Why in the world would I choose to snell a hook?

There's gotta be some sense of it, but .  .  .

Well, there is a good reason in my mind and it has to do with big girl striper gill plates.  These girls can pull drag for more than a hundred yards in a heart beat.  Any knot attachment of leader to hook that leaves globs of unprotected line around the hook eye can be nicked by a gill plate.  Most of my hook ups are in the corner of the mouth.  The hook eye pulls back along the plates as the striper runs.  So, the snell affords more protection for the leader, plain and simple, as based on my experience.  This is striper fishing at it's best during the fall at Kiptopeke are in the lower Chesapeake Bay.

For smaller fish, almost any knot will suffice.  Unlikely that a snell is practical to tie on the water with cold fingers.  Thus, I snell hooks before the fishing adventure and stow them on plastic noodle tubes.   I load the hooks in a clockwise direction with a marked starting point.  Then, unload them in the reverse.  The long leader is coiled around the tube and the loop end is pressed into a slot cut in the bottom of the tube.  I can load about 6 tubes in a small lock top plastic box for the boat.  The gummy on each hook is to prevent the hook from looping back into the herring and shad baits.  For the big girls, I use eels hooked through the shout and the gummy is not needed.

I've used the old fashioned method for years without knowing or needing to change.  But, the fingers and the vision don't work well anymore.  The following video by Tom Richardson from the webb is expertly done and simple to follow.  Thanks Tom!

http://www.newenglandboating.com/fishing/video-quest-for-the-perfect-snell-knot.html

For months, I've researched and practiced snelling with a tool, with tubes, and I always go back to the old fashioned means described in the "quest for the perfect snell knot".  I have about a 90 percent success rate that produces the coils in the snell to be perfectly aligned.  But, the hook point on Gamakatsu circles makes the tie very difficult.  The line twists and catches on the hook point while I'm making the wraps.  Other times, the point is into my fingers.  Trying to show others is near impossible.  So, the above video does it.

Yet, I wanted a method that kept the point away from the line twist (it must twist as the coils are made around the shank of the hook).  OK, let's make the snell from the eye end of the hook.  It works!

1.  Tie a loop in the end of the leader.




2.  After ya tie the loop, cut the length of leader ya want plus about 15 inches for the snell.

3.  Feed the tag end through the hook eye and pull the leader loop to the eye.




4.  Make a huge loop so the tag end protrudes beyond the curve of the hook about 5 inches.




5.  Ya pinch the cross over of the line against the shank of the hook, leaving the eye as far as possible       from the pinch.  Be sure  the tag end is above the knuckles.




6.  As in Tom's video, it's difficult, but imperative that the line wrap start near the eye and the coils          wrap toward the curve without overlap on the hook shank.  Should be about 8 wraps, depending on the #s of the leader.




7.  Keeping the snell coil/wraps held tightly between the fingers (thumb and forefinger), hold the tag        end and also put the leader loop on a peg and pull until the mess of loops in the leader pass                  between yer finger/thumb pinch.  Yes, it feels like there's a tangle near the end of the pull, but it          usually pulls through.  Ya may have to fiddle with the loops that form to help them pass.

    Caution: The loops that form can gather and catch the hook to make a series of not wanted half           hitches.

   

8.  Pull the tag end and the loop simultaneously to tighten the snell and assure that it slides along the        shank to the hook eye.  The loop is still on the nail, isn't it?




9.  Trim the tag end and yer done.








Caution again:  If ya let the tag end fall into the loops (by not keeping it on top of yer hand or letting the loops that form when pulling the line under the wraps grab the hook) the result will be more like the "easy snell" where the leader is locked one or more times by a series of half hitches.  I don't like the lock and feed the line back out of the lock as many times as needed so the tag end exits the coils in a straight line along the shank.

Guess the next presentation will include some kind of video to explain my method, NOT.  Time to get back to making my sonar produce fish arches.  One day I'll have baits and actually fish?