What is an assist hook?
An assist hook is a hook on which a thick braid has been tied, creating a large loop. This loop is used to attach via a broken ring or a knot to the lure.
What are the advantages of assist hooks for trout fishing?
The assist hook has many advantages for trout fishing with lures. First of all, it is the quality of the hooking, the high success rate of the bites and the low dropout rate that will be sought after.
Indeed, the assit hook will have a larger opening than a treble hook (for a lure for which we will have replaced the trebles by one or two assists). The result is a greater ease to bite, quite simply. What's more, a treble hook requires more strength and energy to penetrate the hard mouths of trout.
Mathematically, it takes on average three times as much force, as there can be up to three penetration points for a triple. For the assistant there is only one. In addition, the triple almost always has differences in "hardness" between these penetration points. As a result, one of the three branches may not be properly pricked, which makes the penetration of the points irregular and can therefore lead to untimely stalls. With the Assist, no matter where the point penetrates, the hook is securely fastened.
Finally, the assistant offers a smaller probability of pricking in the gills and thus injuring the fish.
Compared to the single hook, the assit again has advantages. The flexibility of the braid loop offers less support and more freedom, which again avoids repeated unhooking.
Finally, the braid or colored ligature offers a small, visible spot that serves as a target for attacks.
On which lure should I mount assist hooks ?
Metal lures or swimfish are perfectly adapted to receive an assist hook. On a swimming fish, we replace the triples by assist. The size of the simple hooks which equip the assist being bigger than a triple, we have very little variation of mass between a triple and an assist. The assist therefore changes very little the swim and almost no overall density of the lure. A lure suspending with triples remains suspending with assist hooks.
Finally, the assist are ideal to equip undulating or spinning spoons. On the undulators, they even stabilize the swim slightly and offer a little more fluidity.
