Power Isome - increase your hook up rate?

Double hook rig (pennel rig), with knotless knot to use with Ecogear Power Isome or alike soft plastics.

Please excuse the diagrams!

I have been using this rig for a time now after missing quite a few hook ups on LRF kit. I found that with any of the longer SP’s like the Power Isome, if hooked near the top and you have a longer tail drifting/flapping to attract the fish that potentially the fish will hit the moving part and not connect with the hook, thus missing a bite.

I’m not saying this hasn’t been done before, just my version of what I have found has helped me.

Some great ideas come together when out fishing and chatting with friend and fishing companion Will at Next Generation, this one came after missed bites from smaller fish on my behalf and downsizing bait. This being the alternative to downsizing in allowing the same bait to be used for both small and big fish. 

This particular use came into its own when wanting to cast a bit further with this sp, when the standard hooking arrangement of just nipping through the head or 'whacky' meant that a good percentage of the time the hook tore through the sp.

The idea is to keep the same flowing presentation that you would have with a single hook rig, you can do this by using the lighter fluorocarbon lines that are available.

Take a length of fluorocarbon (hooklength), tie on the bottom hook, I use a grinner knot for most of my hook knots, as the upwards facing tag will aide in keeping the SP on the hook. This hook for me I have always made the smaller of the two simply due to the fact that on average 99% of the smaller fish caught have been on the bottom hook. Once this hook has been tied you can tie on the top hook at the desired length for the required sp lure. You can increase or decrease this if missing bites.

The knot used for the top hook is a knotless knot, used a lot in carp fishing rigs.

Hook variations and sizes that have worked:

Top hook size                  Bottom hook size

6                                                         10

8                                           12

10                                         14

12                                         16

Obviously this can be an endless combination and you can alter the sizes to suit your requirements. Go up or down sizes if you find you are missing fish.

The beauty of this type of rig to me is that it allows me to have pre-tied rigs stored in a hooklength box, pretty much as I would for my freshwater match fishing. Different sized hooks on varying fluro for different jobs.

Plastic hook tray with pre-tied rigs.

Home made rig board, made of foam with cut slots to hold the rigs.

Above the knotless knot I have been using a rubber bead, above this you can add a glass bead to give a slight bit of noise as it moves up and down. My take on this in using a rubber bead is to protect the knotless knot from any damage. Then above the beads you can add your weights, these being split shot, cone weights or olivettes (type used for pole fishing).

Simple diagram of layout.

Weights, beads & finished rig.

OK, so how does this allow the versatility to change rigs with minimal hassle?

Instead of a permanent knot attaching this to your mainline, you can use a micro swivel or one of the many variations used for freshwater feeder fishing for a quick change link. At the top of your hooklength tie a loop knot with a figure of eight knot, this will allow quick changes to another rig without continually cutting back your mainline on every rig variation.

Hooking up the SP.

The top hook is only hooked through the head end of the sp, then on the bottom hook you can hook it up a couple of ways.

1- thread the bottom hook through the sp to the length of the distance between the hooks. This set up means no line showing and the line is internally hidden, this is slightly more fiddly but you can do this at home and store the pre threaded sp’s back in a sealed bag to protect them. After a period of use I have found that this method allows the Power Isomes to stay on the hook longer without breaking down fish after fish, especially if you are catching lots of small fish.

2 -you can simply ‘stitch’ the bottom hook along the length of the sp, this is a lot easier to do, but I have noticed it doesn’t last as long with the sp breaking down and tearing.

1st stage to hook sp.

Top hook threaded.

Start to thread bottom hook.

Stitch the bottom hook in and out of the sp.

Finished sp threaded on rig.

If you allow the fish to sit on the sp, you stand a greater chance of deep hooking a fish. I am a catch & release angler and with this in mind the two hook rig can hopefully keep deep hooking to a minimum, add to this barbless hooks and most fish should be returned unharmed.

Don't forget the disgorger......Using a disgorger makes unhooking a fish a lot easier even with barbless hooks.

I hope you enjoyed the read, as said before this is what I have found has helped me to produce more fish from bites.