Types Of Fishing Hooks
To utilize the appropriate hook for your fishing goals, it is vital to know more about the different types and sizes of fishing hooks. Also, they are made for fishers to catch certain fish and help them fish in different water types.
In this article, I will be discussing the types of fishing hooks as well as the types and shapes of the hook you will need for fishing activity. Let’s get into it.
Different Types Of Fishing Hooks
The different types of fish hooks include circle hooks, treble hooks, and Aberdeen hooks. These are the 3 or the 13 hooks that are used for different types of fish species.
You need to learn about these things so that the next time you go out fishing, you know what kind of hook you must use so that your fishing would have a good result.
The Circle Hooks
This hook is a fish-friendly hook because they catch in the corner of the fish’s mouth instead of deep hooking or penetrating the fish’s throat or gut. It works this way because of its point that bends towards the shanks, which stop the deep hooking of fish.
Meanwhile, it is used for live fishing bait, so it takes time to get used to these hooks because you have to wait until the fish would tolerate the bait, then you could finally put pressure and pull the fish’s mouth.
When the hook is in action, the hook slides out the fish’s throat, and the barb only penetrates when the hook reaches the mouth’s corner. Then the hooks set for a stable and safe hook up on the fish. When using this hook, applying steady pressure will make it the best.
Mustad Demon Circle Hook

If you’re looking for hooks like circle hooks in the market, you may consider the Mustad demon wide gap perfect circle hook. It has the best hook ratio because of the wide gaps feature that makes it one of the popular hooks during a tournament.
It is ideal for catching fish bigger and heavier due to its two times extra short shank and its extra-heavy wire. It is known as one of the top-performing hooks for live bait in the market.
Its hook point is durable and sharp for a long time, and its hook is light but made to be stronger by 20% and designed to meet the highest standard for catch and release activity.
It best targets the bigger fish species like shark, swordfish, tuna, sailfish, marlin, wahoo, skipjack, striped bass, halibut, permit, amberjack, bonito, panfish, bluegill, catfish, sunfish, or Alligator jar with a size of 2.
Treble Hooks

This hook has triple points that give a triples hookup chances whenever the fish try to escape. The feature of this hook is that it has three bends and points in one hook.
It is an excellent idea to put artificial baits like topwater baits, jerk baits, and crankbaits to catch fish easily. But unfortunately, this treble hooks doesn’t pierce very deeply into the fish, but this hook is excellent and regularly used for fish species like catfish, trout, or salmon
If you’re thinking of using a treble hook, you may take the shaddock fishing treble hook that is ultra-strong and sharp because it was crafted with High carbon steel.
And when the fish tries to escape you, you won’t have to worry because of its harp needle points that can penetrate even on the slightest pressure and higher hookup ratio because of the 3 barbs.
The stock treble hooks on your rip baits, crankbaits, and other hard baits can now be entirely replaced by these treble hooks and best works on striped bass, steelhead, black bass, salmon, and panfish species with a size of 1/0- 14.
Artificial Tackle Lure Bait

It is a vivid artificial lure bait of a large size. It rotates 360 degrees to attract offensive fish as it splashes on water. Its hook is made of high-density treble hooks, which can hold tensions and best to use even on seawater and freshwater.
Aberdeen Hooks

Aberdeen has a long shank and light wire that help you with small live baits and keeps them alive. The hook is composed of thin metal, so it doesn’t put too much injury to the fish or only gives minimal damage.
And it is often used for bait fishing because of its lighter wire, and you only put a bit of pressure when pulling it.
The Aberdeen hooks have thin wire or metal. It makes it ideal to use when you plan on fishing using bait-like insects and interested in more fragile fish like panfish. It is also suitable for fishing; easy-to-use common bait sizes are 4, 2, and 1/0.
For the Aberdeen hook size like 4, it is best to use grasshoppers and crickets as bait and best use to catch fish like panfish and trout. Then for size 2, it is best to use a ball of nightcrawlers as bait and use it to catch a catfish.
For the size 1/10, bait used is a ball of nightcrawlers and also best for catching a catfish.
Mustad UltraPoint Aberdeen Slow Death Hook
In the market, you can find the Aberdeen slow death hook. It can give you faster blade penetration, trolled at slow speed, and produce an intense wild action. As a result, it makes the blade penetrate and reach the area which a typical blade cant reach.
It produces a slow spinning action from its special shank, has a ringed eye, and an Aberdeen-shaped hook. Moreover, its hook is light but with 20% durable metal from Mustad and can target crappie, walleye, bass, panfish, and zander fish species and may use a nightcrawler as bait.
Bait Hook

