You would think something as basic as a hook could not be improved. It’s just a bent wire with a sharp point, right? Fortunately for us, not everyone thinks that way, and there have been many innovations in hooks. Some designs help the hook do its job – either make it drive home more efficiently or harder for the fish to get off. Some make it easier for us to keep the lures in place, which means more time fishing and less time messing with baits. Some solve annoying problems like line twists, which also saves us time. Here are some great hooks that will make your life easier.
Tru-Turn
Man, Tru-Turn hooks have been around for over 50 years! They were invented by John W. Campbell, who loved to fish. He was messing around with paper clips one day and noticed that the bent clips would rotate toward pressure. When he lost a nice fish one day, he remembered those paper clips and bent his hook to do the same. He tested the hook and knew he had a good thing going. Pretty soon, he was bending hooks for big wigs in the Air Force (he worked on a base). Before long, tackle shops and a distributor wanted some. These hooks work that well.
Tru-Turn hooks may be old but sell like hotcakes because they work. California pro Gary Dobyns (owner of Dobyn’s Rod and one of the guys behind Wild West Bass) swears by them.
“I was fishing with a young guy who lost several fish in a row,” Gary told me. “I asked him what hooks he was using, then gave him some Tru-Turns. He never lost a fish after that.” Dobyns says he always uses Tru-Turn hooks. If you haven’t ever tried them, you seriously owe it to yourself to get a couple of packages and try them out. The U.S. Army even recommends them for use in military survival kits!
Trapper
These odd-looking hooks have a big boxy bend between the point and the shaft. The purpose of this box bend is to make it harder for the fish to throw the bait. No pivot point means no sliding back and forth to make that hole bigger and bigger. This boxy bend also holds lures in place better.
Eddie Johns was in on the Trapper hooks secret before the hooks made their debut at ICAST. He fished with prototypes, and he is stoked about the hooks. “They hold a soft bait in place forever,” Eddie said. “Since the bait stays put, I spend less time fixing my rig and fishing more.” Once he gets a fish on, it stays on, he added.
You’ll probably see a lot more Trapper hooks because they make them in all different types and sizes, meaning that manufacturers can add them to things like jigs, spinnerbaits, and more. Eddie is hyped about being on the Trapper team. Not only is he pumped about how the hooks work, he says he’s never been on staff with a more team-oriented group.
Owner Twistlock
A lot of hooks have bait keepers incorporated into the hook. However, Owner TwistLock hooks use a Centering Pin Spring to allow perfectly centered rigging of baits. You know you’ve ruined many a bait trying to screw those darn spring things in, but not with these. Owner hooks are already dynamite; with this keeper system, they are even better. They come in weighted and unweighted versions.
VMC SureSet Treble Hooks
If you’re like me, you almost always change out hooks on a new crankbait. Some manufacturers just use crummy hooks, right? So if you’re going to replace them anyway, why not change that back hook to a VMC SureSet? This odd-looking hook has an extended wide gap hook. Rig it with this big branch up, making your lure run great at almost any speed. Plus, that extra long hook means fewer short strikes. Do some research, read some reviews – then go out and get some of these and start replacing the back hook on every single crankbait in your tackle box.
Gamakatsu Swivel Shot Octopus Finesse Lure
I found some of these at Tackle Warehouse and tried them out. They are great! Shinichi Fukae designed them, and they make drop shotting a lot easier. For starters, there is a swivel above the hook and a wire coming out of this is what the hook is threaded onto. The hook, therefore, can spin freely around the wire, and the whole thing can also spin. This means SO much less line twist. Line twist messes up your whole rig and takes too much time and effort to deal with.
Below the hook is one of those little line keepers that you just tug the line into – no knot tying required. This means that when you get snagged, all you lose is the weight and the leader, which is much cheaper than losing the hook, bait, and all. It also means you can change leaders very quickly. You can use a cheap split shot on the bottom if you want. It doesn’t matter if that bad boy spins or not. The hook is splendid as well – it’s an octopus hook, so it gives you solid sets.
Spintech Hooks
Here’s another hook that can spin freely – only it’s a treble hook. The Spintech hook is formed with a tubular shaft that rotates freely around the stem, which is the part attached to the lure. With these rotating hooks, it is nearly impossible for a fish to get the leverage to throw a bait -- even a big old crankbait.
VMC Spinshot
Like the Gamakatsu Swivel Shot, the VMC Spinshot eliminates line twists on drop shot rigs. This one is a bit different – the hook is rigged on a looped wire on either side of the hook. You tie the line to one side and the leader to the other. Since the leader is tied to the rig, you will probably want to use one of those drop shot weights designed to come off –the ones with the bit of diamond-shaped wire that the line is snugged into. Those can get pricey, so you may want to try using a split-shot on there instead. Just don’t use the kind with ears – they spin like mad, and even this rig may not be able to deal with that. Pull steadily when you get the weight snagged, and the split shot will slide off the line.
Bonus Twist: HitchHikers
HitchHikers are little twists of metal wire that attach to your hook to make it easy to attach things like pork chunks and trailers. You have to twist the HitchHiker into your bait, then snap it onto the hook. Of course, once these were out, someone realized that HitchHikers make it easy to create jointed baits out of plastic lures. Cut a lizard, swimbait, or whatever in half, twist a HitchHiker into each cut side, and then snap them together. Voilà – a jointed bait. You can also use them to attach baits to an Arkansas rig without using hooks, as multiple hooks are illegal in some places. .
There seems to be no end to the ingenious ways fishermen will come up with to improve the sport we love. Give some of these hooks a try and see if they don’t improve your fishing.
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