Commercial Hooks?

[lgraham]

Just bought some 7" Tomics and need to buy some big 10/0 or 11/0 Mustad 95170 Hooks to put on them. Pacific Net and Twine carries them but they only sell them in 100 packs and I don't want to spend a 150.00 when I only need like 20 hooks. Anyone know of somewhere that sell them in smaller sized packs of like 25 or so?
Also, for you commercial guys out there what size swivel and hook do you rig your hootchies with?
Thanks,
Luke

[lordofthesprings]

sometimes you just have to ask them and they will even put the hooks on for you - im sure they have smaller packs also theres so much stuff in there - some times their in a little nook where you didnt look ! the curved tip ones are the plug hooks and good for everything else i find - dont get hooks so big that they hook over the plug is the rule i think ?

[mikep]

Don't go so big on the hooks, your hookup ratio will still be excellent with a 7/0 or 8/0. Those 10/0+ hooks are really hard on the springs and coho, lots of hooks through eyes. All I fished last summer were 7" tomics and the smaller hooks held onto lots of fish just fine. Anyways go smaller and beat the fish up less.

[Seafever]

I don't like the curved tip hooks for plugs.. When you throw the hook over the back of the plug to see if it will slide off easy, the curve-tip hooks will always stick in and stop it. especially when they are tack sharp.

I prefer a siwash.

If the hook is too small it will often stick (curve-tip)....if it is too big it may not stick but it will 'saddle-up'.

Many bend the hook out ward so it will slide off the back of the plug better...I don't like that either. The bigger the gap on your hook the less holding leverage.

I like to take the pins out and run the line straight through to a swivel and in front of the swivel a small bead and a large bead.

When you do this the hook is usually far enough back now that it will not saddle-up and stick in the water.

Remember.....hook size affects plug action....you don't want something back of the plug that you could tow the Queen Mary with......

[Dogbreath]

There's a reason that commercial trollers use Mustad 95170 as shown-ask Iron Noggin.

[IronNoggin]

There's a reason that commercial trollers use Mustad 95170 as shown

True that, or ones very similar.



The hook on all plugs runs in the water as indicated above - upside down. When the point is not "beaked" (curved if you will) enough, it WILL run with the hook point rubbing on the plug itself. You can see the scour marks left when the hook hasn't been bent sufficiently in the above pix.



Choosing the correct hook size, then imparting the proper "beak" to the point will result it both not rubbing (scouring the finish) of the plug, but also generally will avoid the hook from sticking to the back of the plug as well. The idea here is to have a large enough hook that the plug swims inside the arch of the gap if & when the hook rides up that far.

Generally the target of the plug fishery is larger springs, and the large hook is desirable for holding capacity as well. That said, what mikep noted is true, they are tough on bycatch. My way around that is to generally use larger plugs, and to run them in areas that hold little in the way of smaller fish.

Cheers,
Nog

[Jockey]

Great pic Nog I hope you don't mind if I use it as an example.

Would Nogs pic above be considered a barbless hook by fisheries?

All my old plugs have large hooks with huge barbs and I can't get them pinched any better than what he has done there but I'm thinking fisheries would not be too happy with that hook. It doesn't look like it would pass the cotton ball test I hear they use (stick the hook into a cotton ball and if it catches on the way out it isn't barbless).

If that isn't good enough what do you need to do to keep within the regulations? I was thinking of trying to file the bump off but that will weaken the hook and it's hard to get a file in there. Last year I just did the best I could then fished it. Screw em.

[IronNoggin]

Would Nogs pic above be considered a barbless hook by fisheries?

Yes, and btw, it WILL pass the "cotton ball" test. The barb was actually filed off, the remaining stub is smooth right through, no snagging when passing through cotton or anything else. Was checked with that rig, and told OK.

And by all means, feel free to use the pix.

Cheers,
Nog

[Westcap19]

...I use a Dremel tool and it works great

[wolf]

I know Trotac has them might want to give them a try as I helped put away and sort that type when I was there. And check out the new store....