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I bought some snelled hooks that were on clearance at K-Mart. These are Matzuo 18" snells with fluorocarbon line and red-colored circle hooks on them. They look good, but they are not. I lost three fish this week because of these snells coming unraveled at the hook when the fish puts an extra hard pull on them. When they are dry, you can pull on them all you want to, and they are fine. But when they are wet, they seem to come apart.
Beware Matzuo snells! Maybe it's the fluorocarbon line that doesn't take a knot very well or something, but one thing is certain, their quality control sucks.
Of course, on the other hand, maybe you shouldn't trust a fisherman that has to lose three good fish before he figures out something is wrong!
I have successfully made a few of my own using a variation of the uni-knot to create the snells. See the following for a picture of how to tie the knot:
http://www.basspro.com/servlet/catalog.CFPage?appID=84&template=knot9.cfm
I use the "perfection loop" knot to put a loop in the other end; that's one knot that has never let me down.
The only problem I have had so far is that I might have to grow myself a third hand to keep the snell from unraveling while pulling both ends up tight. Has anyone got a preferred knot for making snells? Are there any of those knot-tying gadgets out there that are capable of making snells?
By the way, I have never had an Eagle Claw snell come undone. Nice to see that "made in the USA" still means something! But in the Ft. Collins / Loveland area, at least, I haven't found any Eagle Claw snells that use circle hooks.
Regards, W. E.
Beware Matzuo snells! Maybe it's the fluorocarbon line that doesn't take a knot very well or something, but one thing is certain, their quality control sucks.
Of course, on the other hand, maybe you shouldn't trust a fisherman that has to lose three good fish before he figures out something is wrong!
I have successfully made a few of my own using a variation of the uni-knot to create the snells. See the following for a picture of how to tie the knot:
http://www.basspro.com/servlet/catalog.CFPage?appID=84&template=knot9.cfm
I use the "perfection loop" knot to put a loop in the other end; that's one knot that has never let me down.
The only problem I have had so far is that I might have to grow myself a third hand to keep the snell from unraveling while pulling both ends up tight. Has anyone got a preferred knot for making snells? Are there any of those knot-tying gadgets out there that are capable of making snells?
By the way, I have never had an Eagle Claw snell come undone. Nice to see that "made in the USA" still means something! But in the Ft. Collins / Loveland area, at least, I haven't found any Eagle Claw snells that use circle hooks.
Regards, W. E.
