Classification of Fishing Hooks

Hooks come in single, double and treble versions, and they are classified by size, shape and material. Each part of a hook has its own name. There is also an additional classification of hooks by purpose, for example: bleak hooks, carp hooks, etc.

The main thing about a hook is the distance between the point and the shank (the gap). Under the Russian classification, the gap of a hook expressed in millimeters is called its number. Most countries have kept a numbering that runs from the largest (No. 10/0) to the smallest (No. 28 and even No. 32). As a rough guide, a No. 16 hook has a gap of approximately 3mm, and a No. 10 about 5mm. Approximately, because the gap of hooks of the same number varies between suppliers, and varies considerably.

The most common hook shapes have been given their own names. The most popular shape is called 'kirby', followed by the 'crystal' shape and hooks with a round bend and a straight point. Each hook shape has a standard shank length, arrived at by manufacturers through trial and error. But besides hooks with a standard shank length, special long-shank hooks are made for catching fish with small mouths on relatively long baits, for example ruffe on a worm.

'Bleak' hooks belong to the same class, but the long shank on a very small hook is there to make it easier to grip with your fingers. A short shank is intended for catching strong fish on small baits, for example bream on bloodworm or carp on boilies and corn.

Large and medium-sized hooks may have from one to four barbs on the shank. The barbs serve to hold the bait in place (not necessarily a worm, but also maggots and dough). If you're in doubt about what size hook to tie on, go with the smaller one. Experience says that a hook is chosen not by the size of the fish, but by the size of the bait.

Eye or spade end?

An eye has the advantage that the line always sits correctly on the hook. Correctly means that the line comes out of the knot on the side of the bend. Eyed hooks are indispensable when using thick monofilament lines, braided lines and wire leaders.

A spade end is good in all cases where you're using non-stiff monofilament line up to 0.16mm in diameter. So when fishing for non-predatory fish weighing up to 3 kg, it's better to use spade-end hooks. There are also hooks with neither an eye nor a spade, but with several small notches at the top of the shank. Such hooks hold well on line no thicker than 0.1mm. They're handy for fishing with a worm. Part of the worm slides up onto the line and the bait looks alive.

Straight or offset?

Most hooks are bent in a single plane, but there are hooks with a bend in a second, sideways plane. The point, the bend and the back of the hook can all be offset. The 'back' is most often offset on short-shank hooks. I believe that bending a hook in a second plane gives no advantage in terms of hooking ability, but the strength of the hook does go down.

The hook point

Many models have the point turned inward ('eagle claw' or 'bird's beak'). You lose far fewer fish off hooks with this kind of bend. Why, I don't know, I'm just going by experience. Often it's enough to 'turn in' just half the length of the point, and the number of missed strikes literally drops by half. 'Turning in' the point is very easy to do on a fishing trip using, for example, a knife: run its flat side along the point, pressing toward the shank.

Turning the hook point in toward the bend also leads to a sharp drop in the number of lost fish. Practically all carp hooks are like this. But another fact should be noted too. If the whole point is 'turned in', you get a lot of missed bites when the fish are biting cautiously, so it's better to 'turn in' just the tip of the point.

The barb

Below the point, usually on the inside of the hook, there's a notch that's called the barb. It's meant to hold the bait and to keep a hooked fish from coming off. There are also hooks with the barb on the outside.

Hooks like this in the form of trebles have proven themselves very well. There are barbless hooks, which are intended for fast fishing for relatively small fish. Why small? Well, if only because big fish can't be caught quickly (except for tuna).

All barbless hooks should have the point turned in, at least the very tip. This is needed so the bait doesn't fall off the hook while you're handling the rig. The main purpose of such models is competition fishing for bleak on maggots.

What forging is good for

Almost all hook models are produced in forged and unforged versions. Claims that a forged bend helps cut through the fish's lip better I put down to theoretical reasoning not confirmed by practice.

Forging is useful (or harmful) for increasing the stiffness of the hook's bend. Forged hooks are good for fishing with maggots and corn. The widening of the wire where it's forged acts as a stopper that keeps the maggot from sliding down onto the bend and even onto the barb of the hook.

It's important to choose not only the right hook shape, but also the right wire thickness. You often have to catch big fish on very delicate live bait (bloodworm, caddis larvae). A big barb, an uneven anti-corrosion coating and thick wire are the reason that after baiting the hook, all that's left on it is a mush of bait. And there are plenty of cases when a fish takes a bloodworm only as long as it's wriggling on the hook.

Color and coating

For many anglers, hook colour really matters. I believe it should be approached not in terms of colour, but in terms of how well the coating protects the wire material from water. Most often, nickel electroplating is used to protect the material. It can be bright or blackened.

