Among the most important items of tackle, some are more obvious than others! For instance; the correct hook link material for each fishing situation had better be spot-on; like its physical and chemical properties and action in water for example. When wet, your line preferably had better be beyond the "quoted manufacturers strength. Wet knot strength is often literally, "the weakest link!'
On very highly pressured waters, where fish have seen "everything" it is often imperative that both your hook-link and main line is as "invisible" unobtrusive and as "natural acting" as physically possible. Your main line had better be strong enough to stand the pressure and abrasions (even at the reel roller and rod rings) when the biggest fish in the lake rips-off with your baited hook and ploughs towards the nastiest snags in the water! Usually such fish will test your rod and line past their limits and quoted breaking strain as the biggest fish normally have had years of practice being hooked and diving for safe snags!
The quality and condition of your rod rings, reel line roller and clutch mechanism can easily lose you "the fish of a life-time," so regular maintenance and attention to detail is essential. It is a massive advantage if you get advance experience of using your tackle at full pressure fishing for other big species. During key moments in a fish when your adrenaline is pumping and it is fifty-fifty who is going to win, knowing exactly what to do in advance and how to maximise the leverage and limits of your gear really matters. (They often help you keep a "cool head" and control any sense of panic or shock if the fish is evidently more cunning or powerful than you've ever experienced previously!)
Fishing "Lac Du Salagou" and "Lac Du Curton" ('Rainbow Lake') in France is best done after having previously tested your gear to the limit and then seriously up-graded both your tackle and "mental approach!"
Other aspects of lines that all can combine and stack the odds of success in your favour are: Exceptionally "low memory," minimal "line twist" and smooth casting properties to hit that "dinner plate" spot accurately at 120 meters away. This distance is often about 40 to 50 metres further away than most anglers estimate 120 metres to be and is a hell of a cast. (In fact such a cast is beyond the capabilities of many an "average" angler, despite "modern distance rods and big line capacity big-pit reels!")
It helps to do 3 decade of long-range beach casting to seriously train-in and hone your range, casting action, motor skills, appropriate musculature, technique and most importantly; your accuracy. (Often applying free bait accurately is a huge factor contributing to success as fish move further and further "out of range of our lines and leads!)
Other bits of tackle you might prefer not to leave at home, include a very sensitive bite detector. Often you can have fish "playing with baits' on and off for hours, without them getting hooked. This is without a fisherman having had any sound other than one or two "bleeps" from the indicator, (especially at range!). When fish are used to shedding hooks every day and night, they get very skilled at it in response to exposure to all the most popular contemporary rigs.
These are supposedly designed to be "self-hooking" self-turning' contraptions to always give you the "edge" and get around the crafty fishes defensive behaviors. If you have ever seen fish get off these rigs with ease in the margins (it might take a fraction of a second, or half an hour without moving-off though.) It could be argued that a truly effective hooking rig providing a truly genuine hooking "edge" is one that fish in any particular lake have never experienced the like of before!
Your fish hooking success includes the design of your chosen hooks and the materials and quality and gauge of metal it is made from. Added to this are decisions you make regarding the rest of the rig and the use of hook-link material and of particular strategic pivot points for rig movement and son. A good example is a version of a "cranked hook" with multi-stranded hook link material where the hook is positioned above and independent of one bait but sandwiched between the top bait and the smaller less buoyant one beneath the hook.
As recent innovation from "Solar Tackle" is the introduction of a "ring swivel" incorporating tiny ball-bearings which make it turn on your line more efficiently than ever before. The great advantage of this is it allows your rig to turn instantly in the mouth exactly in the way your rig design requires for maximum hooking potential. I can personally vouch for the fact that an efficiently-turning rig catches more fish!