These hooks are the best for teaching a beginner or do not have much knowledge and experience about fishing. Moreover, these hooks are commonly used to bait worms, artificial bait, and insects, and it has an easy-to-use size like 6, 4, 2, and 1/0.
For the bait hooks, size 6 is used for bait like corn or kernel and use to catch a Panfish. Then for the size 4 is used for bait, a 1 inch cut of a worm, and used to capture a fish like crappie, perch, and sunfish.
The size 2 uses bait like a full nightcrawler and uses to catch a walleye fish, and lastly, the size 1/0 can use bait like a full nightcrawler with a texas ring and catch a fish like Bass.
Gamakatsu 05411 Baitholder Hooks
One of the bait hooks that you can find in the market is the Gamakatsu 05411 Baitholder Hooks, made of high carbon steel that doesn’t rust and stays sharp and firm for years.
It has a variety of points you can choose from like Needlepoint, offset point, and an up eye forge shank.
If your planning to catch a fish like Salmon, bass, pike, crucian, Snapper, pickerel, herring, and shad, this hook is the best type for you.
Also, if you’re planning to fish in the Lake, river, saltwater, and sea, this hook is useful for you. Lastly, it is designed with two baitholder barbs that make it easy to catch fish.
- J Hooks – Another type of fishing hook is the J hook. It is a hook where the shank is straight and followed by a curve.
- Octopus hooks – It is a short hook with a curved shank, sharp points, and a barb.
- Offset shank hooks – It is bent into an L shape, and the eye of the hook is sideways.
- Egg hooks – This kind of hook has short shank and shape in circular and has a wide gap between the point and the shank, the double hook, which is a fishing hook that has two hooks, two curves, and two points.
- The Worm hooks – These hooks are durable, heavy, and large to be able to penetrate and hold the fish easily.
- The Siwash hooks – This kind of hook has a straight eye as well as a long and straight shank.
- The saltwater hooks – These are made up of hardwiring to form sharp points and long shank.
- The weedless hooks – These are created to prevent from getting stuck or caught on other debris or weeds under the sea, and also, it closes the space and forming a letter O and has a weed guard made out of plastic from the eye to the point of the hook.
There are many kinds of hooks used for fishing, and these hooks are available in various shapes, sizes, types, colors, and styles in the market around the world. That is one of the things that must be considered so that you would a good result in fishing.
And besides their appearance, they used numerous baits to catch a wide variety of fishes in the sea, and the hooks are specially designed to perform a specific task in catching fish through a particular bait.
Parts Of Fishing Hooks
The Point

It is the part where the fish makes its contact after it is a bait, and also, the point has several varieties you can choose from depending on what type of fish species you will be catching.
The point comes with different shapes, such as round and diamond-shaped points.
Meanwhile, others prefer triangle-shaped points, and this is what most points are, which has a flat cutting edge hook that faces inward because triangle shape points are easy to sharpen with a stone or file while preparing for the catch.
It is also sharp that penetrate the fish’s mouth.
The Eye

The eye of the hook or simply eye. It is then where your line is attached and found at the end of the hook. It is vital in the application of the hook. It is because it is also placed at the opposite end to the point. In contrast to the point.
There are only two variations of the eye, which are mostly oval-shaped or round shaped.
Shank

You can see this part of the hook starts from the hook that bending toward the point and goes all the way to the eye, and this part gives strength but differs based on the strength of the fish species you are trying to catch.
Meanwhile, these hooks have two kinds, the long-shanked and the shorter shanked, where long-shanked has several times the length between the hook eye and the outside bend, and the shorter shanked has a distance is smaller between the eye and the point of the hook.
The Gap

