Hi guys:

I've been fishing since I was three. Spent every summer on an island, and did little but fish fish fish. And it caught everything from four inch shiners, panfish, bass, pike, walleye through to muskie. And I have to say I notice a big difference in hook quality.

First of all, I never buy a snelled hook. This really isn't relevant for PSKs, but most snells are too darned stiff and heavy.

As for the typical "walmart" cheapo Eagle and assorted no-name stuff, I won't use them. For any given size these cheap hooks are usually heavier (thicker) than usual. Despite more metal, they seem to bend far too easily. I can only conclude that they are some inferior metal. They also rarely have an adequately sharpened point, and do not take sharpening well. The metal is too soft to take a good point.

Depending on purpose and size I stick exclusively to a variety of 'premium' hooks. I'll use Gamakatsu's for larger bass and game fish. They are definite sharper, and are stronger despite being thinner. They typically hold up better too.

As for panfish and trout, I opt for fly tying hooks. I'm often using Mustad, but these hooks seem to be of higher quality than the usual Walmart Mustad bait holder bulk packed junk. The fly hooks are available in almost every conceivable size and shape, and quality is very very good.

For extremely small hooks, opt for a dry fly hook. The dry fly hooks are thinner by a good margin, and you can catch a lot of smaller fish that won't reliably hook up on a larger, thicker hook. Better a lot of small fish than no fish at all... And these high quality fly hooks are used to land some truly large trout. It's amazing to see a BIG brown or rainbow landed on a size 22 dry...

There is only one down side to some of these fly hooks. They rust rather readily. If stored well, they keep well. However, high moisture over long period of time make for rusted hooks. Swap the hooks out occasionally.

In the North Eastern US, there are plentiful streams and ponds. Some have bigger fish, but many do not. A lot of Adoprindack streams hold small trout and a variety of chubs. All of these fish have rather small mouths, and the usual size 6 or 8 hooks, especially the cheapie hooks, will not reliably hook these fish. A short length of 2 or 4 lb test mono, and a size 12, 14 or 16 dry fly hook, baited with almost anything that looks remotely edible, will make for a fun afternoon catching a mutlitude of small but scrappy little fish. And it will land the occasional big one too.

On the smallest sizes you may want to opt for an up-turned eye, to increase the point to shank clearance to help ensure hook ups.

Just my $0.02

Frozenny