DECOY - TJ-01 TRAILER JACK MINI HOOK MADE IN JAPAN

Decoy TJ-01 Trailer Jack Mini Hook — Made In Japan

A trailer hook is a second, smaller hook that rides behind the main hook to catch the fish that bite the back of the lure and never reach the point. The Trailer Jack Mini is the light-game version of that idea: Katsuichi designed it specifically for ajing and mebaring, not for the bass-sized spinnerbait and chatterbait trailers that the same term usually describes. Rigging is deliberately simple — pass the loop through the hook of a jig head that already has a soft plastic on it, then slide the rubber stopper up to lock it in place. The target is the short bite: the light tick, tap or buzz that ends without a hook-up. Supplied in brown, in #S, #M and #L, four per pack.

The reason it works is geometry. On a 1–2 inch worm fished on a small jig head, the hook point sits well forward of the tail. Aji and mebaru inhale from behind and often only get the tail, so the point never enters the mouth. A trailer riding at the back closes that gap without changing the lure or going up in hook size.

Key Features

• Trailer hook system built for ajing and mebaring light game
• Loop-and-rubber-stopper attachment — no re-rigging of the jig head or worm
• Position adjustable by sliding the stopper
• Converts short bites at the tail of the lure into hook-ups
• Brown finish, low visibility in clear water
• Three sizes: #S, #M, #L — four per pack
• Base hook for the TJ-02 Trailer Jack Mini Fiber, which adds fibre to the same platform

How To Rig It

• Fitting it — Leave the worm and jig head as they are. Pass the trailer's loop over the point and through the bend of the jig head hook, then slide the rubber stopper down to hold the loop closed so the trailer cannot fall off or spin around the shank.
• Setting the position — The trailer should sit at or just past the tail of the worm. Too far forward and it duplicates the main hook; too far back and it swings and fouls the leader on the cast.
• When to fit one — Fit it when you are getting repeated taps with no hook-up, when fish are short-biting on a slow fall, and when you are forced to fish a worm longer than the jig head hook really suits. It earns its place on a tough night, not every night.
• When to leave it off — Leave it off around weed, oyster-covered pilings, rope and rock, where a second free-swinging point turns every cast into a snag. Also leave it off when fish are eating the whole lure confidently — a second hook only adds tangles and slows down unhooking small fish.
• Fishing it — Nothing about the retrieve changes. Keep the same slow lift-and-fall or dead-slow wind, but stay in contact: with a trailer fitted, a tick you would previously have ignored is often already a hooked fish.

Target Species By Region

• Southeast Asia — Light jetty and harbour work at night for small trevally, queenfish, sebarau (hampala barb) in freshwater, and small grouper (kerapu) and bream picking at soft plastics around pilings.
• North America — Crappie, perch and school-size white bass on tiny jig heads; speckled trout and small redfish that short-strike a plastic on inshore flats.
• Japan & East Asia — Its designed use: aji on ajing tackle and mebaru on mebaring tackle, plus kasago and small seabass under harbour lights.
• Australia, Middle East & Europe — Bream, whiting and small flathead in Australian estuaries; small hamour and bream around Gulf marinas; perch, pollack and wrasse on European light rock fishing.

Specifications

Model TJ-01 Trailer Jack Mini. Made in Japan by Katsuichi (Decoy).

Recommended Pairing

• Ajing and mebaring rods of roughly 6–7.5 ft rated to around 5–10 g, with a 1000–2000 size reel
• Jig heads from roughly 0.6–3 g carrying 1.5–3 inch soft plastics
• PE 0.2–0.4 or 2–4 lb monofilament to a 3–6 lb fluorocarbon leader
• Step up to the TJ-02 Fiber version when extra bulk and flash are wanted on the same rig