A hooklength (also known as a snood) is a section of line which is attached to the rig body and terminates in a hook. The vast majority of rigs used in UK sea fishing will incorporate a hooklength that can be attached to the rig body with either trapped swivels or a more simple dropper knot.
Monofilament hooklengths: When it comes to hooklengths anglers generally use monofilament line which is memory free. This means that the line does not ‘remember’ the spool it was wrapped around and therefore does not retain the curvature of that spool. This makes the line much straighter and less likely to tangle and therefore more suited to being used for hooklengths.
Most anglers will use hooklengths which are 15lb, 20lb or 30lb breaking strain for general sea fishing, with Amnesia being the most popular brand with UK anglers.
Fluorocarbon: Fluorocarbon is a fairly new development in sea angling, although it has been used in freshwater fishing and fly fishing for a number of years. It is a highly technologically advanced line that is close to invisible when it is in water due to the way it refracts light and also offers higher abrasion resistance than standard monofilament. Read our full article on fluorocarbon line by clicking here.
Wire Line: Wire line is a type of line used to construct hooklengths on rigs designed to target big and powerful fish such as conger, tope or other shark species. The reason for this is that these fish have sharp teeth which can bite through monofilament, leading to many anglers using wire traces to guard against this. As knots cannot be tied with wire line specialist crimps are used instead. An alternative to wire traced is to use heavy monofilament (100 – 200lb breaking strain), although this will also have to be secured with heavyweight crimps as it is too heavy to tie conventional knots with. With most heavy crimps it is also necessary to use specialist heavy crimping pliers. Read our full article on wire line by clicking here.