Slow Pitch jigging recommends to use double hooks, both on the head and the tail of the jigs. Total 4 hooks.

Will single hook work, top and bottom?

Well, there’s no right way to do slow pitch jigging. Every choice we make has cons and pros. Understanding the physics and making purposeful choices is the heart of slow pitch jigging. And if the fish likes it, that’s one answer.

Every experts say the hook setting changes the jig movements. Only way to find out is to go to a pier with your bunch of tackles, dance your jig with different settings and see for yourself. “There’s no shortcut”, they say.

SPJ is about “maximizing” the jigging potentials. Does it have to be maximum to be productive? No. Around the world, everyone has different situations. Some fishing fields are rich and some are competitive. Tackle supply and availability may big or small. Some have local fishing regulations… It doesn’t have to be maximum to catch a fish. But if you learn the principles, reasons, and options, along with your own creativity, you can be more productive today than yesterday. It’s not about right or wrong. Study. Think. Practice. And see for yourself.

Why double hooks?

doublehookassembling 2

The conventional hi-speed jigging used to use a single hook on the head. Slow pitch jigging evolved from there to this particular way for reasons. Sato Sensei is a very logical person.

Slow Pitch uses light-wired hooks and the size is definitely smaller than hi-speed jigging. All the popular slow pitch jigging hooks try to be light weighted. They work on the materials and the shapes for better hooking, penetrating and holding with strength.

Light hooks do not interfere the jig’s natural movement. We try to let the jig swim and fall freely as much as possible. We don’t want to interfere with a heavy hook. Also the light wire is easy to be swallowed. Some fish just slash with open mouth. Some swallow with a gulp of water. Some pick and peck the bait. Slow pitch can target such a wide range of targets. Light weighted hooks can hook all of them.

The sharp point and the thin diameter make the hook penetrate easily. Because SPJ uses a lot of falls. The half the time during actions, you are releasing the tension off the line. And this is the moment you get most bites. When the fish bites, the line is not tensioned, and the hook needs to be so light that just the weight of the falling jig can be enough to penetrate the hook point through the skin.

In conventional jigging, more than 80% of the time during actions has the line tensioned. You are constantly tensioning your system and the jig is hardly falling or even free. That is why, the hook can be only on the head, the hook can be heavy and big, and the hook can be single.

How is the light weighted double hooks work in the fight? The light hooks can be too weak to hold on to a big one, no matter how hard the hook makers try to make them tough. Rather than having a bigger, heavier hook, SPJ decided to have a double. 2 hooks are set, pointing to each other. So, if one hooks, the other can find a place to hook too, and they will split and share the burden.

Also, SPJ hooks are designed to hold big fish in spite of the small size and light wire. The light wire is thin in diameter. If the wire is round as normal, it may cut through the fish skin. So, they forge the wire to make it squire (flat) where the hook holds the fish.

We put the double hooks on the head and the tail. Because the fish tends to bite on the front of the movement. But how the hooks work is that the one double hook gets somewhere at the month, and the other double hook gets somewhere in the front half of the body, and just “hug” the fish with 4 hooks. 4 hooks assist each other by dividing the force to hold. It’s pretty common to break one or two hooks in a fight with a 20kg fish, but you are still able to bring it home with remaining hooks.

This is how slow pitch evolved this hook system. It is the effort to maintain the light weight and the capacity to hold the big fish.

The system has risks also. To reduce risks, we set up the hooks as we do like using fluoro cored PE assist line for the head hooks.

When you use single hooks, what advantage does it bring?

What kind of hook do you use to suit that purpose?

These are the questions I would ask the experts. But they might just answer, “Do what feels right to you.”
They don’t mean to be hard on you when they say this. They mean they don’t have answers. They know well enough. When they are successful with single hooks, it does not mean they would have been unsuccessful with double hooks. It just happened to be successful that time. And it doesn’t promise your success the next time. The fish always gives you answers.

Hope the information helps you! Good luck!