrobatic, and they can turn your hook and split ring into pretzels with one hyperactive jump (the weight of swimbaits provides way too much leverage). As far as tearing, not much ya can do about that.

Heres a question for everybody. After my split ring episode, I thought about buying a high quality ball bearing with double splits rings, and attaching that first to the belly harness, then attaching the hook. I thought that would eliminate the ability of big bass from twisting the split ring into a pretzel and getting away. However, I decided not to do it because at the time I was day fishing and the increased bulk and visiblity didnt seem like a good idea. Has anybody tried this, and if so what are the results and thoughts?

It is definatley a good idea to use bearing swivel so it wont twist Rob said the 22nd century triple trout uses one. So you really have to have a trade off better chance of landing the big boys or better chance of getting them to bite ;(

I've bent the 2X Owner stinger hooks also. When I called Owner they told me it could have been a bad heat temper/treatment from the factory. The 2X are thick as hell too, but it's still metal and metal has a memory. Once you bend metal it wants to return back to it;s original shape.

I don't have any advice except buy a pack of hooks and keep them in your tackle box.

2 fish on the rising son for the first time throwing the bait sounds like you had a good time if your going to consistently fish swimbaits plan on replacing them. Good Luck