by Bruce Middleton, February 02, 2007
The right hook for the right lure will land you more bass…
When we were young buying hooks was easy. All we worried about was the size of the hook we wanted and if we wanted it snelled or not. Snelled is a pre-tied hook with a 6-inch leader. All of that has changed in today’s high-tech market big-time. For the most part we now buy packages of hooks not just by size but the shapes and the uses they are intended for determined by what kind of hooks we need. We also choose color, something we never did when I was a kid.
Bass fishing has revolutionized the hook making industry. There are over four-dozen different hook styles to choose from now. And the sizes range from 28 to 5/0 with larger hooks used for salt water. Hooks that hold plastics or live bait on better. Hooks that are designed specifically for a specialize style of fishing or even a specific bait type. Red hooks, chrome and flat black are choices we make too. Do we want that circle hook in size 2, in red of black? And then there are the different materials the hooks are make of. We now have regular hooks made with steel and premium hooks made of stainless steel or low carbon steel. Everything and I do mean everything that you used to know about a hook back when I was a boy has changed. I don’t think the hooks of that day can even be compared to the hooks of today.
Premium hooks will usually cost you two to three times the price of steel hooks, so you ask yourself, is it worth the price. The answer is a definite yes! Premium hooks have the sharpest points on the market and they stay that way the longest because of the low carbon steel they are made with and the high temperatures they are processed under. They will never bend, even in thin wire gauge class. As with all things, you get what you pay for.
Bass anglers today own footlockers full of the best fishing tackle money can buy. Computerized production runs, space-age materials and hand rubbed finishes. Some of the new reels even have electronic drag systems. Sonar, radar, cell phones 2 way radios and even CB units are in use out in the water. You even have an Electronic GPS unit and even a transducer to transmit bass feeding noises into the water around you. With all this high tech gear you would think that we would be able to understand the different kinds of hooks out there and keep them sharp. It’s a low-tech job but so many fishermen use dull hooks and the wrong hooks that it boggles the mind. Professional bass anglers don’t suffer this malady because they stake their livelihood on the sharpness of their hooks and using the right hook for the right job. So lets examine the wonderful world of hooks and how to keep them sharp.
Of all the different hooks we use, those we choose to use on plastics vary the most. There are so many different styles of hooks to use and it really boils down to personal choice as to which one is used. Manufactures supply us with long shaft hooks, bent shafts, wide gap or extra wide gap hooks, and a dizzying array of twists and barb designs to hold the plastic in place. But of late all manufactures have focused on sharpness. They have come up with no less than a dozen different ways to sharpen a hook so not only is it sharp when you buy it but that it stays sharp for the longest time possible. This is a great innovation. The hook industry has gone high tech when it comes to having the bragging rights to having the sharpest hooks out there.
Manufactures have also used differing sized wire gauges to make their hooks out of. While thick and thin gauge have their places the thin gauge hooks are not all that good with heavy poundage lines. It is best used with light lines. In these cases you match the hook to the line size.
In today’s fast paced world of lure manufacturing, the new bleeding hook has gained a huge following of fresh and saltwater anglers. They insist these red hooks improve the number of strikes over standard hooks, and I agree with them. However I don’t have deep enough pockets to replace all the hooks on my lures with bleeding hooks. So, instead I went to the store and bought a bottle of the brightest red metal flake finger nail polish I could find and painted my hooks. One bottle costs $2 and will do about 400 hooks. The extra flash of the metal flake is a real plus too, as it seems to attract even more strikes than just plain red, which I tried. Additionally the little brush in the bottle cap is small enough to paint gill slits on crank baits and lasts and incredibly long time.
I’m not cheap; I prefer to think of myself as inspired.
With all the television shows touting red hooks, the fishing catalogs, and all the fishing magazines it makes one wonder about our grandfathers and what they used in the good old days. They used Potski’s Balls of Fire™ and lots of them. Makes you wonder if we shouldn’t be putting one or two on the hook of our favorite lures, worms and baits. Red is red and the balls of fire have the added advantage of scent. Just a stray thought.
