Modern Bank Fishing
Hooks
by Michael J. Keyes, MD
Introduction
European fishermen take great pride in choosing the proper hook for their style of fishing. As a result they have a great variety and a number of quality brands available for bank fishing. In the North America, Eagle Claw is the only hook maker who can give us an extensive assortment of quality products. But for the most part the American angler ignores quality and style when selecting hooks. This is strange when you consider that the hook is the only part of your tackle to come in direct contact with the fish.
While every American book on fishing stresses the importance of using first quality hooks, most of us can't pass up a bargain. Consider this, would you fish for a trophy with a $2.00 rod when you could use your best graphite? Of course not. So why fish with a 2 cent hook. Yet I find myself reluctant to fish with 20 cent hooks because they cost $20 per hundred. False economy when you think about it.
Still, amongst the junk lies some of the best hooks in the world. Cabela's, Bass Pro Shops, and other mail order houses offer Gamakatsu, VMC , Mustad, and Partridge (to name a few). These companies sell hooks made of the finest materials that are well tempered and chemically sharpened. There are plenty of designs for all applications and in the case of Mustad for applications which may not exist. So there is no need to run down to the nearest discount store and buy the cheapest hooks. If you must go there at least buy Eagle Claw hooks.
If you use catalogs you will be able to buy a variety of sizes from 32 to 16/0. Interestingly, no one catalog seems to carry every size, but if you purchase from several you will fulfill your needs. The avid bank fisherman will find a use for all of these sizes eventually.
The style of hook you will need depends on the system of fishing and the type of fish you are pursuing. Because modern bank fishing emphasizes light line and delicate techniques it pays to get the sharpest and best designed hooks available.
Types of Hooks
Basically there are two types of hooks, wire and forged. Wire hooks have the advantages of being cheaper to manufacture and bending easily. They are generally made with cone shaped points and have small diameters. All of the cheap hooks are made with wire. Forged hooks are stronger, heavier, and more expensive to make. Forged hooks will break rather than bend and they have sharpened points. Poorly made forged hooks exist but less often than the wire type.
Let's look at wire and forged hooks more closely. Both styles are made the same way, the forged hook just starts out with stouter wire. The basic manufacturing process has been around for 175 years and shared much of the technology with needle making. In fact the early English hook makers of Redditch sold hooks as a sideline to their needle business. The difference lies in the attention paid to the forging process and the addition of chemical sharpening.
Wire hooks are ideal for panfish, trout and other small fish. They penetrate easily and do little harm . When there is a danger of a snag wire hooks can be used with the knowledge that they will bend and you will not lose tackle. They are inexpensive since they are made with fewer steps than the forged style. They are ideal in situations where the bait has to be presented in as natural a manner as possible, e.g. fishing for trout with maggots. As you develop your ability to fish, you will begin to see more and more applications.
In Europe wire hooks are snelled onto leaders which are then attached to the rest of the tackle. This allows for quick changing of sizes and styles of hooks. Match float systems use wire hooks almost exclusively and these hooks are often made with a spade eye to facilitate snelling. This is a specialized and useful technique that should be tried more often in the United States.
Forged hooks are made for strength. They are stout compared to wire hooks and are used to catch large and strong fish. This type of fishing does not depend on ultra-delicate presentations since it usually involves sizable or unnatural baits such as cut fish or boilies. They are often combined with hair rigs which depend on the fish not noticing that the hook is there until it is too late. Forged hooks can be very sharp due to a process called chemical sharpening that puts on a consistent point and cannot be duplicated by hand.
The hook you use depends on your fishing situation and your philosophy of why the fish will bite. Since there are literally tens of thousands of hook styles to choose from, you should try to be as basic as possible in making your choices. Do you need to make a delicate presentation? Use wire hooks. Are you likely to catch a 12 pound bass? Then a stout forged hook is called for. Will you be catching fish in large numbers and quickly? Then a barbless hook will be useful. What about a 50 pound fish where a delicate presentation from a long distance is needed? Now you need to be creative. The Europeans have solved this problem using a hair rig with a small forged hook. Don't be afraid to go out on a limb with your solutions. The hook you need will probably be there.
