Fact: you have to hook 'em before you can unhook 'em

Ok; yes I said ok! I know I'm stating the bleeding obvious. Clearly you can not unhook a bass until you've caught a bass. So what is my point? My point is the points on your hooks - just how sharp are they? The thing is that getting a hook up on a bass is a rare thing (I see hundreds a season but when you factor in the time spent achieving each hook up it works out to a lot of time spent per fish landed). I'll tell you exactly how long if you ask by commenting below this blog. For those of you that only get out a few times a year to chase the wonderful sea bass then your chances of a hook up will be depressingly few.

And there is one thing more depressing than not getting a hook up and that is getting a hook up and then promptly losing the thing that you have just spent so long trying to hook up on. What's the answer? Well make sure your hooks are sharp. After every time you clip a stone, pull through sand, cast poorly and smack a lure into a dry barnacle clad rock (yes I do it too); stop and sharpen your hooks.

That's the easy answer - very difficult to do in practise though as we are out bassing and bassing is the action of trying to hook a bass. It is not stopping every five mins to sharpen a hook. There is then a better answer and that is arm your lures with good quality branded fine wire hooks and change them regularly.

Expensive but much more practical as this can be done at home on the comfort of the kitchen table, the sofa or the wifes' lap (or is that just me?). No lost fishing time and no missed hook ups. My tip here is to buy abroad. The UK's treble hook market place has become over priced and I now look East for my trebles. They may take a while to arrive but arrive they do and with a little pre planning - aka order in the winter - they are always ready to go. The only other essential item is some split ring pliers. For me anyway it seems that what I once did with finger nails and teeth is no longer possible. Both body parts (along with several other body parts) are no longer as strong as they once were. Oh and do use the wifes' lap as a handy equipment store but don't (ever) use her finger nails. The dog house will not be good enough if she breaks one.

Buy fine wire hooks. Bass are great, amazing, wonderful predators but they are not Barracuda and fine wire hooks are fine (pun). They will not bend and they will not break and they will puncture a bass mouth and give you a hook up. There is some silly thick wired stuff out there - get rid of them if you own then. A big bass eats hard shell crab. They crunch and munch shell, claw and all. A big cock velvet crab is armed with spines all around his carapace and yet he too will be munched. Big bass have mouths like the inside of scrap car crushers. Hard, steel hard.

So if you want to unhook a big bass use fine wire super sharp hooks. Its almost as easy as that!