The Magical Brass Hook

Well, I thought I would start off with an observation that could be useful to even the newest beginner to fishing. A friend and I made this observation on a recent fishing trip. Bear in mind that this theory has not been fully field tested yet. We noticed that when we were fishing for sunfish and whatever else under bobbers that we were having a lot of trouble getting the fish to swallow the hooks with our worms. We essentially were feeding a bunch of little fish. Frustrating to say the least. The hooks were small enough, so that wasn't the problem, but we were both using something like tarnished or bronze hooks. After grabbing a pole with a new brass hook on it, our luck dramatically changed. Almost every bite, we were able to pull in a fish (regardless of how small). In my estimation, the fish were attracted to the shinnyness of the brass (aka the "ooo shinny moment"). Some of these fish included some nice (however undersized) smallmouth and one largemouth about 15 inches and a plethora of bluegill. The only downside to a brass hook is that it is rather weak, but this can be an advantage when pulling a hook off a snag and can help prevent line breakage. So if you are having trouble hooking those pesky little fish, try tying on a small, very sharp brass hook.