THE ANGLAR - PRAWN HOOK 4208 PRAWN FISHING

The Anglar Prawn Hook 4208

Prawn fishing covers two jobs: catching prawns — giant freshwater prawn (udang galah) and pond prawns, on a float rig with a scrap of natural bait — and using a prawn as bait for fish. The 4208 is built for the first. What sets it apart from the rest of the Anglar prawn range is the connection: instead of a ringed eye it finishes in a flattened spade end, the traditional prawn and bait-hook fitting. The line is snelled onto the shank and the flattened tip stops the whipping pulling off, so the pull runs straight down the shank with nothing standing proud beside a small bait.

Key Features

• Flattened spade end instead of an eye — what separates this model from the ringed 4206, 4207 and 4211
• The compact spade end of the three: seven sizes, #1 to #7, where the spade-end 4204 and 4205 carry nine sizes up to #2/0
• Low-profile connection with no eye to interrupt a small, soft natural bait
• Chemically sharpened offset point that sets with very little force
• Sharp retaining barb to hold a prawn or fish that is thrashing
• Slim high-carbon wire — light enough that a prawn will lift the bait, rigid enough to hold shape

How To Rig It

• Snell the hook — A spade end takes no clip, split ring or eye knot. Lay the tag along the shank, whip six to eight turns down over it toward the bend, pass the tag back through and draw tight so the line leaves on the point side. Check the whipping each session; a snell that slips over the spade will fail.
• Float rig for prawns — Small float, one micro split shot, snelled hook on a short fluorocarbon trace; fish just off bottom and lift smoothly when the float dips.
• Baiting for prawns — Small pieces of worm or prawn flesh threaded up the shank, point left clear.
• Prawn as bait — Pass the hook through the horn on top of the head, in front of the dark spot behind the eyes, so a live prawn keeps swimming. For a dead prawn, thread up from the tail so the bait lies straight.

Target Species By Region

• Southeast Asia — Giant freshwater prawn (udang galah) in Malaysian and Indonesian rivers, and the prawning ponds of Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand (bo kung), where snelled traces are made up in advance. Larger sizes on live prawn for barramundi (siakap).
• North America — No comparable prawn fishery; snelled spade-end hooks are used for panfish, crappie and trout on bait, and for shrimp inshore.
• Japan & East Asia — The spade end is the standard Japanese bait-hook fitting: tenaga-ebi prawn fishing on rivers and canals, and Taiwan's prawning ponds.
• Australia, Middle East & Europe — Prawn baits for bream and flathead in Australian estuaries; shrimp in the Gulf; spade-end hooks on hooklengths for roach and bream in Europe.

Specifications

The pack count falls as the size number falls, so #1 is the largest hook here and #7 the smallest.

Recommended Pairing

• Short 1.2–1.8 m prawn rod, small float, one or two split shot
• 4–8 lb mono or fluorocarbon for the snell — supple line whips onto a spade end better than stiff leader
• 1000–2500 spinning reel, light drag; #1 and #2 for large udang galah