Classic Hooks

[John Aston]

The alternative (and equally valid ) view , from the perspective of my own experience on my waters is that using an 18 for a dendrobena would be daft , as would the use of the sort of line bs which 18s normally involve on tight , snaggy and fast pools. I've caught plenty of fish to mid double figures on 18s and smaller , ,so I am certainly not to averse to their use , but they are not simply not fit for my purposes when grayling fishing with worm .

 

[bullet]

Got nothing against small hooks for Grayling on maggot, it's the fine wire I'd be worried about.

 

[Mark Wintle]

Got nothing against small hooks for Grayling on maggot, it's the fine wire I'd be worried about.

The 90340s aren't ultra fine wire. Some of the hooks I use/have used are much finer but only for small fish such as little roach.

The alternative (and equally valid ) view , from the perspective of my own experience on my waters is that using an 18 for a dendrobena would be daft , as would the use of the sort of line bs which 18s normally involve on tight , snaggy and fast pools. I've caught plenty of fish to mid double figures on 18s and smaller , ,so I am certainly not to averse to their use , but they are not simply not fit for my purposes when grayling fishing with worm .

Fair do's with worms.

 

[sam vimes]

About a month ago, I finally managed to lay my hands on some of the VMC 7039s. Today, I've just ordered some more. The wire gauge sits nicely between other favourites, but they don't seem to spring open like some lighter patterns. I'll look to try the lighter 7038 pattern and the barbless version of the 7039 if I can find some in 16 and 18.

 

[Keith M]

Looking through my various older tackle boxes the other day I found some small plastic hook boxes containing some size 6 StarPoint Carp hooks in them in normal thickness wire and the slightly thicker wired continental version. I haven’t seen them for years so I think they are no longer made.
NB: for those who didn’t know; StarPoint hooks had fluted points.

I also found a pack of ‘semi barbless’ hooks which had a small blob instead of a barb making them very easy to remove from a fishes mouth however I think they were not that popular so were eventually dropped from production.

I used to use star-point hooks when using large pieces of breadflake because the wire thickness was fairly fine; and I also occasionally used the semi-barbed hooks many years ago, and I didn’t think they were too bad; although they definitely were not one of my favourite hooks.

I think the first chemically etched hooks I used were made by Gamatsu and boy were they a great improvement to the hooks we used before.

My favourite Barbel hooks from the early 70s onwards were Drennan Specialist and super Specialist hooks, and today we are spoilt for choice there are so many good hooks on the market for us to choose from.

Keith

 

[John Aston]

First decent hooks I used were bought from Harrisons in Lincoln in 1975 , on the advice of more expert friends . I had some trouble finding what had been called 'orleeondors ' until I realised they were actually Au Lion D'Or . They still needed a sharpen, if not for as long as the blunt as b***ery Goldstrikes they superseded .

Compared to back then, every hook seems amazingly sharp and strong , and I will confess to not getting terribly excited about the differences between brands - is that heresy ? But I will confess to a weakness for the Kamasan B983 for grayling trotting with worm .

 

[Dave Coster]

About a month ago, I finally managed to lay my hands on some of the VMC 7039s. Today, I've just ordered some more. The wire gauge sits nicely between other favourites, but they don't seem to spring open like some lighter patterns. I'll look to try the lighter 7038 pattern and the barbless version of the 7039 if I can find some in 16 and 18.

Hi Sam,

It’s worth pursuing these other versions of the VMC black nickel round bend hooks. They are just as good, and surprisingly strong for their fine wire nature. I use the barbless version a lot on commercials when lighter rigs are needed to conjure bites. They still land carp, bream and tench – providing you use a stretchy pole elastic. Also excellent with waggler tackle aimed at silvers.

Best Regards, Dave

 

[sam vimes]

Hi Sam,

It’s worth pursuing these other versions of the VMC black nickel round bend hooks. They are just as good, and surprisingly strong for their fine wire nature. I use the barbless version a lot on commercials when lighter rigs are needed to conjure bites. They still land carp, bream and tench – providing you use a stretchy pole elastic. Also excellent with waggler tackle aimed at silvers.

Best Regards, Dave

Dave,
I gather Shimano Normark UK are the UK distributors for VMC. Sadly, they don't seem to be doing a particularly good job of penetrating the market. I managed to get a few packs of 7039s in 14, 16 and 18. Unfortunately, I use more 14s and 16s than 18s, so you can guess which size I managed to get most of! I got a couple of packs of 7038s that I'm not quite so happy with, they are a smidge too delicate for my taste and application. For the last couple of months, I've been hunting around for size 14 7039s. I'll be damned if I can find any from a UK source. It seems to appear that Benwick Sports aren't going to restock the VMCs as they sell what stock they have (at least in the patterns I've bought).

In desperation, I've resorted to trying three different Guru hook patterns to see if I can better my usual suspects from Drennan and Kamasan.