I came across some hooks I have had for many years they are a Partridge Kevin Maddocks with the barb on the outside. I have never used them as all the waters I have fished since the late 70s have been barbless only. I first read about the reasons for having a hook in this configuration in Carp and the carp angler by George Sharmen in the 1984 edition first pulished 1980 .He explains in the book the reasons why this configuration give better penetration of a barbed hook. In the book he states that he did some tests on a cork- rubber compound and plain cork. Pull requied to sink hook down to the bend in pounds as follows Standard unsharpened. CORK 6.3 CORK RUBBER COMPOUND 6.3 Outside barb. CORK 3.3 CORK RUBBER COMPOUND 4.5 Cutting barb self fashioned Cork 2.8 Rubber- cork compound 3.7 Barbless CORK 3.3 RUBBER- CORK COMPOUND 4.5. As I said I have never used these hooks I wondered if anyone else had.
Hooks with the barb on outside of the bend
- Thread starter tiinker
- Start date
laguna
Well-known member
More prone to tangles perhaps? also the move from barb to barbless would have prevented them from being commercially successful, also I imagine such configuration would have made them difficult to remove?
Not sure if image shows, are these the ones Kevin Maddocks OUTBARB?
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flightliner
Well-known member
I have a packet or two in my bag even now. Good hooks but not sure about the figures given, wouldnt dispute them tho, George was a good angler-- I used to fish a water where he turned up from time to time. Incidentally, by todays standards they were a little thinner in the wire.
In the book he goes into the method he used originally to convert size two Mustads into out barbed hooks he had a metallurgical friend who advised him how to soften and re-harden the hooks. One of the old members of my club George Draper was making his own carp hooks from surgical steel in the 50s and Richard Walker was using one of these hooks when he caught his first ever twenty a fortnight before he broke the record. The dedication and effort made by some of these anglers has never ceased to amaze me.