Hookin' Up (AKA - How To Select the Right Hook)
By Mike Whitten
Southern Staff Writer
April 23, 2008
The one question I’m asked more than any other is how to select the right hook for the right application, and what hooks I personally prefer. In this article I’ll share some of the preferences that I have developed over the past 40 years.
First of all—full disclosure. I do not have a hook sponsor, so I am not limited by or beholden to any single company. I may be a “patch pirate”, but not when it comes to hooks. I pick my hooks based on which ones work best for me with a given lure. Let me be very clear—hooks are tools just like rods, reels and lures. There is no one hook that works well for all applications.
Let’s start with general terms. I want a hook that is razor sharp, and I measure that by how quickly and easily it starts to penetrate my thumbnail when dragged across the surface. If a hook slides rather than bites, it gets tossed. Fish are too hard to come by to risk fishing dull hooks. I want stiff wire—with very limited flex. If I can flex the wire with my fingers, then I can flex it with fluorocarbon line or braid, and I don’t like that. Wire that flexes takes point penetration energy and transfers it somewhere that does me no good.
Finally, I want sufficient gap between the hook point and the hook shank, enough that I can get good penetration and holding power on a big fish. These features are found in a number of hooks today—and without question, the quality of hooks today is better than it has ever been. When I think back to the blue steel sproat worm hooks of 30 years ago, versus the Gamakatsu, Sugoi, Owner, Daichi and Mustad models available today, the improvement is dramatic and very obvious. We have a lot of high quality hooks from which to choose and that is a good thing. The hooks and applications below are simply the ones that I like and know work for me.
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Creature Baits—Yamamoto Kreatures, Brush Hogs, Sweet Beavers. I strongly
prefer either the Gamakatsu EWG Superline Hook, or the Gamakatsu G-Lock hook in 3/0 and 4/0 sizes. These hooks match the size of these baits well, and offer the wide gaps to function with the bulky plastics.
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Carolina Rig plastics—Most of my “rig” plastics are Brush Hogs and Baby Brush Hogs, Ring Fry’s, (both regular and Baby sizes), 6-inch and 8-inch lizards and 5-inch to 7-inch finesse worms. I really like the Gamakatsu G-Lock hook here. I carry three sizes—3/0 through 5/0 to cover all my bases. This hook is very much like a circle hook, and since I’ve been using it, I have seen a dramatic increase in solid, upper lip or cheek hookups. And once hooked, I almost never see a fish throw this hook.
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Flukes, Strike King Z2—Soft plastic jerkbaits like a keel and a heavy hook adds casting distance and improves the sink rate. I only use one hook for these lures; a 4/0 Gamakatsu EWG Superline. The Superline hook is far superior to the regular EWG hook in my mind, since the heavier wire of the Superline version does not flex or bend on the hook set. I know all the arguments about light wire being easier to set, but when I’m fishing soft plastic jerkbaits, I’m not into gentle. I set the hook really, really hard with a 7-foot rod, so I want the hook to stay in place. EWG Superlines have never let me down.
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Senkos—this lure also gets only one hook: the Sugoi in 4/0 or 5/0, depending
upon the size of the lure. I fish the 5-inch version most often, and the 4/0 hook that was designed by Gary Yamamoto is the best hook I’ve found. The unique angle of the hook point allows for perfect Texposing along the back of the Texas rigged bait. Now, I also love to fish a Senko rigged wacky-style, and when I choose that presentation, the hook is always a 3/0 Falcon Lures weighted weedless hook (www.falconlures.com), with a 1/32 ounce weight molded on the shank. This is a Gamakatsu Kahle style hook with a wire weed guard that allows me to put the Senko in some bad places and still fish effectively.
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Big Worms—I’m talking big plastics here, 10 to 13 inch lures Like the Bass Assassin, Zoom Ole Monster or the Lake Fork
Tackle 10-inch ring worm. The Strike King Iguana Lizard also gets a mention here. This is “Big Mama” hunting not a place for undersized hooks. I like the Gamakatsu 5/0 or 6/0 round bend offset worm hook because the length of the hook shank moves the hook down the bait a little more. I also use the 5/0 G-Lock hook, especially with the Lake Fork worm. Other hooks work here as well, but these two have proven themselves time and time again.
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Tubes and IKAS—these are pitching lures for me, and for that I like a wide gap hook. For tubes like the Strike King Denny Brauer Tube and the Lake Fork Tackle CrawTube (about the only two tube lures I fish now), I really like the Mustad Ultra Point Big Mouth Tube Hook. This hook was developed specifically for these lures and they work extremely well. I also like this hook in a 4/0 size for both Big Ika’s and Fat Ika’s. For what it’s worth, the Ultra Point hooks have what I have found to be the most consistently durable points of any premium hook around. I think Gamakatsu are sharper, but if they touch rock or similar substances, you can toss that hook. Ultra Points tend to stay sharper longer, but in many cases I prefer the shape/design of other hooks.
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Drop Shot—real easy one here. Gary Yamamoto Sugoi split shot circle hook (53
-series). Small, super sharp and self-hooking. I carry sizes 2, 3 and 4. Neatest thing about this hook is that you have no need to set a hook. Just let the fish load the rod tip, lift up and reel tight. Closest thing to a 100% hookup rate as any hook I’ve ever used. A word of caution here: do not get this hook in your hand. The angle of the hook is such that the “push and pull with braided line” trick does not work well with this little devil.
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Jig Heads—I prefer to pour my own jigheads, mainly because I can upsize the hooks, and I can use a premium hook that is generally not available from a commercial source. Mustad, Gamakatsu and Owner all have super sharp, round bend jig hooks that work well for the heads that I pour. I would recommend the Ultra Point hook for any application where rock is a key structure element. As I said above, no hook I’ve used holds its sharpness better than the Ultra Point. One specialty hook that is worthy of mention here is the VMC Barbarian hook. This hook has a unique bend that works very well as a tube lure hook, which is exactly the application I use it for. The 4/0 hook works very well in my molds.
These are my choices and my recommendations based on trial and error over several seasons of fishing. There are several other hook choices available that I did not mention. I don’t think they are “bad” hooks, I’ve just realized that I cannot possibly carry all the quality hooks on the market in one boat, nor should I. I’ve finally settled on a select group of hooks in sizes that I know work in a variety of applications, and I’m comfortable with them. It simply eliminates one tackle variable and allows me to focus on catching fish. I hope that you find some of that help here, as well.