Should we use straight mono hooklinks more?

Question

Shaun Harrison asked: This last winter I reverted back to my ‘Naked Nylon Rigs’ - the only rig components I used were a hook, a soft Hair and a lead. No plastic bits at all, no leadcore, nothing. Most wouldn’t like the rig - noT enough clutter for the carp to see. Does anyone else fish normal breaking strain nylon hooklinks these days, and as simple as I’ve just explained?

used to use straight mono hooklinks all the time. I liked it’s anti-tangle properties, the way a whipping style knot creates a kicker at the eye, and also the fact that it’s far less visible than braid. From time to time I’ve attempted to go back to it, but it’s never lasted long. For me, at least, the disadvantages tend to outweigh the advantages. When it does tangle that link’s now kinked and twisted, finished. It’s enough to have to keep changing bottom bait rigs because of dulled points, but adding kinks and twists into it, the sort of thing that’s easily recoverable with coated braids, well, that’s not for me.

In comparison to a coated braid, there’s also an obvious loss of strength and abrasion resistance too, right where it really counts. In certain situations I know that’s not such an issue, but for a lot of my fishing it is, and although I’ve not used mono hooklinks consistently in some years now, I still remember that losses due to hooklinks parting were way more common than what I’ve ever experienced in the years since using coated braids.

That’s just my take on it. I like mono, and I can think of lots of waters where I used it exclusively in my early years, but it does have its disadvantages. I remember my first year on the Yateley Copse Lake I lost half of what I hooked due to using the same sort of rigs on there, a snaggy, weedy little pool, that I’d become confident using on other waters before that time, places which were relatively snag- and weed-free. With strong line and braided hooklinks the only thing that’s ever going to let me down is the hook, never the hooklink.