2. Terminal Tackle

This chapter is all about the end, the payoff end of your fishing gear. The hooks without which you cannot catch a fish, the sinkers for keeping your bait on the bottom when you're after fish that like to feed way down there, the swivels that keep your line from twisting by taking up the shock of the saltwater currents, the snaps and the connecting links for easy interchange of them all, and the knots that you'll have to learn how to tie no matter what Andy learned in the Cub Scouts and sister Peg learned in the Girl Scouts because they were taught with an old-fashioned material called rope and you'll be working with monofilament.

Figure 3 Hooks

What kind of hooks are you going to use? It depends on what kind of fish you are going to fish for. Every hook is fitted to some fish's mouth. Small mouth, small gap; big mouth, big gap. Sharp teeth, long shank; no teeth or babylike teeth, short shank. Hard mouth, long bite with a sharp, long and narrow point for swift and sure penetration beyond the tough cartilage, where the hook will hold while you are fight­ing the fish.

Hooks come numbered according to size. Starting with Number 22, the smallest, and down to Number 1, then starting with 1/0 and on up to 20/0 which is the largest. For saltwater fish anything smaller than 10 is too small. Chapter 13, which tells how to go after each fish specifically, identifies the hooks to use by those numbers.

Hooks also have any number of trade or hand-me-down names that serve to identify them to the veteran angler. Names like O'Shaughnessy, Carlisle, Siwash, Sobey, Sproat and Ches-tertown. You'll learn those names as you go along and when to use them in Chapter 13.

Tackle shops have hooks on display with more kinds of finishes than you dreamed existed. Bronzed, blued, japanned, tinned, silver-plated, nickel-plated, gold-plated, steel-plated, cadmium-plated. You'll see them all, out in the open and beautifully displayed. But how about their rust and saltwater resistance? Nowhere will it say.

Stay away from the blued and the bronzed, no matter how inexpensive they seem to be. If you do buy them, don't use them more than once or twice unless you like the idea of hooking into a big fish only to have the hook break off in his mouth. Nickel-plated hooks not only rust quickly but also glitter too much. Your best bet is steel-, gold-, cadmium-plated or tinned hooks.

But your very best bet is a kind of hook that you probably won't even see on display. Ask the proprietor for Z-nickel. If you are insistent enough he'll dig down under the counter and come up with a boxful. Don't blame him too much for his reluctance. After all, there is no turnover in hooks that don't rust or corrode and don't stain feathers on artificial lures. Mr. Tackle Shop Man even may tell you Z-nickel hooks are weaker than the others.

But there's a gent named Captain Carm Marinaccio who has been running charter boats out of Atlantic Coast ports for more than a quarter-century and is respected enough by his fellow-skippers to be secretary of the Freeport, Long Island, Boatmen's Association. Captain Carm has Z-nickel hooks that he's used for ten or twelve years and they haven't rusted or broken yet.

Z-nickel may be more expensive initially but they're worth it. Most hooks you see in the stores already are tied on to nylon leaders of varying lengths called snells. But the Z-nickel ones probably will not be, which means you'll have to make your own leaders, using the knots this chapter will tell you how to tie.

It's a good idea to always use the smallest possible hook for doing the job on hand. It means that much less metal for a fish to feel when he strikes at your bait. If he feels metal he's going to spit the hook out before you can set it. But make sure that small hook has enough bite—the space between point and shank—to provide enough leverage for quick setting of the hook.

As for shanks, a little while back we mentioned in passing that a long-shanked hook is meant for fish with sharp teeth. Not only does the length keep the fish from getting his teeth around the leader, it also keeps him from getting his teeth around your fingers while you're dislodging the hook, espe­cially if Mr. Sharp Tooth also is a bait-swallower who might take hook and all right down into his stomach. Now that we've mentioned the advantages, we'll mention the disadvan­tages and then well tell you what to do about it.

Disadvantage one: The long shank gives the fish more of a lever for shaking the hook.

Disadvantage two: It's harder to hide a long-shanked hook in the bait.

Disadvantage three: The long shank provides more metal for a fish to feel and be warned by when taking the bait.