Most books will give you a treatise on the anatomy of hooks and tell you about such things as Kirbed, reversed, or straight hooks. (This, by the way, means that some hooks are offset and some are not.) I won't bother with such trivia. Barb size is important. Poorly made hooks have big barbs which makes penetration more difficult. (Small or micro barbs are ideal.) There are at least seven types of eyes and three eye positions. There are five point styles, infinite varieties of hook shapes and no manufacturer agrees with any other on size, name, or application. I'm not so sure that all of this makes a lot of difference once you have decided what you want to do when you are fishing. Use common sense and choose from what is available.
Hooks for Float Systems
Float systems require hooks as small as size 32. Baits presented with a float have to mimic the action of the chum used which in most cases are maggots or other smaller baits. Spade end hooks are ideal, hey are light in weight and snelled giving an inline connection, important in a very small hook. In addition they will not roll or yaw when a fish is being played. Lines knotted to eyed hooks will slip when stressed. When a snelled hook is set it will not lever the fish's lips apart.
Hooks for Leger Systems
Legering, or bottom fishing, requires a different type of hook. With these methods you will expect to catch large fish in an environment strewn with rocks, mud, branches, etc. and you will need hooks which are strong and sharp. The forged hook fits the bill. In contrast to float techniques, legering does not involve delicate presentation of small baits. Most legering is done with large, often unnatural, baits such as liver or boilies. In some cases the hook is left bare and in most the hook point is exposed. Snelled hooks have little advantage here.
Choosing Hooks
As in all endeavors worth attempting, the little things make the difference. In spite of fairly good quality control, you will always find poorly made hooks in a batch of your favorite brand. The most common problems are open hook eyes and bent wires. If you are very particular you will no doubt find barb size variations and other minor flaws. Remember that you will get what you pay for so it is most economical to buy the best hooks you can afford.
Another aspect of hooks is the variety of multiple-hook styles available on the market. Multiple-hooks are usually treble and double hooks used in an assortment of ways. A good selection of these hooks is available in North America and the most common use is with live and dead natural bait presentations. Some of the European double hooks have a smaller hook to place in the bait with the larger hook on the outside. The Marvic double has the barb on the outside of the baitholder hook. The Marvic treble also has a smaller baitholder hook and the angle of the other outside hooks is such that they are free from the bait. All of these hooks can be combined to make various types of rigs as needed.
So a hook's a hook, right? Compare a Gamakatsu with one of those imitations that comprise 100 of the items in the one hundred and thirty-one piece expert fishing kit found at K-Mart. You will quickly become a convert to good hooks.
Hair Rigs
Hair Rig
Hair rigs are a special rig used by carp anglers in England (see the chapter on specimen fishing). They are easy to make but they do require some special equipment, namely a #14 crochet hook and small silicone tubing. The crochet hook can be found in any crafts shop (where, incidentally, many fishing tools can be found) and the silicone tubing bought from Class Tackle, Gander Mountain, Bass Pro Shops. The rest you already have.
The task of a hair rig is to allow the bait to float free of the hook and to drag the hook into the fish's mouth when he finally accepts it. It works best on finicky fish who will eject the bait as soon as they detect metal. It also works well with live baits such as worms and maggots. A well made hair rig will cause the fish to spit the hook right into his lip more often than not.
As you can see from the diagram, the 1 pound test line is attached to the eye of the hook but does not leave the shank until midway due to the piece of silicone tubing holding it. This placement is critical because it allows the point of the hook to remain in the same plane and the same direction (pointing at the fish's lip) whether the fish is sucking in the hook or blowing it out. Any other placement will cause the hook to spin while it is being rejected.
Putting a bait on the hair is simple: tie a small loop in the free end of the hair line before tying it to the hook. Take the crochet hook and pierce the bait through. Hook the loop and thread the hair through the bait. Put a small piece of rubber band in the loop and pull it tight against the bait which is now held firmly on the hair.
The hooks used should be well made and strong enough to catch the fish. The old maxim of bigger hooks for bigger fish is, at best, a rough guideline. A good hair rig should have as small a hook as needed, usually size eight to four for catfish. Even though I think fish don't reject a hook when they see it, why take chances?
There are many variations on the hair rig. Try changing the length of the hair, add more than one bait to the rig either in line on one hair, or use two hairs. Try a floating bait if there is a lot of trash on the bottom. The variations are endless.
M.J.Keyes
