On a recommendation from a visitor to our blog, I went out and bought some shiny, red round hooks from a local tackle store. Apparently, the metal in the hooks I bought is “harder” than many traditional, “older style” hooks. That, and the shape of these hooks is suppose to make for better hooking. I was skeptical until I hooked my first fish. I caught every fish I hooked into using these smaller and rounder hooks. This is a stark contrast between the longer shanked hooks I have always been using. Last week I lost a ‘livewell load’ of fish to the longer hooks.
These new hooks are currently hooking 100% of the time. I believe!
The downside (which is probably why they hook so well) was that all my hook sets had the hook down in the fish’s mouth (close to the throat). This made it a little trickier to unhook for a quick return to the water.
For a look at similar hooks that I used, Bass Pro Shops has some info here.
Try some today!
Bill Anderson
Muskoka Outdoors
I absolutely swear by the Gamakatsu Octopus hooks in red, which is very close to what you have pictured above. They are sort of a “hybrid” circle hook. If this is what you’re using, try doing a firm sweep-set instead of trying to drive the hook home – similar to the way you might set a trout on a fly rod.
I think you’ll find that the hook almost always ends up in the perfect hook position inside the lip instead of in the throat. Of course with live bait, they can pull it pretty deep right away, but this type of hookset seems to be the key for circle-style hooks like the Octopus.