Should you ever use very long Hairs?

Question

Lewis Read asked: Moving on to Hair length. No matter how many times I’ve useD a long Hair, I find them useless and downright objectionable. Now I know old school Shaun Harrison probably used a three-inch beard Hair to mount honey paste on the first Hair and caught a 2lb wildy, but I find them appalling! Too much room for error. Any thoughts?

I

’ve never been one for using very long Hairs either. I think with some rigs a longer than average Hair helps the hook to turn and take hold, but there’s no need to go silly long. Obviously optimum Hair length is dependent on the size of the hook and the size of the bait. With balanced/slow sinking baits I tend to keep my Hairs relatively short, and with baits fished hard on the bottom with the Hair trapped at the bend, I like a gap of around 8-10mm between the hook and the bait, as it allows the hook to flip around and do its thing. That’s with a 15mmer or a couple of nuts, but if I was using a 20mmer then I’d probably lengthen the Hair a touch more. It’s all common sense stuff really, the smaller the hook in comparison to the bait, the more important it’s going to be to separate the two.

Basically, with the way I trap my Hair at the bend, all I do is make the Hair length long enough for the hook to flip round each time I test it by drawing it across the palm of my hand. That’s good enough for me. Our takes-to-landed ratio should be good enough to tell us whether or not it’s working as well as can be.