Anybody tried the Drennan Acolyte Plus hooks...

[Alan Whitty]

I'm interested to know a little about them,before I receive a few packets,over the years the Drennan spade end hooks have gone a little awry,with the more modern hooks for the supposedly better fish have small spades,which means that when you use 0.14mm-0.16mm hooklengths there is a tendancy for the knot to slip off of the spade,now I know you can superglue the knot,but that is a pain when you tie on the bank and in my view that just covers for the hook designer's lack of forethought,I also know of Drennans Superspade hooks,but these are of very heavy wire gauge for the hook size so can hinder presentation unless fishing hard on the bottom,so how is the spade on the Acolyte Plus hooks guys???

 

[sam vimes]

Yes, I've given the Acolyte Maggot Plus a go (along with Acolyte Silverfish). I've had to dip into a tacklebox to check the size of the spade because it made no particular impression on me. It's not the biggest spade I've ever seen on a hook, but it's not particularly small. I've checked my hooklink spools and can confirm that I have tied them to a maximum of 0.17mm Supplex Fluoro without incident. The one thing I have noted with the Acolyte hooks is that they do indeed appear to stay sharper for longer.

t may be worth noting that if you are looking for a strong hook along the lines of a Superspade, you may be better off considering the Acolyte Gripper. Another that's become a favourite of mine is the Browning Sphere Beast. The snag with these is that they start at size 16 and are a pretty big 16 at that. However, if I want a maggot hook to blend strength with a bit of subtlety, I generally look to the Drennan Wide Gape Match. The Drennan blurb under rates them hugely by suggesting that they are merely a silverfish hook. I've had good barbel, chub, tench, bream and carp to 20lb on them without any issues. Despite constantly trying alternatives, these are still my default choice for float fishing maggots.

 

[Alan Whitty]

I've had good fish on the wide gapes Chris,not keen,seem short in the shank to me though.

 

[sam vimes]

I've had good fish on the wide gapes Chris,not keen,seem short in the shank to me though.

Are they short in the shank or just wide of gape for the given size? My suspicion is that if the gape wasn't as wide, the shank would not seem unduly short. If they lengthened the shank in proportion to the gape, a size 18 hook would end up being a normal 16, not a wide gape 18.

 

[Alan Whitty]

Probably...

 

[Alan Whitty]

Hooks have arrived,spades look small to me,I believe drennan have missed a trick,especially with so many anglers fishing commercials for better fish with hooklengths between 0.12mm-0.16mm during the colder months....that's without people like myself who fish rivers....

 

[nottskev]

I was on the river a while back and a friend was using these just down the bank. He was catching nothing bigger than small grayling and brownies, but said he was surprised the hooks bent out of shape easily.

 

[Alan Whitty]

Not surprised Kev,I've sent a message on messenger to Drennan asking why they say these hooks are good for chub,possibly barbel,they might be if you farted around all day playing them in,Drennan Carbon chub are the best hook they produced for quality fish on the line diameters mentioned,with the right sized spades,the designers are missing a trick in my opinion,and lots of successful match anglers from this area agree with me,these days it's only silver fish commercial anglers or mud pig commercial anglers that matter...

 

[sam vimes]

I was on the river a while back and a friend was using these just down the bank. He was catching nothing bigger than small grayling and brownies, but said he was surprised the hooks bent out of shape easily.

I'm a little surprised to hear that about the Maggot Plus as grayling/trout is exactly what I've used them for this winter with no problem at all. The things I noted about them were that the points stay sharp for longer than most and that I wouldn't be using them for tench this summer. I will be giving the heavier Acolyte Gripper a go for that. I've just ordered a few packets of Gripper and Maggot Plus this morning.

The Silverfish is another matter entirely. I used two of them this winter before leaving the rest of the packet aside for summer bit bashing dace, roach, chublets and gudgeon on the river and roach, rudd and skimmers on my favourite stillwater.