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Posts: 392
Location: KY | I hear so much talk about marabou, vs. rubber, vs. buck tail. Fluted, vs. Indiana, vs. Colorado, vs. willow leaf. Leaders, and snaps, ball bearings. Yada, yada, yada.
What about hooks?
Nobody ever takes the time to speak about hooks. Sure you always here about keeping them sharp, but no one ever talks about what sort of hook does what. I have been looking through my boxes and I have found just about every type of hook in the book. The crazy thing about it is I have multiples of the same lure with a different hook on each one and different sizes to. From the factory, no less! I have round bend, O’Shaughnessy, 2X, 4X,1/0-5/0, curved point, straight point, lazer sharp, long shank, short shank, on and on and on. Is there such a thing as a hook that is too big, too small, too thick, too long, too short,,,?
Aren’t hooks the most important link in the chain, so to speak? How do you choose? I will list a few common lure types. Lets here what hook you chose and why. Be specific. Feel free to use your own examples.
• a walk the dog top water
• a medium size bucktail 7-8”
• a 6” twitch bait
• a 8” twitch bait
• a 10” twitch bait
• a 9” Suick or Bobbie
• a 7-8” deep diving crank bait
• an 8” glide bait
• a 1oz spinner bait
Edited by BruceKY 5/7/2006 9:26 PM
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| I found some really nice Rapala hooks a couple years ago. They were Black, and about as sharp out of the box as you could get. I don't see them around anymore, so I'm not sure if they are still made or not.
I was looking for some treble hooks at Thorne Brothers a few years back, and the clerk there said that I should try the Eagle Claw Laser Sharp. He said when you hook a fish with them, "You own it". I'm not sure about that, but I've bought quite a few since. Very sharp out of the package.
I guess I expect the hooks to be sharp when I buy em', but not everyone does. My brother bought some recently and was showing them to me. He said look at the "Gap" on these. I said yeah, but they're not really sharp? He said that he always sharpens the hooks after putting them on the lure, and also a bit more when putting the lure on his line. The "sharpness" to him, didn't seem to be as important as the strength and gap of the hook. |
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Posts: 20277
Location: oswego, il | I have posted info about hooks before. I have people who disagree but my motto is, you can't catch a fish if you can't hook it first. I have had too many rips, hits and fish just letting go of lures and know why in each case why that was. In every instance the lure had an extra thick 3-5x hook on it. It does not matter how sharp you get them, they just don't penetrate like a light wire hook does. I like the mustad short shank round bend for most applications and two styles of eagle claw for longer shank applications.
Now for hook configurations. I only like upsizing if the lure has a 1/0 hook or smaller, or the bait is huge and has way too small a hook on it. I am not a big fan of taking a bait of 8" or bigger and upsizing leaving two hooks. In fall especially, muskies seem to take one swipe at a bait and I realry catch one after turnover that has inhaled it. I want 3 trebles on a bait like that,especialy a trolled crakbait or a glider.
Some 8" or above crankbaits only have two hooks on them. Those are the situations I will put on a bigger eagle claw. When baits get that big and only 2 hooks there is some space between the hooks and I think it gives the fish a bigger chance of not getting hooked up.
Hooks are big with me and have seen enough to know at least what not to use. |
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Posts: 392
Location: KY | Todd
I agree. The 4&5X hooks are too stout. Hard to cut too. At the other end of the scale I have a lot of 6" baits with very small light wire hooks. First of all will a small(1/0) gap hook work? Second if it does what keeps it from straitening out. Most of the places I fish have a lot of timber. I keep my drag pretty tight. I guess the key is balancing your hooks with your rod, line, drag, and type of water you are fishing.
You say you like the mustad round bend. Are the eagle claw hooks you like round bend too? What is the advantage of a round bend vs. an O’Shaughnessy?
Thanks,
Bruce |
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Posts: 3510
Location: Elk River, Minnesota | I carry a variety of hook sizes. Usually, I have 1/0 eagle claws for 6 inch twitch baits, 2/0 for ones 7" baits and smaller bucktails, 3/0 for Depthradiers and similar crankbaits, and 4/0 for Bulldawgs and two hook gliders.
I fish mostly with twitch baits in the spring, so I make sure that after the hit, I get my drag backed off so as not to straighten a hook.
I have had excellent luck with the Eagle claws. I would agree that some of the hooks out there are so fat for their size designation that they do not penetrate very well at all. After a few sharpenings, they are sharp, but too short from point to barb to penetrate sufficiently.
The eagle claws require very little sharpening. With that little claw point bending back to the shank just a touch, once that penetrates, the fish is solidly hooked, unless you get it in the jaw. I have had quite a few fish get snoot-hooked and had no problems with lost fish..
Steve |
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Posts: 20277
Location: oswego, il | That is exactly it, losing fish. This is why I like those lighter wire hooks. Bruce, i fished shelbyville 3 weeks ago, snagged a fw baits and lost 1. Wanna guess what kind of hooks that bait had on? Giant 6/0 hooks. I should have taken them off the bait before hand was lazy and it was a new bait I wanted to give it a spin in the water. Every other bait I snagged had round bend mustads and they did give and i got the bait back. As far as straightening on a fish, i don't give them that kind of pressure but I don't play them to exhaustion either. I don't horse them when they don't want to be horsed. |
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