Does hookbait weight play a part in hook holds?

What part do you think that size and weight of your hookbait plays in hook holds? 

I actually think this makes a huge difference, not so much to the finished hook hold but definitely to the initial penetration of the hook. The sheer force of a carp’s intake and ejection is something that gets massively underestimated as it’s a factor that most people never actually come to experience first hand. You may see it on underwater DVD’s or even whilst stalking or just watching fish feeding in the edge but it doesn’t give you any real concept of just how powerful it really is.

I remember once going to my friend Kev’s house and he had a huge pond in the garden, one of those ten-feet deep, gin clear jobs with wooden decking all the way around and an entire pump house to maintain the water quality. In the pond there were various ornamental carp ranging between high-doubles and high-twenties. He also had a couple of nice mirrors, the biggest of these was around the thirty-pound mark. He got me to roll up a slice of bread in my hand so it was the size and shape of a sausage and then hold it in my fist with just an inch or so poking out by my thumb. I then lowered my hand in the water and the big mirror swam straight up to take it. He said I had to see if I could hold it tight enough to stop the carp getting it, which seemed ridiculous, of course I could!

With one suck the carp pulled my hand forward until it hit his lips and the bread just disappeared into this gob, much to Kev’s amusement. Yes, I wasn’t expecting it so it took me by surprise a bit but still, the force of the vacuum that carp created to suck in with was awesome. Obviously the ejection force is going to be very similar, I’m no biologist so I don’t know the percentages but it’s a fair bet to say it’s a lot more than I previously thought possible.

Don’t underestimate the sheer force of a carp’s intake and ejection

Just look at hook beads and what can happen to those when you get a bite. On the 360ş Rig I use, the top bead does nothing but keep the bait ring from travelling too far up the shank, it doesn’t get involved in the playing of a fish, it has no pressure during the fight and the only thing that can move it is the ejection of the bait by the carp. That bead can be so tight that it only just moves with pressure between your fingernails but a carp will blow it right up the shank every single time.

So now we have established that a carp can blow out a bait with a huge amount of pressure, it stands to reason I suppose that a big and heavy bait will have more velocity or power. A 20mm bottom bait is probably going to whack against that lightly pricked hook with a lot more force than a 10mm, neutrally-balanced one, or so my scientifically inept brain would presume anyway.

In fact, if you take away the pseudo-science and the presumption and look at known realities, I always used to maintain that if I could get fish feeding happily on large, heavy boilies and use the same on the rig then I would catch far more than using any other method. I came to this early conclusion by results alone, so yes, I really do think it makes a difference. The question of course is: do we get more or less initial pick-ups using bottom baits or lighter, more balanced offerings and I think that depends entirely on the exact situation we are fishing in at any one time.