When you have fish that are taking swings at your lure but are skittish and are short striking, what you may need are some high-quality assist hooks. Assist hooks swing freely of the jig and are often mounted at the eyelet of the jig (though they can be trailing, too) and are designed to catch fish that are shyly taking short strikes. They can increase your hookup ratio and reduce lost fish, too. On top of that, since they’re attached by a short length of cord, when the fish thrashes its head, it’ll have less leverage over the jig to throw the hook. Adding some of these to your favorite slow pitch jigs (or other metals) might just be the simple easiest upgrade you can make (with just a pair of split ring pliers) to increase your success on the water.
