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There Is More To Fish Hooks Than Meets The Eye

One of the smallest, but most significant items of your terminal tackle, fish hooks have been in a constant state of development since our Stone Age ancestors fashioned them from animal bones. These days there's a hook pattern for every aspect of saltwater fishing, from fine wire fish hooks for delicate baits,through to forged fish hooks for big-game fishing, and the improbable looking circle hook.

Anatomy of a hook

A regular 'J' hook design is shown right, identifying the various elements of the design.

The Shank: Three options here – short, medium and long shank. Your choice of shank length should be made to suit the bait you're going to put on it. Chunky baits like peeler crab and mussel on short shank hooks, and worm,razorfish and sandeel on long shanks hooks for example.

The Eye: On smaller hook sizes, hook eyes are formed by bending the wire round into a circle – an open eye.Larger hooks, designed for maximum strength will have the end of the eye welded to the shank, forming a closed eye.The eye will be either in line with the shank – a straight eye – or bent to form either a turned-down or turned-up eye.

The Point: Some hooks have an offset, or reversed, point which is supposed to improve their penetration capabilities. These are fine for bait but unsuitable for lures, as the twist in the hook may cause the lure to spin or run offline.The point itself will be either conical, like a pin, or knife-edged.The Barb – This serves two purposes. To stop the bait falling off the hook and to prevent the fish from shaking it free.

Incidentally, some hooks have two or three further barbs on the back of the shank, and are known as bait-holder hooks.They're not entirely successful as they'll disembowel worm baits, and often allow the bait to ratchet their way up the shank, leaving the hook point exposed. If a fish then grabs the bait, it will miss the point entirely. Rather than use one of these for long baits like marine worms and sandeels that would otherwise bunch up on a single hook, you’d be better off using the two-hook pennel rig.

Hook sizes

The smallest hook you're likely to need for saltwater fishing is a size 12. It’s no bigger than the nail on your little finger, and would probably be baited with a pinch of bread flake to tempt the mullet cruising around our harbours and estuaries.

The system of grading hooks according the size isn’t entirely straightforward. Starting with the size 12 mentioned above, the sizing system dictates that as the hooks get larger, the numbers get smaller. With the exception of 1, only even numbers are used – 10, 8, 6, 4, 2 and 1. Size 1 is still a small hook by saltwater fishing standards – suitable only for the smallest flatfish and other sprat-sized makes. Going larger from here the system changes, now incorporating odd numbered sizes. The next one up from a size 1 is a 1/0, increasing in size through 2/0, 3/0, 4/0, 5/0, 6/0, 7/0, 8/0, 9/0, 10/0, 11/0 to a massive 12/0 shark hook.

Selecting the right size hook to use is a matter of matching it to the size of the bait or lure you intend to use, and the size of the fish's mouth you hope will enclose it. Clearly there should be some correlation between the two. Remember that whilst you can catch both big and small fish on a small hook, you can’t catch a small fish on a big hook – which might result in catching nothing at all. Single, Double or Treble Fish Hooks?The hook size method described above holds true for double and treble hooks. For example a size 2/0 treble hook is three size 2/0 singles welded together sharing a single eye, and a 4/0 double is two 4/0 singles welded together.

Singles are used for most baits, sometimes long-shank versions in tandem (the pennell rig) for long baits like marine worms or whole squid, and broad-gape designs for bulky crab baits and the like. Double and treble hooks are used mainly on lures, or live-bait rigs. A treble hook is also often used as the trailing hook on a stinger rig.

Then there's the C Hook

We're all familiar with the traditional J Hook – it's quite clear how that works – but the C (circle) hook?? What's that all about?

The main feature of circle hooks is their inward-angled point, which gives the impression that they're unlikely to hook-up with anything at all. And that's partly the intention. There's nothing worse than gut-hooking a fish. Not only does it cause the fish a deal of unnecessary suffering, but you'll not be able to recover the hook without killing the fish. Circle hooks overcome this problem.

If a fish swallows the bait completely, even taking the hook right down into its stomach, any tension on the line will pull it back up into the fish's mouth, the circle hooks inward directed point failing to catch on any internal part of the fish on the way.But when the direction of pull changes as the hook is drawn into the fish's mouth, the hook is designed to secure a firm hold in the hinge of the jaw, from where it can be easily removed. This makes circle hooks the hooks of choice for ‘Catch and Release’ sport fishermen – and ideal for use with the drop-back trolling technique.

Plain steel or stainless steel fish hooks?

Fish hooks are made in either plain carbon steel, which corrodes in seawater, or stainless steel which doesn’t. As a result plain carbon steel fish hooks need to be sharpened more often than stainless ones, and must be rinsed in freshwater and dried at the end of each trip to prevent them rusting. 

However, many saltwater fishermen believe that plain steel hooks are more humane than stainless fish hooks since any fish that escapes with one inside will soon get shot of it when the hook corrodes – a process rapidly accelerated by digestive juices. So, angler's convenience – or fish's well-being? It’s your call.

How about barbless hooks?

These haven't caught on for saltwater fishing like they have for freshwater fishing, but that may change. It used to be that pretty much anything we caught was destined for the pot – or the cat – so any damage done by the hook wasn't much of a issue. But these days, with conservation of our diminishing fish stocks a real concern for most of us, catch-and-release is fast becoming the norm.

But if there's one time when you'll really wish you'd used a barbless hook, it’s when you've managed to get one embedded in your finger, or some other sensitive body part — as I have good reason to know!

Visit Dick McClary's site for much more on fishing by clicking on the logo left.

The article on this page was adapted from content in Dick McClary's
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