Hooks

[wiljack78]

Anyone ever come across a summary of what hooks to use when? There are too many to choose from and I fear that I sometimes use the wrong one. Which style, what size, color etc. Target fish. Used for live bait, soft plastics. Texas rigged, Caroline rig, dropper rig. Weighted and non weighted. Do any of the hook manufactures provide a summary of the right hook for various applications?

[DanMarino]

Owner MUTU Light Circle Hooks!

Last year I began using the Owner MUTU Light Circle Hooks. They are fantastic. I used them extensively with soft plastics on the Potomac River for smallies. They performed wonderfully. No gutt-hookee fish. The hooks are strong, light wire, with sharp points that stay sharp. I hardly remember any fish that came un-buttoned while reeling them in. Worked great on the incidental channel catfish that we caught as well. I imagine they would work great for salt water and live bait or cut bait fishing too.

Here's the product description.

Saltwater anglers find Mutus™ and other Owner Circle hooks ideal for rigging both live and chunk baits. Unique offset, “hangnail” point means fish are jaw-hooked, not gut-hooked, approximately 90% of the time. Super-sharp forged point and a corrosion-resistant black chrome finish.

MUTU LIGHT™
Light wire for both fresh and saltwater fishing. Light wire presents livelier action of your bait and stealthy presentations. Mostly for light line fishing up to 25 pound test with larger size hooks. Available in black chrome and red.

[summersoff]

Don't throw bait too much so can't help you there. For teasers, I like tying them on Mustad 34007 (SS), for Sluggos and rigged eels I use Gami 02415-7 and for plugs I just use VMC's 9626 and the uncut Siwash for the tail.

When fluking etc. I try to stick with Gami circles. Sorry can't remember the number. Gami's just stay crazy sharp.

[surfdog]

i use circle hooks on 90% of my rigs, mostly owner and gamis. sizes #1-8/0, for flounder and tog i use gami khale hooks. i found some 60* mustad circle hooks in 4/0 to make jig heads with. for top/bottom rigs i like bear paw CH that have a spinner, i think the out perform the ones without the spinner. worm hooks, wacky worm hooks etc. there are a thousand types of hooks out there for around here in saltwater CH and khale hooks will catch everything. bait holders if you dont care about gut hooked fish

[ictalurus]

I like the Bear Paw circle hooks with spinners for top and bottom rigs, too. Unfortunately, they're almost impossible for me to sharpen. Maybe if I had a round file? If you start missing/losing fish, that means the hook needs to be replaced. They're cheap enough to replace, though.

For jigheads, I like the Bass Pro or Cabelas saltwater jigheads in 1/4oz, 3/8oz, and 1/2oz for shallow stuff. They have either Gami or black nickel Mustad hooks that are sharp out of the box, stay sharp, but are easy to sharpen. I like Spro bucktails for jigging for flounder for that reason.

[surfdog]

I like the Bear Paw circle hooks with spinners for top and bottom rigs, too. Unfortunately, they're almost impossible for me to sharpen. Maybe if I had a round file? If you start missing/losing fish, that means the hook needs to be replaced. They're cheap enough to replace, though.

For jigheads, I like the Bass Pro or Cabelas saltwater jigheads in 1/4oz, 3/8oz, and 1/2oz for shallow stuff. They have either Gami or black nickel Mustad hooks that are sharp out of the box, stay sharp, but are easy to sharpen. I like Spro bucktails for jigging for flounder for that reason.

yeah, when there dull change them, the red ones work but the electostatic paint doesnt last very long then they are gold. i like the strike king sw jig heads, thinking of trimming the worm keeper off a few and adding some bucktail to them

[DOGFISH]

Hooks, I don't need no stinking hooks! When I go out on the river the fish come out with their fins up.

I use inline circle hooks for bait and live bait. I have mostly been using laser sharp. They even make a small size that I have been using for croaker fishing. I use them also for live shiner fishing for bass. No gut hooks. They are great. I had trouble with the off set circle hooks. I was getting alot of gut and gill hook ups. So now, it must be an inline circle hook.