Add up one, two, and three and the answer you get is less fish than if you'd use a short-shanked hook.

So what to do about it? Buy some fine-wire leader material in the tackle shop and make up some short leaders—say three inches long—and attach them to the Z-nickel hooks that you were going to make leaders for anyway. Since you can't tie a knot in wire, there's a simple way of making do. Buy yourself a pair of crimping pliers and sleeves for threading the wire through and just press with the pliers. Presto, the hook and leader are one.

Now, working in the same way, attach the other end of the leader to a snap swivel, and you're ready to tie into your line or nylon leader.

Sinkers

Sinkers come in a variety of sizes, shapes and weights and, like everything in fishing tackle, they all have their uses. So you'll carry a variety of them in your tackle box or bag to meet any situation that may arise.

But, so you don't weigh yourself down with sinkers that you'll have no need for with spinning outfits, confine your gear to the sinkers shown in the following illustrations.

There are three basic reasons for a sinker's being: to provide weight for pulling line off the spools when casting, to sink the bait to the bottom swiftly, and then to keep it on the bottom.

Let's take the sinkers one at a time and by the numbers:

No. 1 is a pyramid sinker. Its purpose is to grip and hold sandy bottom in a turbulent surf. Therefore the corners and resultant sharp angles. It's the surf fisherman's must.

Figure 5

No. 2 is a bank sinker. Probably the most popular in salt­water fishing, especially in boat, pier and bridge fishing over both rocky and sandy bottoms.

No. 3 is the dipsey sinker. If there is a chance of getting hung up on rocks, the dipsey minimizes that chance. It has a swivel-eye end to keep your line from twisting. Excellent for light spinning bottom fishing.

No. 4 is the round sinker. Same general purpose as the dip­sey, but without the swivel eye, and heavier.

No. 5 is the egg sinker. It has a hole running down the middle; through it passes your line. Excellent when after timid fish that just nibble on bait and are spooked by the slightest weight.

No. 6 is the casting and trolling lead. It comes either with or without the swivel chain and snap lashups on each end. Good for adding casting weight to light artificial lures which are to be immediately retrieved after casting.

No. 7 is the rubber-lined clincher. Slotted on one side. You put the line in the slot, twist the rubber lining and the clincher is there to stay. Good for adding weight to your hookup, no matter which of the first six sinker-types you're using. Fine for the fisherman with ideas and a yen for experiments.

No. 8 is the keel-type trolling or mooching sinker.

There are many other types of sinkers, but they have specialized uses that you'll probably never have use for.

Sinker weights best suited to saltwater spin fishing range from one ounce to three ounces. One ounce is enough to hold bottom in still water. Two ounces are generally used for cast­ing and holding bottom in the surf. Wind, tide and weather conditions will determine for you when you ought to move up to three ounces and perhaps on some rare occasion to four. With Andy's lighter outfit, it's best that he stick to the one- or two-ounce weight.

Rather than carry a lot of excess weight around needlessly, have a couple of light clinchers on hand for added weight.

When you bump into anglers using four-, six- or eight-ounce sinkers, look again and you'll probably see that they're fishing with a revolving reel, a war club-like rod and thick line. Feel superior because you, being a light tackle fisherman, can do everything he can do lighter, easier and better.

Figure 6 The Swivel and the Snap

In spin fishing there is a piece of tackle to meet every situation that may arise whether it be line twists or sister Peg's inability to tie monofilament knots. For the twists we have the swivel; for quick change of hooks or lures we have the snap which works just like a safety pin—and sister Peg can operate a safety pin.

The swivel takes the beating that the currents otherwise would twist into the line. There's the barrel, or two-way, swivel and there is the triple, or three-way, swivel. The barrel swivel loops onto the line on one end and onto your lure on the other. With the three-way, you loop your line onto one ring, your hook onto another and your sinker onto the third.

The snap is nothing more than a sea-going safety pin made either with or without a barrel swivel on one end. Keep the closed end looped onto your line. Then anytime you want to change a hook or a lure, just open the pin end and there you are.

