Hook trends?

Whilst dabbling the other day I was thinking about some of the significant changes to my fishing over the years and it eventually brought my thinking around to hooks and this is where I think I have probably seen my biggest change.

Twenty or thirty years ago I reckon my average hook size would have been around an eighteen with sixteens and twenties close runners up… Today I think my own average hook size would be around a ten with eights, sixes, twelves and fourteens being very commonly used too.

Not so much of those fine crystal bends either as strong, forged hooks are featuring far more and there is certainly better availability of a wider range of common and niche hook styles nowadays.

Given all the variables which have occurred over the last two or three decades such as cyclic change to the predominant species in the waters we fish, a far greater choice of baits and maybe a broader spectrum of different types of fishing, how has this influenced your own choice of hook in terms of both size and style, compared to say twenty or thirty years ago?

Mine hasn't changed.
I still use small hooks. Obviously species dependant, but that's the same as I did way back when.

When I fished in the 60s, 70s and early 80s I think the hooks I had were predominantly Mustad, who I believe took over many of the old English hook makers, but I digress. Now the choice and number of patterns is massive and as a result I have a hook collection that I would have drooled over as a kid! I use some of the carp hooks, particularly the Solo long shank ones for Chub and find them excellent for lumps of cheese paste. I have not failed to hook on them yet and have punctured myself on numerous occasions on the very sharp points! Hook technology seems to have increased in leaps and bounds and quite possibly due to the Carp brigade, but others would know better than I on that. I use a lot of hooks to nylon these days due to failing eyesight and I have to say that the quality is really good and I am a huge fan of Drennan.

I find i start out on size 18 to nylon and end the day on 22's , Just wish i could find a decent supply of fine wire 20,s & 22's most of the 22's i have right now look like they have been made from 6 inch nails orrible things ..

Give me some nice fine hooks and i'll be happy not into dragging hulks out of the water so not interest in much over 18's ..

I suspect that a change from averaging size 18 to averaging size 10 will have more to do with changes in the fishing an individual is doing than any real changes in hooks themselves. I'm still doing the same bit of everything that I was doing as soon as I could afford to in the early 90s. The hook brands and exact patterns might have changed a little bit, but not a lot. If I'm fishing maggot on the river or more natural stillwaters, just as I did 20-30 years back, I'm still using 16s, 18s and 20s and I still prefer a crystal bend for maggots. The only real difference is that the hooklinks are a little stronger and the wire guage of the hooks isn't as fine. My preferred pattern is still essentially the same as it ever was.

If there has been a change, it's more to do with the style of fishing than anything else. Twenty years back and more, many people fishing for barbel and chub on my local river were using beefed up match gear. Now they are more likely to be using gear than is closer in appearance to scaled down carp kit. Line ratings are accordingly heavier and hook/bait sizes correspondingly bigger.

We've also seen the rise of commercials and the steady increase in the size of the fish in them. That will have definitely seen a big change in most match anglers gear, from hooks right through to rods, reels and poles. I certainly never envisaged people regularly landing carp on poles back then. Poles were for roach and similar small fish. Those I knew that owned poles back in the 80s/early 90s would usually come out in a cold sweat if anyone mentioned carp. Then the commercials really took hold and poles changed rapidly.

When it comes to out and out carp fishing, I suspect that I've gone up a single hook size over the years, 8/10s to 6/8s. that's got more to do with the size of the size of the fish accessible to me having increased over the years.

Perhaps Im a little lucky because I still retain some of the hooks I used when I first started fishing in the early '50's, also some hooks I have used all through the various forms of angling I have undertaken.

My early years were spent using maggots so it was 14s and 16s, progressing onto worms and bread using 6-10s, then corn (the wonderbait of the '70's) using 'gold' 14s and finally graduating to bread with 10s and 12s.
More than a decade overseas saw me rigging huge lures with 2 x 12/0 Muroto double crimped to 3mm stainless cable and 14ft of 500lb Fluorocarbon.

Today its a return to bread and my beloved Chalkstreams using Kamma 11s run down any nice crease that takes my fancy.


Interestingly, wire sizes of the hooks I retain from the 60's is almost equal to that of the same hook size of todays offerings, so not much has really changed has it?
......

Stop press
Heard recently that some Barbel 'specialists' send their hooks 'away' to be "sharpened by an expert"..... mg:

.

I found a packet of my old favourite Chub hooks made by 'Partridge'..... Size 6 WS Barbless Arrowpoint Specimen Hunter hooks (code Z18) - sadly as stated... barbless. paid 50p for them in an assorted bargain bucket of trash.

I rated the shape highly... Doubt I'll use them.

Not really sure how important hook variety becomes when it comes to paste and bread fishing. I do like some of modestly curve shank carp hooks for Chub.

Much more fussy when it comes to insect fishing

I am almost at the end of my old supply of hoarded Mustad 90340's, the original ones in the odd number sizes, not the modern copies.

These were the hook of choice for so many match anglers throughout Europe and Scandinavia in the early 90's when feeder fishing. They were made from a very thin gauge wire and were really very sharp indeed.

I was lucky enough to be given a mass of these when on a sponsored club visit to the Mustad factory at the end of 1989 and have been using them ever since.

I have yet to find a suitable replacement, so if anyone out there has any of the original 90340 patterns that they want to be rid of, then you know where to come.

maggot_dangler said:

I find i start out on size 18 to nylon and end the day on 22's , Just wish i could find a decent supply of fine wire 20,s & 22's most of the 22's i have right now look like they have been made from 6 inch nails orrible things ..

Give me some nice fine hooks and i'll be happy not into dragging hulks out of the water so not interest in much over 18's ..

Click to expand...

My tackle shop quite often have tiny hooks (the poorest sellers) at sale prices.
If you'd like me to have a look at what they've got, I'll be happy to do so.

chav professor said:

I found a packet of my old favourite Chub hooks made by 'Partridge'..... Size 6 WS Barbless Arrowpoint Specimen Hunter hooks (code Z18) - sadly as stated... barbless. paid 50p for them in an assorted bargain bucket of trash.

Click to expand...

I used to use Partridge for all my carping. I can't remember the pattern, but the tip was slightly inturned. A real good pattern and it's such a shame you cant find them anymore!

not that much has changed really as methods are improved but rarely new ones like re-inventing the hook itself, as a trend cannot compete with whats tried and tested and ultimately reliable, thats after fashion has taken its victims and there money, albeit public demand has changed a lot as people can be convinced more easily I think these days and so have the hooks (imo) to go with those trends, carp fishing was something we were introduced to around the last couple of years at high school and if you even had a bite alarm you were totally "rad" lol, as kids we used to go to Stapely water gardens on our bikes to get hooks for the canal fishing we were doing mg:, we did have a local tackle shop but we just enjoyed making a day of it, the biggest fish we were hoping to get back then was a 3lb Perch in a canal and after seeing one we thought the long cycle was worth it, due to the lack of knowledge we both had on hooks we were not worried about inferiority as in our ignorance we automatically trusted the hooks as they were new ones out of a packet, and that same with line, to be fair I was completely lost when I re-kindled my passion for angling some years later having such a large break from fishing and never really knowing if what I knew previously was correct anymore, so buying tackle again came with a "walk-through" from the chap in my local tackle shop lol, as kids we were happy with what must of been a standard Kamazan in the size we needed (probably an 18) and was acheiveable on pocket money alone so I really cannot compare, I like the new Korum hooks for Barbel fishing and even like the chinese imports my local home bargains had in over summer, made fantastic chub hooks when slightly ground with a metal sharpener