SMITH Hammerhead A-CUP Popper

As its name implies, these poppers are the result of a cooperation between SMITH and Hammerhead to create a top-shelf lure.  When you handle them you will immediately feel that this is not a Halco or a Sebille!  They're crafted from wood and hand-painted to make a horizontal lifting Popper Masterpiece - "a dance foam cup!!"
What makes an A-Cup Popper different to many of the big plastic poppers on the market, like Halco, Sebile at al., is that A-Cups float high in the water and can take repeated hard hits from toothy fish without losing buoyancy thoke their cheaper plastic cousins!!
Great for GT Giant Trevally, Tuna, Wahoo and Baracuda in tropical waters

Length:   145 mm
Weight:   50 grams (without hooks)
Material:  Wood

This lure does not come with hooks.

We would recommend you to buy a pair of serious trebles like:
OWNER ST66-TN 3/0
Cox&Rawle Meat Hook Treble 4/0

Check them out on the site!
https://seadogtackle.co.uk/lures/smith-hammerhead-cup-popper-145cm-54g-floating

Part 5 - Neko Rig 101

NEKO Rigging is very close to the Wacky Rig but unlike the wacky-style the Neko Rig is a vertical presentation, fished horizontally.

Tie your hook to the end of your line then hook the worm through the middle just like a Wacky-style. Now insert a SMITH tungsten nail weight into the head or tail of the worm.
As you fish the worm, it will stand on end but as you twitch it, the worm will pull horizontally twitching forward while standing up vertically off the bottom - makes this a unique presentation for a soft plastic.


There are several new components to give more sophisticated rigging and greater finesse to this style of fishing.

Gran Nogales NEKO RIG Hook Screws, screw into the worm and allow you to hook off the worm to improve presentation and hook ups but also to add life to the bait.  Also check out the GRAN Nogales Goblinbat weight system.

https://seadogtackle.co.uk/lure-springsscrews/nogales-neko-rig-hook-screws

Part 4 - Wacky Rig 101

The Wacky Rig offers anglers a natural looking worm profile that sits horizontal in the water column falling slowly vertically and can be fished in one spot. It can be fished weightless, have a SMITH Tungsten Nails pushed into the head or belly weights like the Gran Nogales Body Shot tungsten weights to it to get it down deeper, faster.

This is probably the easiest of all the rigs to tie. Simply tie a Gran Nogales Wacky hook to your line with your prefered knot and then fold the worm in half and hook the worm through the middle.  Then after you cast, let it fall and give it a few slight twitches, then let it fall and twitch it some more. It looks like a live earth worm writhing and twisting down the water column.

This is a great technique in clear water where fish can see the worm so it needs to look very life like. You can fish it around floating cover like pontoons or around pier columns and vertical structures like walls.  Fish very slowly close by.


https://seadogtackle.co.uk/lure-springsscrews/nogales-neko-punch-hook-and-weight-centering-pins

https://seadogtackle.co.uk/weights/nogales-body-shot-tungsten-weights


Try this technique with our McCarthy Worms

Part 3 - Drop Shot Rig 101

The Drop Shot Rig also known as Under Shot in Japan, presents the worm horizontally off the bottom but is also deadly when fishing vertically. 

Unlike the Carolina Rig this is rigged with the weight at the bottom below the hook.  The hook can be located up the line where ever you feel is the the best depth to fish. With this style of rigging, you can use the weight to hold your bait in one place and fish as if jigging, shaking it and enticing fish to take your bait.
 
Start by tying a standard knot to one of the Gran Nogales Drop Shot hooks making sure you leave between six and twelve inch of tag end depending on how close you want to fish from the bottom. After tying on the hook thread the tag-end through the hook eye from the hook point side - making the hook kick out, point up. 
At the bottom of your tag end, attach a drop-shot weight or a bell sinker.

