Hook sizes being used today...

[Alan Whitty]

I've just finished watching on YouTube Mark Pollards recent offering fishing Old Nene at March comparing 30 minutes on the whip versus 30 minutes short lining on the pole, there are some irrelevances ie if the fish feed better in the first thirty, or second, or a predator arrives etc, but anyway, I was quite shocked when Mark talked on his tackle and made the statement that he was fishing a size 16 hook for roach whilst fishing double fluoro pinkie, this seemed quite big for roach up to 8ozs, whilst fishing 0.10mm hooklength, when we used to fish double squat or single pinkie we used to use size 26 gamakatsu fine wire hooks that were proper 26's, unlike today's larger offerings, all the talk of fishing fine these days for silvers seems a bit of tongue in cheek on that showing...

 

[nottskev]

I saw that trailed yesterday, but haven't watched it. I can see why the pinkies on a 16 is a surprise. But would you have used a 26 back in the day if you could catch as many on a bigger hook? I grew up where we had to fish fine, but no finer than necessary, and people soon changed up if the fish would accept it. Why do you think the "heavier" gear works these days? Any ideas? Could it be that there's much less pressure on this type of water now match and pleasure anglers are more likely to be on commercials, and the fish are less "educated"? I guess "fine" is relative, and he could call .10 fine compared to some of the gear used to crash out "silvers" (don't like that term) on pools these days.

 

[RMNDIL]

Maybe when you're fishing for 40lb or 50lb it's, after location and feeding, all about speed and not dropping any when swinging to hand ?

 

[peterjg]

I'm probably wrong but anyway this is my opinion:

Roach these days are less "educated", most times I roach fish with size 12 or 10 hooks and bread. If I use size 18 or 20 the roach are smaller.
Most anglers seem to be lobbing out feeders with pellets, stillwaters for carp and rivers for barbel, canals near me are hardly fished! I would guess that sales of maggots have plummeted over the last couple of decades, in fact it wouldn't bother me if they weren't available. Another possible reason is because of so many carp now in stillwaters and colouring up the water that fine line and small hooks are not so important - especially on the dreaded commercials?

 

[Alan Whitty]

I just look to a guru video when Wayne Swinscoe was talking about catching bags of chub on the Trent where they were using 24 hooks and light line, I agree with using the heaviest tackle you can to accumulate the best weight you can, I've seen Alan Scott Horne using 16's on the slider( I have used 12's, lol), it's just that often roach can be hook shy and I've had more than a few good match weights of roach on 20/22's when bigger (a proper 18) definitely wasn't as effective....

 

[RMNDIL]

I'm with you there Alan. I can honestly say that almost all of my weights of roach over decades have been on hooks no bigger than an 18 and mostly 20's and 22's for the river with maggot, caster, hemp. I have caught upper 20's and low 30's using a 16 with punch but those (Donnington & Kennington) are rare. Mind you on the canal when catching plenty of roach on single joker a B512 18 looks a bit unusual, and you'd think that surely a 24 would work well enough, but when they are just having it they are having it. Same goes for most species I guess when they lose all caution and are simply hungry.

 

[markcw]

When whip fishing I have always used a larger hook than when pole fishing .
I put it down to the elastic in the pole can take the strain so to speak and can get away with smaller hook. With a whip you are relying on a fine tip to keep the hookhold as you swing the fish in .
I have had carp on a 18 when pole fishing, it took a liking to a couple of casters. Took me a while to land it .
I think I read somewhere of carp anglers using a smaller hook on a hair tied to a bigger hook .the theory being when bait is sucked in the smaller hook being lighter will be the one that connects .

 

[Philip]

I think Roach are hook shy in places & at times when they are expecting to be caught such as a match situation.

if you can fish for them in places where they are confidently feeding and not expecting to be caught then tackle becomes alot less important and you can get away with much heavier stuff.

 

[@Clive]

In the book 'Catching the Impossible' Martin Bowler set about trying to catch a huge barbel using a 14 hook and a specimen crucian with a size 8.

I don't fish pressurised locations these days. Consequently I rarely use anything finer than 18 to 2.5lb line. There is no need.

 

[steve2]

Hook sizes today are not what hook were when I started.
The best way I found to catch good size roach on one of the waters I fished was hair rigged bolis or pellets on size 10.
All waters are different these days.

 

[peterjg]

My PB roach was caught with a single maggot on a size 18 hook - fluke! If you fish like this the chances of catching a big roach are minute but if I use much bigger baits (and hooks) the size of the roach caught is much improved but numbers caught are vastly reduced. Nothing new here, we all know that, it's not rocket science.

 

[Alan Whitty]

The venue Polly was fishing was the Old Nene at March, a well fished venue, where large catches of roach up to 8ozs (occasionally bigger) come out, it is regularly match fished and it is free fishing, so being swung out here there and everywhere and spending hours in keepnets equates to educated fish, well obviously not, starving, hungry fish with the need to compete it seems...