February 8, 2010
New Guide Helps Make Happy Hookers
A good guide can save you a whole lot of time and wasted effort.
Chances are you’ve found that out for yourself if you’ve ever travelled to a far off part of the country to fish waters you’ve never seen before. The right guide will show you where the fish are and save you the time and the frustration you’ll encounter fumbling around on your own.
Good guides, of course, don’t come free. At least most of them don’t. But hold the phone! I’m about to tell you about a guide that won’t cost you more than a phone call or an e-mail message.
Did I hear you snort, “That’s impossible.”? Guess again! It is entirely possible and you’re missing a bet if you don’t take advantage of it. The guide I’m talking about isn’t the two legged variety equipped with a spacious bass boat and an abundance of lures. But getting together with the guide I have in mind provides an opportunity to learn and to increase your fish catching ability in the process.
The guide I’m talking about is the “Bass Hook Guide” published by the folks who market Gamakatsu Hooks. It’s a relatively new publication but it’s one that has already been eagerly welcomed by the anglers who’ve had a chance to use it.
Let me make one thing clear in the beginning: The Gamakatsu Bass Hook Guide is not just another catalog sprinkled with product and prices. Gamakatsu has those too, of course, but that’s not what the new Hook Guide is all about.
“Our new Hook Guide pictures our hooks and also illustrates the fashion in which many of them should be rigged for best results,” says Jeff Roberts, Gamakatsu’s assistant sales manager.
I’ve been around long enough to have very clear memories of when the first plastic baits became a part of the bass angling scene. When they first came to market there were few hooks specifically designed for plastics. I don’t have to tell anybody how much that’s changed. Today you can find hooks designed for everything from fishing Wacky Style to 
using a finesse approach as well as passel of other techniques.
There are so darn many hooks designed for special uses these days that it’s hard to keep up with what’s available and how to rig the new ones once you get them. That’s where this new hook guide can be such an important learning tool.
If my quick count is correct, there are 40 different hooks pictured on Pages 2 and 3 of the new Gamakatsu Hook Guide. What follows in the guide’s remaining nine pages are illustrations of how many of these hooks are best rigged.
Let me ask a question. If an angler told you he had done best using a Gamakatsu EWG ringed Superline hook would you know for sure exactly what he’s talking about? The following paragraph tells what the new Hook Guide has to say about this excellent hook: “There are many times when calling up fish requires a little something extra. For this purpose we designed the EWG Ringer Superline. Need to fish a Horny Toad in the slop and want it to walk? Our solid piece ring allows the bait to swing freely. Fishing a fluke for schooling largemouth or big spots and want super erratic action? This is your hook. It handles braided line and heavy monofilament with ease.”
The Hook Guide provides a picture of this EWG (extra wide gap) ringed Superline hook and also shows a plastic lure rigged with it.
I mention this ringed eye hook in part because I had a hand in getting it added to the Gamakatsu hook lineup. When I have the good fortune to fish a spot like Mexico’s El Salto Lake I always carry outfits rigged with braided line of at least 50-pound test.
When I first started doing this I didn’t have those ringed eye hooks to work with. I had to lose a couple of beautiful fish before I discovered my braided line sometimes pulled down through the tiny gap at the eye of my hook.
I knew Gamakatsu had ringed eyes on some of their other hooks. When I got back from Mexico I called my friends at Gamakatsu and asked if they would consider adding ringed eyes to some of their regular extra wide gap bass hooks. They were, thank heavens, quick to do so.
Today I can go to El Salto, or anyplace else where the bass run big and the water is often murky, and use the braided line I prefer without worries. As the Hook Guide says, these hooks also work well for heavier monofilament.
Like the Hook Guide also points out, you’ll find that having the ringed eye hook is a big plus when it comes to using certain retrieves with a variety lures. One of my favorite techniques with a Sluggo or Fluke style bait is to retrieve them much the same way I use a Zara Spook.
I’ve seen times when the bass went ape over this “Walking the Dog” approach when they wouldn’t look twice at the same plastic lure fished slow and easy.
I’ve only provided a couple of examples of what you’ll find in this handy new learning and reference tool. There are numerous others. I’ve never eyeballed a guide to hook use that does it as well as this one does.
As I said before, all you need do to get one is to get in touch with Gamakatsu. You can do that by either a phone call or an e-mail message. The phone number is (253) 922-8373 Ext. 104. If you want to send an e-mail request use mailbox@gamakatsu.com.
Chances are this new Hook Guide is going to answer some questions as well as suggest an idea or two you might not have considered. The bass aren’t going to be happy about that but chances are you will be.
NOTE: As a Product Review Editor, the author functions as a sponsored and/or paid professional within the sport fishing/boating industry and may receive free samples to review and/or cash and/or product compensation from the vendors of the products that he endorses above.