Not the most exciting way to start a new month and a new week, but I make no apologies for coming back to lure clips from time to time, and especially when I lost what felt like a decent bass the other day when a different style of lure clip I was trying literally opened out just after the bass properly whacked me. Yep, gutted! I hear and understand the various arguments that tying directly to hooks and lures helps them to move a bit more naturally and so on, but I simply haven’t seen anything meaningful in catch results which puts me off using a smaller profile lure clip. Not to say that some anglers haven’t seen different results to me of course, but I just don’t like tying and cutting and retying my leader when I want to change lure………….

The HTO Lure Link, same lure clip as the Breakaway Mini Link

The whole lure clip thing suddenly made a lot more sense to me when a mate in Ireland introduced me to a paperclip style lure clip many years ago now. That clip was the Breakaway Mini Link which I used for years without a single issue, but if you check out this blog post here from a few years ago you will see why I ended up looking for viable alternatives. I hope that any of the manufacturing issues with the Breakaway Mini Links were sorted out a long time ago, but I can’t comment because I didn’t go back to them. I changed over to using the HTO Lure Link which is exactly the same and I never found a single iffy one in a packet (I can’t find them very easily online these days so I wonder if they are still being made?). You have also got those Seadra Speed lure clips which are very close in design as well.

The size 2 BKK Fast Snap 41 lure clip on a 30g Seeker

Then a friend put me onto the more expensive and slightly different BKK Fast Snap 41 lure clips. The size 2 is basically the same size and strength as the regular paperclip style lure clips I mentioned above, then over time I also began to use the smaller size 1 BKK Fast Snap 41 lure clip for the lighter side of estuary fishing especially. They work really well, I don’t personally think the use of them negatively affects my catch rates at all - very much open to being proved wrong here though, I just haven’t seen a difference - and I like the fact that the size 1 version is a bit smaller and more subtle. I don’t quite know why these BKK Fast Snap 41 lure clips are a fair bit more expensive than the other ones I have talked about, but it’s not as if I lose loads of lure clips and my girls won’t go too hungry if I continue to fish with them! You know me though, I keep my eyes and ears open and I like trying different stuff - even if it might cost me a decent bass now and then……………

The smaller Seadra Mini Speed lure clip with a Berkley Hollow Body Craw 10cm creature bait

I was tidying up some fishing stuff the other day and I came across a packet of lure clips which I didn’t know I had - the smaller size Seadra Mini Speed Clip which has a quoted strength of 17lbs. Considering I have never caught a bass anywhere near 17lbs and to be honest I don’t really expect to, I reckon I’m fine on that front. The size 1 BKK Fast Snap 41 lure clip has a quoted strength of 20lbs and I reckon I am fine on that front as well! I didn’t actually know that there was a smaller size of the Seadra paperclip style lure clip, but I got them out fishing and I can’t find anything I don’t like about them at all. You can clip on a weedless hook like the Savage Gear corkscrew version in 6/0 and it’s okay, but if I am fishing with hooks like that I am going to be using the more regular/larger size of paperclip style lure clip to ensure as much free movement as possible.

What I do like about these little Seadra Mini Speed Clips is the fact that they are £1.75 for 10 or £3.25 for 25, compared to £3.99 for 10 of the similar size 1 BKK Fast Snap 41 lure clips (prices on Veals Mail Order). With the price of fuel these days it’s not as if the price difference here is going to buy me lots more driving miles for example, but I like a saving as much as the next person and so far I can’t find anything about these smaller Seadra Mini Speed lure clips which makes me think I am losing out by not using the BKK ones. How about that bombshell for the start of June?

The smaller size 1 BKK Fast Snap 41 lure clip

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Really liking these little Seadra Mini Speed lure clips for the lighter stuff

© Henry Gilbey 2023