Hooks

Home
Basic Tackle
Knots
Bait
Rigs
Finding Marks
Contact Us

Very much a topic that you would get 100 answers to by asking 100 anglers,so I think the basics are about all you'll need here to get you started and find out what you prefer by experience.
 
Hook sizes can be very confusing as manufacturers do not have standard sizes which they all adhere to,and a chosen size from one,will not necessarily be the same from another.
 
Basically though larger hooks come in sizes which have a suffix of '/0'  By that I mean 1/0,2/0,3/0,4/0,5/0,6/0 etc.
 
That denotes the size of hook,1/0 being the smaller and obviously sizing up.
 
Smaller hooks work in the opposite way.There are no prefixes,and sizes 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 go down, from 1 being the larger.
 
In a fishing sense I would choose 1/0 to 3/0 for wrasse fishing for instance,and 3/0 to 6/0 for cod fishing.
 
I would choose size 1 to 3 or so for small coalies and flounders.
 
These are all generalisations though and only by fishing for a while will you find out what suits your own style and method of fishing.
 
To give you an idea though,a size 1/0 hook is probably about a 1cm gape,while a 6/0 is probably around the size of a 2p piece.
 
As far as styles go,again,there are many,including Aberdeens, O'Shaughnessy, Limerick, Baitholder, Cirlce, Semi Circle,and the list goes on.
 
In basic terms though hooks come as 'J' type hooks which are exactly as the name would suggest in the shape of the letter. These vary in shank lengths, gape widths, and wire gauges,but are essentially the same style,and Circle hooks which have a far more turned in point and are designed to catch fish in the corner of their mouths.
 
Of all things not to skimp on money-wise when setting up your tackle though is hooks. You can buy very cheap hooks,probably for a couple of pence each but they will be very much inferior to the decent hooks that manufacturers such as Mustad, Varivas, Sakuma, VMC, Kamasan etc provide. You can expect to pay something like £4 upwards for packs of 30 or so of most of these hooks,but realistically you are still only looking at something like 20p to 40p each per hook, and for that sort of money you are getting good quality and it will likely be the main difference in catching fish or not.

hook.jpg

These are the hooks currently in my tackle box.You will not need all of these to start with,I would suggest 1/0s, 3/0s, and some smaller hooks in maybe size 2's to being with for summer fishing,and size 4/0 up to 6/0 for winter fishing.
 
The hooks here are given their size by the manufacturer and it will let you see how there are differences even if they are meant to be the same size.

Size 1/0 VMC
img_0155.jpg

Size 2 Fine Wire
img_0152.jpg

2/0 Aberdeen
img_0148.jpg

1/0 Carlisle
img_0145.jpg

Size 1 Nordic Bend
img_0142.jpg

3/0 Baitholder
img_0139.jpg

4/0 Sakuma
img_0136.jpg

6/0 Circle
img_0132.jpg

3/0 Alan Yates
img_0154.jpg

2/0 Aberdeen
img_0151.jpg

1/0 Aberdeen
img_0147.jpg

Size 1 Carlisle
img_0144.jpg

Size 1 Fine Wire
img_0141.jpg

2/0 Light Wire
img_0138.jpg

4/0 Alan Yates
img_0135.jpg

7/0 Circle
img_0133.jpg

3/0 Sakuma
img_0153.jpg

Size 2 Semi Circle
img_0150.jpg

1/0 Nordic Bend
img_0146.jpg

Size 1 Aberdeen
img_0143.jpg

3/0 Light Wire
img_0140.jpg

2/0 Aberdeen
img_0137.jpg

5/0 Circle
img_0134.jpg