Fish hooks

A gentleman recently contacted my with the following message that I found to be interesting. Wondered if anyone here had any personal experience that might corroborate or refute this using the very basic fishing gear we pack into a survival kit?


Thoughts or comments welcome.

This is something that I have noticed also, the quality of the items in the survival fishing kit were awful, obviously the person putting most of the commercial kits together were not fishermen. I carry a bigger than normal fishing kit because I love to fish and like to keep the right gear close to hand. Three things that I think that you should always have in your kit are, quality hand tied fly hooks in a variety of patterns, my favorites are telico nymph, hares ear nymph, and adams dry fly. Beetlespin lures, work on a variety of species of fish, and work well. A spool of 4 pound test line, the type that is sold to tie your own leaders, again quality, not walmart. I am not suggesting that this be the only line you carry but in a survival situation I will probably go for the small frying pan size fish instead of the lunkers, much easier on the tackle, plentiful, and in most cases easier to catch. My heavy line will be used for limb lines and trot lines. As far as hooks go I am a fan of Tru Turn hooks I always touch up the point myself, you know it is sharp enough when you drag it across your thumbnail and it grabs and doesn't slide. One more thing that I like to keep with me is a piece of emory cloth, it doesn't take up much space and is handy to sharpen hooks and even your knife in an emergency. Chris

Sad to say, I know absolutely nothing about fishing, and so Wal-Mart looked about as good as anyplace else fishing-wise. I wouldn't know what to look for or even where to look. This might be a topic worthy of some elaboration, as the fishing 'challenged' among us could undoubtedly use every little bit of help we could get. <img src="images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />

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

You are spot on. I have fished mustad number 8 and 10s with crickets for panfish since forever and they are excellent hooks. I didn't mention gamagatsu(sp) I have never seen these any smaller than 4 and most in the 0 range. Do they even make smaller sizes, I am going to research it now and order some if they do, because they are the best I have fished, razor sharp out of the package. We are talking about hook sharpness, an interesting demonstration is to take a fresh caght catfish and slide the hook along its skin, 90% will slide right off, if it grabs its sharp enough and you will catch more fish.

I did research it and here is the link.
http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templa...MainCatcat20166

I started fishing more than two decades ago. The quality of the hooks proved to be vital when it was hard to hook a fish and premium hooks are an advantage on normal days. I observed that fishermen who used cheap blunt hooks broke the leader more often than others as they yanked harder to set the hook. For a survival kit I wouldn´t take cheap hooks as the saving isn´t really substantial and the disadvantages are far too obvious. A light monofilament will make it easier to tie small hooks to the line. It is an asset if you have it at least for the leaders.
My favorite hooks are Gamakatsu and VMC (a french brand).

As someone who only includes a pre-bought fishing kit (from the BCB PSK) for the fishing line as extra thread and has never fished (beyond crab catching rom a pier), what would people recommend be included, more in case I'm with someone who can fish rather than me using it.Or should I not bother?

I also live in the UK, so no Walmart anyway!

Fishing is a skill I'd like to learn but I'm not currently in a position to... <img src="images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" /> (I'm trying to learn some knots though, but they're not going to be fish-tested for quite some time)

yeah, i have no experians in fishing either, any tips ? i do have some very sharp japanse highcarbon chemical sharpend hooks ( i hook my self everytime i come close to those fellows, auw.. <img src="images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />) but i did made a nightline, but never used it ( illegal to use here ). I'm lucky to have a very nice fishing store in town....

I have had good luck with Tru-Turns.I have also wanted to try circle sea hooks.Friends have told me they practicly set them selves.Just a slow steady pull and they're on.I also have a U.S.issued survival fishing kit and most of it is JUNK! In the military we always joke on how most every thing is made by the lowest bidder and it shows. I am using it as a model and replacing it all with high end stuff. I do need to learn more on fly fishing so I can pick out appropriate flies.The only quality items in the Mil-Spec kit were the sail needles and safety pins.
Just my $.02
Boatman

Well, I'm sure Chris's fishing kit review will address all of this....and maybe the new nanotechnology hooks...or will they be old technology by the time we see the article <img src="images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

I totally agree that the quality of the hooks can make a big difference. I use an assortment of hooks including British Partridge and Japanese Tiemco. I carry standard wire, 1X light wire and 1X heavy wire hooks in a wide assortment of sizes from #16 to 4X. All hooks are inspected and sharpened if needed before inclusion in the kit.

I carry a prebuilt tapered leader with a woven butt as my primary fishing line. This can be tied to heavier monofilament or cord or even a stick as needed. Many kits have very heavy mono which is limiting. My tapered leader terminates with 4X tippet and this could be trimmed back to heavier sections if needed.

Another thing I think that is overlooked in most kits is an assortment of decent flies, I carry some general nymph patterns (Hare's Ear, Muskrat) and a few general surface patterns (Stimulator).

"A fish hook's a fish hook" is what a friend told me when I was buying hooks one time and he couldn't figure out why I'd buy the more expensive hooks when the cheap ones will do the same thing. I suppose it's one of those things that you have to try to believe, not unlike buying better boots instead of cheap ones, even though they both go on your feet and lace up. I only recently started using "premium" hooks when I started tying my own flies and it makes all the difference in the world.
The main difference between my kits and most that I see, however, is the size of the hooks included. Most kits have size 6 hooks as the smallest, or only size included. I've found these to be way too big for any survival use. Most of the hooks in my kits are size ten, and that's worked well for me, but I'm constantly changing them around. Actually, within the next week or so I was going to post a fishing kit I put together to see what everyone thought about it. But I digress. So, the short answer is Yes, hook quality does make a difference, but I feel that hook size is more of an issue with most kits.

FWIW,

Chris.

Unfortunately, there's seems to be no universal standard for hooks sizes that I have been abe to identify. That makes it extremely difficult to have a meaningful discussion with reference to a particular size or to specify a size without also specifying a brand, which may not be desirable or even possible. If you have found such a standard, 'd love to hear about it.

Doug,

You may have just given probably the best overall reason for an individual to assemble or at least modify the fishing portion of their kits. Probable use in certain areas dictated both my choice of hook sizes and styles. I chose trout/steelhead type hooks because I am most familiar with those fish and because I figured the places I go would call for this setup. This range is wide in both sizes and strengths as this covers fish from a few ounces to many pounds. It also covers bird traps, gaffs etc.

It is damn hard to make a general kit and include quality hooks for unknown probable environments.

While hooks sizes tend to mean something in general, the hook styles and shapes, wire diameters, steel, point styles, shank lengths, eye configurations etc all add near infinite variety.

Best bet in a kit is to cover a fairly wide range of sizes from tiny to large and hope that the Keeper-of-the-Kit will take the time to substitute or add hooks that fit their environment or expected use areas.

Ah, very, very true. I made the very mistake I try to avoid when looking at things online; ASSuming and making comparisons without actually seeing the products. I grew up using Eagle Claw hooks, which I should add I've never been dissapointed in for general use, so I've sort of kept thier sizes as a reference to what a #6 or #10 hook is for example. Just this summer I got into tying my own flies and have been experimenting with different hooks from different makers in doing this, but when buying them at the store I look at the hooks themselves rather than what size that company says they are.

Sorry for any confusion, but more importantly, sorry for making such a silly error. (kicks self repeatedly)

Chris.