The connecting link is just that, a simple-to-use link be­tween any two things that need connecting; the sinker and three-way swivel, for instance. It has a sliding sleeve center for easy opening and closing. This chapter, further on, de­scribes a fish-finder rig. There the connecting link is perfect; just hook your sinker onto the link's big eye and let your line run free through the small eye.

The leather thong is nothing more than a device for pre­venting the fish-finder from sliding down onto your hook. Attach one end of the thong to your line, the other end to your hook leader.

Knots

Back in your Boy Scout days you learned all about tying knots in rope. Now you have to learn about tying knots in nylon monofilament, which is very new and very different.

You'll need four pieces of simple equipment for tying them right, which means tight.

First, there's a small finishing nail partially driven into the top of your work bench. When making loops, slip the eye over the nail for pulling up tight.

Second, a pair of pliers for pulling ends up tight.

Third, a pair of nail clippers for snipping off excess ends of line—leaving just enough for using piece of equipment number four, which is a lighted cigarette. Just put the glowing tip to the end of the line and a neat little bead will form, to keep the line from slipping.

Now for the knots and their uses.

1. Improved Blood or Barrel Knot: for splicing two lines together.
   
   
2. Improved End Loop: for forming a double-strand loop in line or leader.
   
   
3. Perfection Loop: for forming a single-strand loop.
   
   
4. Improved Clinch Knot: for attaching hooks to leader.
   
   
5. Dropper Loop: an added eye for attaching a second hook to your line.
   
   
6. Interlocking Loop: for easy attachment—and detachment— of line loop to leader loop or swivel or snap.
   
   
7. Shocker Knot: for splicing heavier length of leader, spoken of in Chapter 1, to your line. Pull the overhand knot in the heavier line tight with the pliers and then tie a clinch knot in the lighter line.

Things to remember:

In tying knots such as the blood knot or the improved end loop always be sure to make five or six wraps.

Pull up evenly and slowly when tightening knots. Never jerk.

When the weather is cool, you can make the knots tighter by warming them in your mouth.

Now that you've learned all there is to know about snaps, swivels, sinkers, end loops and dropper loops, you put it all together and you have a fish-catching lashup that looks like this:

Figure 8 The Basic Rig

What you have is a rig that's basic for striped bass fishing on the Pacific Coast. But, depending on where you live and in what kind of water you do your fishing, simple variations will give you an outfit that will catch bottom-feeding fish any­where.

The West Coast bass leader is about three feet long and runs to about thirty-five- or forty-five-pound test. Your condi­tions may call for a longer or shorter leader, a lighter or heavier leader. You may want to eliminate one dropper loop and therefore one hook. You may want to use a bank or a dipsey sinker. You may want to eliminate both dropper hooks, put a hook down where the sinker is in the diagram, pin your sinker to a connecting link and thread your line through the other eye above the barrel swivel to give you a fish-finder rig. You may even want to leave everything just where it is in the diagram and add a third hook to the snap that's holding your pyramid sinker.

Go right ahead and do any of those things. You'll catch fish as long as the fish are there and feeding and you remem­ber to bait your hook.

Andy and Peg ought to be fascinated with the idea of put­ting that rig together and thinking up variations of it. They needn't confine themselves to just that one hookup because there are many more that have been tested by time, tide and piscatorial temerity. These pages

show you just a few of them.

1. The basic surf bottom rig.
   
   
2. Surf fish-finder rig.
   
   
3. Two-hook bottom fishing rig.
   
   
4. Known both as the Captain Carm and the sliding egg fish-finder rig, depending on where you live.
   
   
5. Flounder rig with spreader available in any tackle shop.Leaders can be as long as you want them.
   
   
6. High leader rig. Sinker three or four feet below swivel, more if the fishing signs warrant. Leader three to four feet long.
   
   
7. Fluke (summer flounder) rig with two- or three-foot leader.

Here's a tip for use with any of these bottom rigs: Anytime crabs are stealing your bait, just slip your leader through a round, plugged cork. Put it closer to the line than to the hook and use the plug to keep it from sliding down the leader.

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