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....

 

[mikep]

I was off the west side of the gwaii all last summer and no matter how big of a plug we would fish we still caught lost of 15#-25# fish. With the stock tomic hooks there were alot of missing eyes on those fish. Anyways I couldn't stand seeing 25# fish swimming away blind so I downsized my hooks and the catch rate was still excellent with way less mortality. We were catching upwords of 40+ chinook a day and maybe losing 5%. If i'm not taking a fish home for the bbq I want to make sure that it will swim away in one piece.

 

[Seafever]

In the pic you can see that he has the ring on the plug. When it swims it will swim lower profile than if he pulled the pins. Pulled pins means the back end of the plug rides higher because the face is at a different angle to the water.

In those pics the hooks will slap regardless of whether the beak is bent in or not.

If you pull the pins and add beads before the swivel there will be more clearance for the hook to sashay from side to side.

The bent beak that is razor/tack sharp will still stick in the plug if it has enough clearance to 'saddle".
Unless you put a ferocious bend on the end of the hook, turning it into a 95170-***-circle-hook.

 

[tubber]

It'll dig in and ride nose down with the ring left on if you troll fast enough. I use the big hooks if I have them, but they are a pain to close. A smaller hook and a couple of big split rings to set it back farther works too if you can't be bothered to pull the pins like me. My partners are not going to turn circles in big swells trying to retrieve my plug if it breaks off and from what I've read, that's the only reason to pull the pins.

 

[Seafever]

Pulling the pins was to give the plug a little different action at slow speeds.

A bonus that you get the plug back as well.

A 6mm bead in front of the swivel helps to force the hook away from the body.

With the ring left there is no incentive for the face to push flatter against the water unless like you said you are going pretty fast.

A "hang-back" trailing hook will clear the end of the plug.......if you like "hang-back" rigs.

 

[cohobankie]

Not sure if you ever hit Seattle but this place has your mustad's available for individual purchase.

http://www.seamar.com/

 

[capt hook]

when i trolled commercially , we would put the hook in a vice and give it a twist left or right. that would prevent hang up , and or open the hook a bit... make sure it hangs freely.
large water pump pliers work well to close the eye in the hook and as other poster says , close it in one fast squeeze and all the way so it touches the other side of the eye.
if there is gap then as the fish spins the leader will get in the eye.

 

[Seafever]

Not to get off topic here...but the Brad Superbait has what they call a "hook garage" on it. You can slide the flat end of the hook into it and it holds the hook flat against the body at 90 degrees (if you decide to use this feature...you don't have to).

It's too bad Tomic hasn't incorporated this idea into their plugs. The hook would not flop...and when a fish hits it will pull out freely.

Then you could use whatever size hook you wanted without the hook banging around. The fixed hook would also tend to stop the plug from rolling because it would be in a fixed position 90 degrees to the body.

Not comparing Brad's to Tomics ...just saying that this added little feature would IMO help the Tomic plug.

 

[capt hook]

Not to get off topic here...but the Brad Superbait has what they call a "hook garage" on it. You can slide the flat end of the hook into it and it holds the hook flat against the body at 90 degrees (if you decide to use this feature...you don't have to).

It's too bad Tomic hasn't incorporated this idea into their plugs. The hook would not flop...and when a fish hits it will pull out freely.

Then you could use whatever size hook you wanted without the hook banging around. The fixed hook would also tend to stop the plug from rolling because it would be in a fixed position 90 degrees to the body.

Not comparing Brad's to Tomics ...just saying that this added little feature would IMO help the Tomic plug.

good idea Seafever , i used a few of the new Brad lures... we call them the lunch box. a little piece of sardine and we hit everytime with them , always something , grilse , rockfish , and hit lots of coho and springs with them.... hottest / fishey est lures on the boat. but i,m going to try same system with a small elastic holding the hook as u suggest on a tomic. great idea !!!

 

[Stoisy]

My partners are not going to turn circles in big swells trying to retrieve my plug if it breaks off and from what I've read, that's the only reason to pull the pins.

Another good reason to pull them tubber, is that if you do break the fish off the plug isn't going to be stuck to the face of the fish which would greatly reduce the fish's ability to feed, and likely lead to its death. A large hook isn't great either, but that would be a lot less of a hinderance to them than a fat 7" 602 stuck to their face!

 

[tubber]

Good point Stoisy. I don't want to mess with the ones that I have caught with, but I'll pull the pins on a few of my new to me plugs, and try to become a convert.