To Slot Or Not To Slot

[J lure]

Hey Guys

 

I'm working on a new soft plastic lure design. I was wonder what your thoughts on hook slots in your soft plastic baits. Yay or Nay? Should the slot be on top or bottom, or both? Any advantages or disavantages?

[nova]

It all depends on the design of the lure.

[J lure]

Well, my idea is a creature style bait with a thickness of 1/2" or so.  I wanted to create a thicker bait in order to create a high bouncy, floating lure by adding micro balloons. I thought a hook slot would give me better hook up percentage due to the thickness of the bait and the stiffness of plastisol combined with microballoons.  I was also thinking the baits would last longer if I didn't have to skin hook or have a tucking point in the bait.

[J lure]

BOB, Do you have any pictures of the frog with ridges rigged up and hooked? I look in the gallery without any luck.

 

That is really subjective.  For example on the LBS SHAD I made it with a very deep hook slot, but then about 60% of the people I got feedback from on it fished it in a manner that doesn't benefit from a hookslot.  So... I made a plate to drop in the mold to eliminate the hook slot, and I can now make it either with or without easily. 

 

On my frog, I made it with a hook slot in the bottom so the hook could push up further, but I also put ridges on the back in case somebody wanted to fish it without tucking the point.  (I fish fish it classically texas rigged on a keeper hook and a weedless trailer hook myself.)

[mark poulson]

If your plastic is going to be stiff, then a hook slot can't hurt.  A deep one in the belly, or a shallow one on top, or both.

But by making the plastic where the hook passes through thinner you lose some of the hook holding that thicker plastic provides, so you'll probably wind up skin hooking anyway to keep it weedless, and the hook in position.

[Fish2DMax]

Great input from the earlier replies. With a Fluke I'd say yes, make a slot. It is much easier to get a hook-up with the slot provided.

[lefthook]

Creature baits I use straight shanks and tend to bury the point most time.  With senko type baits and offset hooks, I prefer a hook slot on the top when texas rigging.  All in all, I fish the bait for what it does.  Not whether or not it has a hook slot.

[J lure]

My goal is to make the bait weedless as possible.

[FreshwaterFX]

Personal preference...I hate slotted soft plastics. When plastics tear, it's typically at the hook. I feel like that slot weakens it even more. I just bury the point and get with it. By "get with it", you probably thought I meant fish/catch fish. Curveball, y'all. I meant "cuss about back-lashes for the next six hours before giving up and boat-napping until weigh-in where I'll make a feeble attempt at appearing excited about the fish everyone else caught". So, there's that.

As far as weakening the bait, I have no scientific study proof or mathematical equation to support that claim.

[FreshwaterFX]

^^^ I was mostly talking about sticks with slots.

*That was a tricky sentence to type. It was a couple of auto-corrects from being really inappropriate.