Red means wounded or bleeding to a bass and that is why this color is becoming so popular on the bass scene. It all started with a kid shining a red laser light into a fish tank at a Major fishing outlet store. Someone noticed that the bass swam all over the tank to get to the light and tried in vane to eat it. People started to talk and soon the technical side of the fishing world was shining laser lights of their own into fish tanks. And today the buzzword is red or bleeding
An R hook is a specialty hook made for soft plastic jerk baits. It gets it name from the stretched out r shape of the shaft of the hook. You insert the hook tip into the front end of the bait and pull it out the top about ¼ inch in. ¼ inch further you push the tip of the hook down through the body of the bait until it comes out the bottom. This ¼ of and inch is where the r bend is and where it holds the plastic. Twist the hook around and finding the bend of the hook as it lies along the body of the bait, insert the hook tip at that point and let the tip lie in the slot on the top of the bait. Pinch the top of the bait and barely insert the hook tip into it so you can run your finger over the top of the plastic and not get stuck by the hook but still feel the hook point. You now have a weedless bait ready to fish.
Offset worm hooks work great on worms but don’t work well on heavier baits like salamanders and crawfish. For those, use a straight, long shank bait holding hook. For tubes, use a 90 degree bent tip jig hook. Matching the hook style to the bait or lure is very important to get the optimum action out of the bait and the right grip on the bait. A salamander with an unnatural bend to it will not swim or look right. Sizing the hook is also important. Use the smallest hook possible but still have enough gap and tip to properly set the hook. Just because your fishing with a 10-inch worm doesn’t mean you need more than a 3/0 hook? The diameter of the worm 10-inches long is the same as one 6-inches long. But and EWG or extra wide gap hook can be better than a normal hook. A hook is what holds the bass to your line so do a little research and investigate all the different type of hooks out there and their uses. Then use the right hook for the right job.
Hook size is equally critical. A 2/0 is better than a 3/0 and a 3/0 is better than a 4/0? Use the smallest hook size possible without compromising the hook set ability.
When light weight fishing with weightless tackle it may become necessary to use a light Aberdeen™ hook so as to not kill the action of a slow moving bait.
Round bend, offset eyehooks are the most popular hooks for soft jerk baits and plastics. Gamakatsu™ is one of the top brand names for this style of hooks. The ‘L’ shaped bend just ahead of the eye keeps the plastic bait arrow straight on the hook and gives the most effective hook set possible. The head down hook is a favorite for plastic tubes. This hook keeps the tube straight and the leverage action of the hook tip and eye generates great hook sets.
EWG or extra wide gap hooks are great hooks for plastic worms, creature baits and soft-bodied jerk baits like a Super Fluke™ or a Wild Thang™. It can be used on all plastics and more than a few people do use them exclusively just for that. They like the way the plastic lure gets out of the way and exposes a lot of hook for a never miss hook set. There are so many other kinds of hooks on the market, single hooks, treble hooks, weed less hooks, weighted hooks, jig heads, never miss hooks and hooks with screws on them to screw a plastic bait to the hook so it doesn’t come off. But no matter what style you use its critical to rig your bait so it looks as real and as natural as possible. Unnatural bait will land you nothing. If your bait is bent wrong, you don’t have the hook inserted correctly or your using the wrong hook, a bass bites your bait but you will never get a good hook set. If you’re using too small a hook, you need to switch to an extra wide gap hook. Hooks, like anything else in fishing needs to be looked at closely and learned about. It is not as simple as ‘ a hook is a hook is a hook’.
Worm hooks, extra wide gap hooks, straight shank hooks, tube hooks, weighted hooks, jig head hooks and circle hooks are but a few choices you have when it comes to the type of hook you need for a given job. Pick the right hook for the right job, as the wrong hook can ruin the look of your lure and your day if it doesn’t perform correctly, or if it hurts or kills the fish.