The most durable, but also the most expensive, is a coating of technical gold. Tinning and chrome plating are used rarely (usually on hooks for sea fishing). The colour of a hook is determined by the colour of its coating. The only colour created by special lacquering is red (to imitate bloodworm), but the lacquer lasts no more than one fishing trip. Besides, it has been noticed that lacquered hooks are less strong, since for some reason soft wire is used to make them.

Hooks are made from alloyed and non-alloyed carbon steels. Vanadium is often used to alloy the steel of high-quality hooks, and this is indicated on the packaging.

As for specialised hooks, I have already mentioned bleak hooks and carp hooks. Hooks for fly-fishing flies and streamers form a separate category. Almost all of them have a round bend and are often forged. The eye is bent inward so that the axis of the line exactly matches the axis of the hook.

Hooks with a standard shank are used for tying flies and nymphs. Streamers and some nymph patterns use a long shank. Such hooks can also be successfully used in float rigs when fishing for big fish.

Don't look at the label

Just as with fishing lines, hooks are made by only a few companies in the world; they make them to order and supply them unpacked. The supplier of the finished product packs the hooks in its own branded packaging and sells them. So you shouldn't rely entirely on the label, since there are many fakes on sale of all the brands well known in Russia.

There are still few truly high-quality Japanese-made hooks on the Russian market; they reach us very rarely, under all sorts of brand names. After the Japanese ones, the next best in quality are hooks from Korea.

How to choose a hook by quality?

The question is very difficult, but it can be solved. The difficulty is that manufacturers can make hooks to order from different materials. This applies above all to Chinese and Korean manufacturers.

Since the manufacturers themselves don't sell hooks under their own trademark, it becomes possible, firstly, to pack hooks from different manufacturers into the same packaging and , secondly, to pack the same hooks into different packaging. As samples, I keep hooks made at one and the same factory in Japan, but bought from three Japanese, two French and four Italian companies under their trademarks.

So when choosing hooks, the label shouldn't override your reason. A good hook is properly tempered, and when you press or pull the point, it springs back into place. Hooks made of soft, low-quality wire bend quite easily, but that's actually very handy if you suddenly need to make a hook smaller.

It's convenient to do this with a Kocher clamp (a medical clamp). Often, moderately tempered trebles are put on spoons when fishing in very snaggy spots. In the case of a 'dead' snag, the hook can be straightened by slowly pulling on the line, and that saves the lure. Some spoon manufacturers deliberately fit their lures with such trebles.

Over-tempered, brittle branded hooks are practically never encountered, but if that does happen, the hook can be annealed on the water over a match flame, heating the metal until it turns dark blue.

It's important that the hook is thin, with a neat small barb, a point of the right taper, and no roughness on the surface. And most importantly, a good hook 'holds' the sharpness of its point. It's hardly possible to check this in the shop before buying, since that would mean breaking the factory packaging.

And only on the water, after catching about a hundred fish, can you judge the true quality of a hook. Usually, after catching 40-50 fish of any size, a hook with a poor-quality point becomes noticeably less sharp. You can feel this well when baiting bloodworm. A 'dulled' hook starts tearing the delicate bait instead of piercing it. As a rule, 'touching up' such a hook no longer helps.

I stick to a rule: if a hook is blunt, throw it away and tie on a new one. And if I use up a pack of hooks in a few trips, good riddance. Next time I buy different hooks. But if I liked the hooks after the first trip, then on Monday a supply for the season gets laid in.

How many hooks do you need for the summer? I know from experience that more than 50 of one go-to type never get used. And that's counting break-offs after snags as well as simple losses. Don't skimp on hooks! You can save on the rod, on floats, but never on hooks.

Storage

Hook storage should be taken with full responsibility. The worst way to store hooks is to stick them into foam rubber and put them in a box. Better to keep them in the factory packaging. The best way to store them is to spread the hooks across the compartments of special magnetic boxes.

Even if the unexpected happens and the magnetic box falls into the water, you just open it, shake out the water and dry it without taking the hooks out. The hooks are held by the magnet so well that even turning the box upside down doesn't make you lose them.

Knot

Some anglers prepare hundreds of hook leaders at home in advance, usually 'on long winter evenings'. It ends with most of these 'ready-mades' turning out to be unnecessary once the summer season arrives. It's easier to tie the right hook onto the right line right there while fishing, which takes no more than a minute.

To make anglers' lives easier, all sorts of gadgets are produced, from a primitive wire 'knot tier' to full-blown tying machines. But imagine that besides rods, groundbait, boots and a seat, you also have to drag a hook-tying machine along on your fishing trip. Then for 'complete happiness' you might as well bring a sofa and a pillow too.