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.

 

[Ryan "Ribblecraft" Turner]

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 .

I have a wooden two level float box that was my grandads (a very successful match angler and my teacher and guru) I have left it as it was and occasionally have a look through for memories sake. In it there are some super nostalgic items such as one of those old, red, alloy bread squisher / thumb screw things with the wing nut, there's a few boxes of Mustad hooks from the 80's down to size 24! There's loads of old floats, Bayer Perlon lines at less than 1lb breaking strain and there are a couple of packs of those Au Lion D'Or hooks. I even have his matching pair of Alpha Carbon Match rods that he converted to13.5 foot, 0.75oz-ish tip rods for bream fishing on his trips to Ireland for the big matches in the early days. I remember him being pretty excited when the Kamasan brand appeared with the "whisker barbs" and the super sharp points too.

 

[Ryan "Ribblecraft" Turner]

Actually, talking about hooks from 'back then' I have been trying to find a hook that was a god send when I first began river fishing for big chub on the Ribble. After struggling to keep big chunks of tiger bread crust and flake on the hook I found what was called a 'method feeder hook' by Drennan. They came in way bigger sizes than any method feeder angler would normally use up to and they were considerably oversized in comparison to all other hooks but due to the much finer wire they were very light weight. I used to use a size 4 and 6 which were the best bread hook ive ever used for huge baits and caught me tons of chub and barbel including my first ever barbel and also a 6lb 6oz chub the biggest of what became a very large number of 6lb plus Ribble chub over the next few years. Ever since the demise of this brilliant bread hook I have never seen anything anywhere near as perfect. Very frustrating that they were callously discontinued by Drennan. I will keep searching for a hook that lives up to the job.

 

[Butcherboy]

Kamasan B175, I still use these. Strong & cheap. Sharpen well with a Gomm.

 

[markcw]

Actually, talking about hooks from 'back then' I have been trying to find a hook that was a god send when I first began river fishing for big chub on the Ribble. After struggling to keep big chunks of tiger bread crust and flake on the hook I found what was called a 'method feeder hook' by Drennan. They came in way bigger sizes than any method feeder angler would normally use up to and they were considerably oversized in comparison to all other hooks but due to the much finer wire they were very light weight. I used to use a size 4 and 6 which were the best bread hook ive ever used for huge baits and caught me tons of chub and barbel including my first ever barbel and also a 6lb 6oz chub the biggest of what became a very large number of 6lb plus Ribble chub over the next few years. Ever since the demise of this brilliant bread hook I have never seen anything anywhere near as perfect. Very frustrating that they were callously discontinued by Drennan. I will keep searching for a hook that lives up to the job.

Drennan Carbon Feeder ?

 

[The bad one]

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 .

Loved these hooks for chub and barbel fishing, you could turn a battleship on it's back with a 4 or 6 size. Strongest hook I've ever com across. I've just come to the end of my stock after stocking up of them 20 years ago Put one of these in the lips of a fish, it's not coming out or off until you've banked it.