I was wondering whether or not shrink tubing on the hook makes a big difference. When you test rigs on your hand there seems to be no difference in the hooking potential between a rig with shrink tube and a rig without. Any thoughts?
it hels to turn the hook, but no, its not neccesary.
i have caught carp with & without and havent noticed a difference in drops. however, i do only do day sessions a few times a month and most of the pro's, who catch a lot more than i do and fish more often, say it makes a difference to their drop rate (i would never use it on flurocarbon though - purely as i dont like the thought of it)
I don't agree with everything Jim Gibbinson writes but I found when I started using line aligners as detailed by him that my catch rate improved, even when used on knotless rigs, nylon or braid. Nice one Jim!
Personally I do not use the shrink tube types. I have found that soft tubing cut at an angle with the line exiting through the side of the tubing on the hook side works best. A lot of the shrink tubes I have tried at home do not hold a bend correctly and end up being just a straight extension of the hook shank, hence I have not had the confidence to cast them out.
I agree you get a lovely bend when you shrink it, but once you hang a bait off it, especially when you add a mesh PVA bag full of pellets as well, a lot of the brands tend to straighten a bit.
It's only a personal preference, my mate Phil swears by the stuff and I've seen him hauling loads out.
Mind you, I think my soft tubing version works slighty better.
some kettles the hole in the spout is to big and does not concentrate the steam enough for max temp for max shrinkage so when im dressing cables etc I use a mini steamer for cleaning