Now simply Texas-Rig your worm onto the hook or if you prefer to use a small drop shot hook, just nose hook the worm just over the point for greated finnesse.
Fish vertically or make casts to deep structure and work it back slowly like a Texas Rig until you reach cover - then stop and jig it up and down moving the slack line and not the sinker. As you slacken the line the worm falls - as you tighten the line the worm rises up the water column

https://seadogtackle.co.uk/hooks/nogales-undershot-twist

https://seadogtackle.co.uk/hooks/nogales-undershot-fine-wire

Part 1 - Texas Rig 101

Texas Rigging is one of the first rigs you need to master when learning to fish soft plastics. The rig is very simple and will become second nature as you become an acomplished soft bait fisher.
 
Start by pushing the hook point into the nose of the worm. Push it by ¼ inch and then poke it out of the side of the worm at a 90 degree angle. Run the whole hook through the side until you reach the eye. As you reach the eye rotate the hook so that the hook point is pointed back towards the body of the worm.  Now lay the hook to the side of the worm keeping the worm straight. Visualize where the bend of the hook intersects the bottom of the worm. That’s where you have to insert the hook point threading it into the body of the worm.

This is rig weedless and snagless as long as the worm is covering the hookpoint. It presents the worm both horizontally along the bottom if a bullet sinker is added or horizontally towards the top if rigged weightless. It can also be fished vertically with a heavy bullet sinker in applications like flipping, pitching and punching.
This is absolutely THE best presention a soft worms in heavy cover like weed beds, rocky bottom, over submerged trees and manmade structure.

Part 2 - Carolina Rig 101

In trying to explain our soft bait products I realized that in Europe we are not too familiar with techniques that have long been used and perfected in the USA, Japan and Australia.  It's no mistake that some of the most sophisticated tackle is made in Japan - so here then is a review of styles and how to rig them!!

The Carolina Rig is made to separate the worm from the weight so that the worm swims more naturally. As you retrieve the weight along the bottom the worm dances and darts and suspends momentarily behind the weight.

To tie the rig, you slide a tunsten bullet sinker onto your line, then slide a glass bead or brass on to the line behind the weight and hold them in place by tying a small crane swivel (for finesse try the tiny Cox & Rawle all-stainless swivels) to the end of the line. Now take a leader of 0.5 metres (2ft) to 1.5 metres (5ft) and connect to the other end of the crane swivel. At the end of your leader, you’ll attach a Gran Nogales offset hook and then thread your soft plastic worm onto the hook Texas rigged.

This rig is fishes weedless and allows you to fish a worm faster through large horizontal areas like ledges, flats, weed lines and shallow weed beds.  Avoid rock areas where you'll get your weight jammed and lose the lot.

Fish it fast, but keep the weight in constant contact with the bottom. Retrieve in the same way that you would fish a slow crankbait. Draw a foot at a time with a side sweep of your rod; take up the slack and repeat.
 

Cox & Rawle Hooks, Components and Premium Rigs

We are delighted to have been appointed by Cox & Rawle to be one of their top retailers and one of their 100% stockists.  That means that we can supply all of their products from stock at all times!!  That's the objective at least!!
This is getting exciting as they are making their return to the market and from what we can see there are loads of new products in the pipeline that will be welcomed by the sea fishing brigade with open arms.  I am most impressed with their quality ethos, no rubbish Chinese wire here and best of all they are now making most of their components in England.
I met their rig tying team (real blokes! John and Nick) and have witnessed that they make their rigs from their own hign quality components and are tying on top quality line from Japan using their own super sharp hooks.  Just compare the knots on their Premium Rigs with the Chinese nonsense for £1.50 that are being touted by Leeda and Tronix for tourists only!  Even the deodorant rig makers donts stand a chance against quality like this!!
Look out for Shark, Conger and Skate rigs that will go on line later in the week.
As the saying goes - "use it or lose it" - support them because they really do practice what they preach making top quality gear in Blighty!