Meet the new Extreme Predator Jig45, Partridge of Redditch’s new Hook! At first sight it’s actually a pretty weird looking hook, and I wasn’t quite sure what to think of it. It kinda looks like the Absolute Predator hooks designed by Ad Swier, because of it’s ”wide gape” design. Patridge of Redditch describes this as ”to provide the biggest fly chassic for the most agressive species”. And surely it is! A fly hook this size (7/0) is pretty big. Just how I like my hooks. This particular one has a 45 degree down-eye jig bend. Heavy wire, forged for strength and micro-barbed make this pattern the ideal for Muskie, Pike and Pickerel. And in the salt for Stripers.
In the vertical fishing world, you often come across wide gape hooks being used on jigs. The main advantage of this is the ”hooking capacity”. There is enough room to hook a fish, wich means that if you put on a large softbait, or in this case, tie a fly with loads of material in it, you have some proper space left between the point of the hook, and the material. Wich is a great, because this basically means, you’ll hook more fish! And that’s something we all want right? When you take look to the more conventional type of hooks, wich are all faced down, this might actually work out great. Normal fly hooks have a straight wire instead of a bend one. When fishing with these type of hooks, the hookpoint is faced down. When a fish hits, the hook needs to bend, in order to get stuck in his mouth. So imagine for yourself, if you look at a normal hook, what does the fish get’s into first? Exactly, he first bites into the material tied on the hook shank. Of course, the fly will bend to the left or right, when a fish hit’s it. With this newly kind of design there is no such thing. Because the hook is faced upwards, you will more likely hook one faster. Same procedure as above, but when one hits now, he’ll have the hook in his mouth first, and the rest after.
You can easily compare this to a ”clouser minnow” for example. It works the same way. When tying a clouser, the hook is also faced upwards, mainly to prevent it from getting snagged. If you drag a clouser minnow along side the bottom, you will see the great effect. Because the lead eyes are tied on top of the hook shank, it will actually turn the hook up side down, and make it sink downwards that way. So when a fish hits, he’ll encounter the hook first! The other thing that I see as very usefull on this hook, is the ability to fish it through the weeds. Imagine fishing in heavy vegetation, like grass weeds for example. Now you’ll be able to really fish it down close to the weeds without getting hooked into it. That’s also how I designed this new fly I tied onto it. I tied in a piece of EZ Body Braid, to make a ”fish-belly-like” shape. Inside I put a small 4mm Glass Bead rattle. Rattles can make your day, when the fishing is slow, and also add a little extra weight to the fly to make it sink straight. On top I’ve tied in some Slinky Fibers. Make sure you tie in your materials as light as possible. There is only little space left and the front bend of the hook, and you don’t want to make it too bulky! Finish off the fly with some stick on eyes, and you’ve got a great product! I can already see this working great when the water is starting to get cooler, and even in winter, when fishing occurs along side the bottom, and you need to get down deep. Fish this one slow along the bottom, and you’ll have a deadly combination.
Great example of a ”Perch” like fly, tied on the new Extreme Predator Jig45 7/0.
