For the New Year, I thought I would share a bit of admittedly lousy art work that hopefully will help some of the newer fisherman with getting "hooked up".

The top image is supposed to represent a typical down-turned eye single hook tie up w/egg loop. (Yeah, I know....there's a barb...pinch it)

As you can see, the blue arrow represents the "bite" of the hook as legally defined. Actually not quite true as I show the distance between eye and point vs. shank and point. This is what you will get if you use only a corkie, cheater, spin n glow, etc.

The lower drawing represents what I will call the "effective bite" of the same hook with yarn, eggs, or whatever (I use a bead). As can be observed the "bite" has not changed but the "effective bite" increased dramatically.

More than one thing occurs with the addition of something in the egg loop, however. Depending on the rigidity and size of what is inserted in the loop (say, yarn vs. bead) the depth of bend in the hook buried in a fish's jaw will vary. Because yarn will give more, the hook will bury less under strain (same with roe).

So a bead in the loop with and without yarn will maintain that increased bite under strain. Bead size depends on hook size...hold the finished hook by the leader end with the hook hanging down and you can gauge this yourself.

Here's the pay off!

The bead not only will increase hook ups it also helps tremendously when the fish is running away from you, which tends to "unhook" the hook.

There are two drawbacks. The bead will also increase the strain on your line at the point where your leader exits the bead, so if you are into "ultra light", you may have to adjust.

Secondly, because of the increased bite and possibly bead weight, you'll snag up more......Heh, like you'll notice a difference. j/k

Anyway...give it shot....or not. Works for me. Happy New Year! Be Safe!

Well, crap! I just noticed that I show and describe a down-turned eye hook.....

It should read and show up-turned, but I'm not redrawing it. The effect is the same.

May only your happiness be unlimited!!

I don't know if this helps....but heres a pic. Like I said, it works for me.

If your saying that would hold bait like eggs better, it would. But if your saying that it gives more space between the corkie/drift bobber, it won't. To do this you have to put the bead infront of the hook between the eye and the drift bobber. This gives more space between the hook point ond the side of the drift bobber making a larger area for the hook to penitrate the jaw.

Still not sure what your saying.

I agree with junky. If you are fishing straight bait, yeah, it works. But put a cheater or corky or Spin-N-Glo in front of that hook as rigged, and you get a cock-eyed hook point position that is obcured by the drift bobber, negating any of the benefits of the "increased bite".

This is one of the reasons that I stopped fishing eggs on a single hook behind a Spin-n-Glo or Flash/Spin Cheater. Putting a big gob of eggs in the loop causes the hook to ride in that cock-eyed position that results in MISSED FISH.

The solution is to use a double setup with a trailing octopus hook. It leaves the trailer exposed in an ideal hooking position. Basically the top hook is only there to hold the bait, and the trailer catches the fish. In areas where it is illegal to use more than one hook (the Kenai) we simply cut the point off the top hook.

Good picture, Doc!
I would ask myself, "How about a long shank hook?"
I was going to let this die, but thought maybe a reponse might help.
Couple of points....I don't use bait, so I can't verify my tie up with bait use....secondly, I was talking about a single hook tie up (I don't use doubles, either.....and that's another subject.)
I respectfully disagree with your deduction that the bite of the beaded egg loop decreases the hook's effectiveness. It creates a modified "C" hook, which most already know have decreased hooking effectiveness for anything but inhaled bait, but seldom lose fish after hookup. The difference being, however, that the hook is not "welded in place", so to speak (as my photo may imply), but rather free to swing to a fully open position for hook up when under little or no pressure of drift fishing, but under pressure (after hookup) the bead position causes the hook to remain buried.
Think about it.
If you think it doesn't work, don't use it. But, I assure you it does. Since you obviously fish a lot and can afford a lost fish or two why don't you try it out.....even begrudingly....then come back and report on your findings? Only you can decide whether or not to give up bait for a trip or two, though.
I don't need to sell this point, nor do I need to prove it. I use it, it works.

The long shank single DOES NOT work well for this application. Same problem as a shorter shank, the hook rides at a funny cockeyed sideways angle. This would throw off the balance and action of the whole works. The longer shank may get that hookpoint out to the side far enough to clear the "profile" of my magnum Cheater but it just doesn't look right to me. The other disadvantage of long shanks is that they give the fish more leverage with which to twist a hook free. The mono between the "amputee'" rig will hinge, and so this rig behaves like a standard short shanked single hook rig during the fight.

The final advantage of the amputee rig is that it leaves the hook well exposed to nab even those nippy short-strikers that don't turn downriver with your goods for a solid corner hookup while backbouncing. With the standard rigging, I noticed that most every fish that made it to the net was hooked in the corner. Those seemed to be the only ones I could stick. The less aggressive bites would all too often result in a "swing and miss."

I can't tell you how many fish I have hooked right in the tip of the snoot with the amputee rig, including my all time biggest hen at 50.5 inches. I suspect that platinum-bright she-pig would have been a "swing and miss" with a standard rigging.

Here's what I mean about "blocking" the effective bite of a std single hook snell. You can see that with a SnG the effective bite could be as low as zero and as much as "max" as drawn in the picture.

Good job picking a spin n glow for an example. I don't disagree and have long considered that the spin n glow and winged cheaters probably knock a lot of potential hook ups out of the way by smacking the fishes jaw. And if I were to use either, I would probably stand the spin n glow off the hook with two or three beads, in hopes that the hook would trail far enough back to increase the chances of a hook up. I have a closet full of snin n glows.....bought them at a garage sale years ago.....strung them on a long chunk of leader for Xmas ornament...been that way for about ten years, I guess.
Ok, done with this post, I guess. I want to thank you for your input.
I'm still stunned at the fifty and a half inch fish story....gawd, what a hog!
Only a doc would use the term "amputee hook"....very good.

For the rest of us egg-chucking, die-hard SnG or F/S Cheater fans, let me illustrate how the two riggings behave once you load the egg loop with bait.

The amputee rig keeps the SnG and the eggs together as a single unit. The rigging with extra beads to get the hook further back tends to separate the SnG and eggs into individual entities. And no matter how many beads you use, the hook will ride sideways toward the front of the egg cluster... happens every time.

The amputee rig allows the hook to hang further back in a more advantageous position to sting those less-than-aggressive biters.

nice tip fishNphysician
I think you are onto something, is ther any way to do it with out wasting a hook?
Do you live in Ak all year?
Nice fish on the Avater also.

When reviewing the "Mistakes that Beginners Make" post , using too much bait was a reacurring (sp) theme. The last drawing looks to me like you are in search of the great disco head of the Travolta 70's. ie: isn't that an awfully big bite?

Snowing in oly

Actually, on the Kenai, that's a below-average sized bait. Some guys use 'em the size of their palm! If you compare that to the size of the mouth on a 40#-plus king, you'd see the fish have no problem sucking it in. Personally I like my baits about the same size and profile as my spinning drift bobber. On the other end of the spectrum, some guys use none at all, and do just fine.

There's a group of guys from WA that have been coming to Kenai Riverbend Campground forever.... they swear by backbouncing SnG's with no bait and have been doing it that way for nearly 20 years, despite the conventional wisdom that bait significantly increases the odds of a bite.... go figure! They forgo all the mess and downtime re-baiting, and just save all their eggs for steelheading. I've seen these guys pull ashore with some of the most impressive limits of Kenai hawgs when other boats were struggling. Me included!