Replace Your Hooks, But Not All Of Them

It amazes me how quickly time slips away when I start tinkering with fishing tackle in my basement in the winter.

Whether it be my undiagnosed attention deficit disorder or simply too many shiny things to catch the eye, this past Saturday was just one more in a lifetime of winter days whiled away hunched over a seemingly endless supply of tackle that needed tinkering.

Mostly, this weekend was focused on hooks.

As a reminder from last week: The most important two components of a fisherman’s entire arsenal — the only two that actually decide whether you catch a fish or lose it — are the cheapest. Last week, I talked about line. This week, hooks.

The hook is where fishing started. Spears are for hunting. Fishing is done with hooks.

Your hook is your only true connection to the fish — and until it’s on the beach or in the boat, it’s only hooked, not “caught.”

Unlike fishing line, a hook that is in hideous, corroding condition can still do its job under the right circumstances and lucky stars. It’s made of steel, after all.

That steel can also give a false sense of security, though. On small fish — fluke, sea bass, striped bass under 25 pounds or so — a hook’s integrity is probably not going to betray you. But we don’t spend the money we spend and put in the time we put in to catch small fish.

On the South Fork, nearly any trip to the beach or out on the boat carries with it the chance that the fish of a lifetime is going to climb on, and you’d better be ready.

I keep a bucktail on the dashboard of my truck. The single 5/0 galvanized hook is twisted a bit to the side and upward from its original shape, like the neck of the Chinese goose in “A Christmas Story” — distorted just enough to pull out of the jaw of the very large striper that ate it in the Southampton surf a couple of years ago.

When it pulled, my heart sank, knowing that the first fish over 40 pounds I’d hooked from the beach in five or six years was gone. The bucktail emerged from the suds: the 40-pound braid, 50-pound mono leader and stainless coastlock snap that Steve Campo had custom made for stopping big stripers had all done their jobs.

And that is why I spent this past Saturday replacing hooks on the lures that I fished this past season, and some I didn’t but hope to next season.

Bucktails are a single hook, so that is settled when you buy them. It must be a stout gauge of galvanized steel. No black wire hooks are going to cut it against a big striped bass, gorilla bluefish or tuna.

And most lures come rigged with treble hooks of widely varying quality that either must be changed out or should be, in favor of sturdier versions.

When I started surfcasting, pretty much every lure came with galvanized 3x Mustad’s that had to be wrenched back into shape after they were removed from the jaw of a striper, but they were strong enough for the stretchy monofilament lines of the time.

Then, sometime in the 1990s, the hooks that came on the black Bombers were made of some other, shinier metal. They rusted within a week of getting salty and broke, rather than bending, when wrenched on with pliers.

Today, pretty much any lure that does not advertise 4x strong hooks, and specifically those made by a particular brand like VMC, BKK, Gamakatsu or Owner, is probably using an inferior product. Replace them with quality hooks. (I do save the cheap-o hooks I remove — not sure what for, maybe freshwater fishing someday.)

You can buy the boxes of 25 VMC hooks in 1/0, 2/0, 3/0 and 4/0, which is all you’ll need for striper fishing, at White Water Outfitters, I know, and probably at most other local tackle shops. Support your local tackle shops, not Amazon and other .coms, please.

Since you’re removing the hooks from your plugs, take the opportunity not to replace some of them at all. A treble hook dangling off the back of a plug is just a problem waiting to happen: a gut-hooked striped bass, a hook in your hand, or a bluefish with his mouth wired shut by all three points.

Striped bass, especially larger striped bass, hit from below or the sides, striking toward the head of a fish, not trying to bite its tail off like a bluefish. So they get the forward hook in their mouth 90 percent of the time.

With reducing “dead-discards” being the most vexing problem in the effort to rebuild striped bass stocks, we should be eliminating any unnecessarily harmful practices. Banning the use of two treble hooks on any plug should be at the top of the list as an easy step that will have no impact on fishermen and will only serve to protect some fish from mortal wounds.

A rear hook isn’t really necessary at all. But since hooks do pull, and having a second gives you a better chance, when that trophy has your plug in his mouth, it will give you peace of mind.

I would suggest a single VMC open-eye Siwash, or the new Owner and VMC inline singles that go on with a split ring. The high carbon VMCs will still rust a bit and are not as strong as the 4x trebles, but they are a sufficient backup.

Those hooks you deem not in need of replacing should be touched up, too. Make sure the point is needle sharp. If it’s not, the Berkley “Big Game” hook sharpener is the easiest and most effective tool for the job.

When your hooks are strong and sharp, and line has been checked, then we’re back to the “in God we trust.”

Catch ’em up. See you out there.