When it comes to jigs, I have a mixture of different types for jigs, tubes, swimm baits and cranks. With jig fishing, I like a jig head that will stand up the tail of the bait, a football head or a flat type stand up head. These seem to get the attention of the fish. For Texas rigging, I like the screw on type or the stick in type of connection, with an eye to the hook. I think that gives a little more as the fish takes the rubber bait.

I like to change out the cheap hooks that come with crankbaits. I use one size larger on the tail hook. The forward hook I keep the same size, except I like to change it out to a red hook. For the bay, I like to use 3x or even 4x treble hooks. Some of the really large saltwater series crankbaits, I just swap out the tail hook for a bit larger hook. The large saltwater series baits generally come with 3x or 4x saltwater hooks.

Just as important as the hooks, is that you carry a good hook sharpener. Regardless of the quality of the hooks, the bottom, rocks, oyster shell and concrete take a toll on your hook point.

[Tucked In]

Since we are talking hooks, does anyone change out there treble hooks on there lures for a single hook or do you just cut one hook off or bend it that way it still swims the way it should due to the weight balance. I know when I bought the Lonely angler lures the guy recommended cutting the hooks or replacing with a single hook, I'm guessing when you replace the hook for a single you have to replace with the same weight( nothing like hooking a blue with treble hooks every where)

[surfdog]

ive been meaning to remove them and replace them with CHs, im making a hard/soft bait bag for the yak using 1.5" x6" pvc glued together i think i'll change them when i start to load it up.

[Memory Maker]

Yep ......... exchange the treble for a single and mash the barb ...........

Fun's in the catchin' .........

Works in the keepin' .........

[ictalurus]

In my experience, some lures don't run properly with singles, i.e. Bomber minnows. I haven't caught much with my Rattletraps with singles, either, so I wonder if they're less attractive. An alternative is to bend the other two points inward toward the shank. I've done this, and it seems to work pretty well.

For poppers, I use singles or cut off two tines. Singles or cutting two tines off works well for spoons, too.

[DOGFISH]

Even with blues, if you mash down the barb on the trebles it helps a lot. One of the secrets with blues or any fish with teeth is to use a lip gripper of some sort. It makes dealing with them a whole lot easier. This is even the case with pickerel and walleye. I have swapped out my trebles for singles on surface plugs and some spoons, which works fine. However, I am reluctant to do that with the cranks that I use for trolling. I think the trebles matter, for a quick swipe at a crankbait when trolled. On trolled crankbaits, I do not have a problem with fish taking the bait deep. I think that is a situation of the fish having time and motion to swallow the bait, such as when worked slower. Most of the time a fish can really overtake a lure being worked by reel only. The only alternative would be to burn a lure through the water with a really high speed reel, which most anglers do not do. Another alternative may be to go to a double hook. In any event try mashing the barbs down and use a longer rod in order to keep a bend in the rod to keep the pressure on.

I don't worry about the baby blues that we catch in the bay now a days. I can deal with them. In the past, when there were 12, 15 and even 19lb blues in the bay, I did use more single hooks, whenever possible.

[Redfish12]

Haha baby blues... no kidding though. They were still fun on ultralight tackle but after 10 or so it got to be more trouble than it was worth. I was using a krocodile spoon with the single hook for most of the summer, the other half was a sidewinder but they bit that off. I learned not to use silver swivels, black only.

For bait I use circles from 2/0-8/0 depending on the size of the bait. For bottom fishing I use small size 8-2 hooks, for croaker specifically I usually use the extra long ones, it makes getting the hook out a little easier. I plan on trying the small circles this year on a dead stick rod behind me and let them hook themselves. We'll see how that goes.

[Grilled]

I like Owner all purpose hooks 6/0 for live lining and use Gamakatsu circle hooks when dead sticking from shore.

[surfdog]

For bait I use circles from 2/0-8/0 depending on the size of the bait. For bottom fishing I use small size 8-2 hooks, for croaker specifically I usually use the extra long ones, it makes getting the hook out a little easier. I plan on trying the small circles this year on a dead stick rod behind me and let them hook themselves. We'll see how that goes.[/QUOTE]

the bearpaw CH with spinner in 2/0 is my go to for croaker even larger wp will hit them. having trouble finding them this year, might have to make my own.

going to make some surf sliders tonight to get ready for C&R from SPSP or FSP the next few weeks