The size of the hooks you use depends on the size of the plastic baits you put on it. A small 4-inch worm will take a 2/0 hook while a large Wooly Hog™ will take a 4/0 hook to hold it. The bend or off set of the hook near the eye is made for several reasons but mostly to hold the plastic bait in place when it is being cast. You don’t want it to bunch up around the bend in the hook but stay straight just like you hooked it up in the first place. Weedless hooks are normally reserved for frogs, grubs and some worms. On a weightless worm rig the whole idea is to make the fall to the bottom, of the worm look as natural as possible. You cast the worm, and usually a swivel, out to where you want the worm to be, and let it gently drift to the bottom watching the line closely for any twitching or movement that would indicate a strike. After the worm has reached the bottom, you do not retrieve it but rather vibrate and twitch the rod occasionally. Use pinks and yellow color worms so you can see them well. This is one case where it is important for you to see the bait. Worms are an eye contact bait meaning that a bass must see it before he will eat it. Fat worms, twisty tail worms and multiple tail worms are all best suited for thick cover in dingy water. Thin worms with straight tails are best suited to active bass
Always us a hook with a gap 2 to 3 times the diameter of the plastic worms your hooking up. Always rig it weedless no matter what style you rig it. That way you can fish blown down trees, crawling along the limbs and letting it fall off and drop to the deeper parts of the tree, dropping down into heavy cover to find open pockets underneath. Fish grass line edged, pockets and indentations. Fish big holes in lily pad beds or around boat docks and stump fields. Fish brush piles, rock piles, submerged humps and other submerged structure. And fish culverts and run off spots where rainwater dumps into a lake.
And let us not forget crank baits, top water lures, spinner baits and jigs. These lures come with factory-stocked hooks, both single and treble, straight from the package. With today’s emphisis on sharpness, most new lures come with hooks that are extremely sharp. These are the higher priced lures that advertise their lure and also advertise the hooks as being made by another manufacturer. More economical lures that don’t advertise the hook maker are suspect as to how sharp the hooks really are and you check them out before using them. They may also bend easily too which means that it would be prudent to change them out to a premium hook sometime in the future using the same size and style or a never miss style.
One other stray thought, you should try very hard to match the color of the hook to the color of the lure you are using. You have nickel, black, bronze and copper as natural material colors to use but if these are not close enough go to the finger nail polish again. The closer you can get the hooks to the color of the lure the less distracting they will be for the bass. I think silver works to a degree so well is that the small fins on prey fish thin out and take on a silver color. This makes a lure seem more real to a bass. But painting the hooks will land you many more inactive bass simply because it’s just a little more perfect.
You can change the hook size of crank baits too without changing the action. I had a Bumble Bug™ that would draw crushing strikes but the hooks were so small it was hard to get a good hook set without tearing the hooks out of the bass’s mouth. By changing the rear hook to a size 4, I caught many more bass but more importantly, it didn’t effect the action of the lure. This is just one example of what you can do when changing hook sizes on a lure.
Sharpening hooks can be done by hand with a stone or a diamond hone. These hones are fairly quick and easy to use. They also make an electric version and a battery version for those of use who do a lot of hooks all at one time. With one of these units you can go through an entire tackle box in just a few hours and sharpen everything in sight. This is also a good time to check if any hooks are damaged, straighten out or bent and need to be replaced. Don’t forget to check the split rings too for damage. By the way, a great way to tell if a hook is sharp is to drop it point first onto your hand so it sticks. I you can turn your hand 90 degrees and it won’t slide off, it’s sharp.
The importance of using the sharpest hooks possible cannot be over stated or repeated enough times. Your reel, rod, line and hook are the four basic things between you and the bass. The failure of any one of these four components means the loss of the bass. The rod and reel are built for wear and tear. If you choose the right strength line you have no worries there. And that leaves the hook. Never be cheap when it comes to hooks, always buy the best you can afford and keep it as sharp as possible.
Bruce Middleton
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