As its name suggests, the gap is the distance between the shank and hook point. The gap is significantly different based on the hook size. Moreover, the hook with curved shanks is the one with a wider gap that bends away from the hook eye and has a larger gap than the straight shank.
When you have a particular fish that you want to catch, the gap of the hook is one of the things that you must consider.
Sometimes it won’t be useful if the fish has motionless when they are hung on the hooks; that’s why it is a good recommendation if you have a bait that is moving.
Because of this, the wide gap is used so that fish that are hooked can move freely, and it would easily attract the attention of the fish.
Meanwhile, if you use a straight shanked hook, your catch will not be as good as using a greater gap curved shanked because space for movement will not be enough.
Bend

It is the most visible part of the hook, which gives the shape to the hook, and usually, it bends up to 180 degrees, and you can find this on the area where the shank bends toward the point.
The bend is made smooth and rounded, and the one that is given a lot of attention because there were different bend styles where edges are much more squared off.
The circular hook usage varies for specific kinds of fish and is for general use because it gives different benefits and advantages on fishing; you may see a hook that has a less rounded bend because it straightens quickly. In contrast, the other circle hooks are very round.
Barbs are the sharp splinter of metal that is set at a certain angle away from the point’s edge, and it is used to effectively cut the skin and penetrate the flesh of the fish that even the fish keep moving using its strength, it won’t be able to pull itself out.
It is the spike that faces backward that stops the hold from losing. And lastly, the throat is the part that runs down from the point.
Fishing Hook Sizes And Styles To Use For Different Fish
At this point, you know all about the different sizes and styles of fishing hooks. However, you may not know which fishing hook sizes and styles to use in different situations or to catch different fish.
The sizing system for fishing hooks is the essential thing that you must remember because it is essentially backward.
There’s a lot of different sizes of hooks, and when it comes to sizes, the higher the number (whole), the smaller the hook, and vice versa and you must also take in mind the aught measurement system; this is the number that is written with a slash (/), and its first size is 1/0.
For example, for the size in the whole number, the size 32 is smaller than size 30, and size 30 is smaller than the size 12 fishing hook, and 0 is the largest fishing hook.
Meanwhile, we say “whole” because the aught measurement system is the opposite of the other (whole) sizing system where the larger the hook, the larger the number followed by a slash and zero, and an example of this is, an 17/0 is larger than 3/0 fishing hook.
20/0 size is currently the largest size of a fishing hook in the aught system, then 32 is the smallest size of a fishing hook in the whole number.
Going to different types of fishing hooks, these fishing hooks are divided into three main characteristics: the different point variations, eye variations, and different hook variations. Each hook is tailored for a specific purpose.
For example, having a long, narrow shank is useful when working with thin baits like worms. On the other hand, having a wide gap or gape lets you use larger baits to tempt big predators. Out of all these parts, the ones with the most specific varieties are the point and the eye.
Fishing Hook Point Variations
From the Anatomy of fishing hooks, it was stated that the point is the part located at the pointy end of the hook. The section first gets contact with the fish’s mouth and penetrates the fish so that it won’t be able to escape once it was caught.
Now the manufacturers of fishing hooks have created many different variations of points to deliver different benefits and aspects in fishing. There are five different types of hook points includes:
- The Needle Point – It has an evenly tampered with round sides fishing hook point.
- The Hollow Point – It is the best hook used for fish like soft-mouthed crapple because its point is rounded and has a curve from the tip of the base to the barb of the fishing hook.
- The Spear Point – As its name suggests, it has spear-shaped angles, and from the tip to the barb of a fishing hook, the point is aligned in a straight line.
- The Rolled-In-Point – This fishing hooks curved points directly to the fishing line and directly to the eye of the shank. And this design is made to reduce the pressure when setting the hook and for the fish, which tend to fight a lot. So, it gives the fish an in-depth and easy penetration.
- The Knife Edge point – This point form one single edge with two flat sides, and this point is sharp, easy for sharpening, and easy penetration for fish.
Fishing Hook-Eye Variations
You can remember that the eye of a fishing hook can be found at the top of the fishing hook and in different sections of the point. Also, it is a place used to connect the fishing line or lure to the hook. Its shaped are usually circular or oval, and the fishing hook eye has three main variations:
- The Looped Eye – It is a fishing eye that aligns with the direction of the bend of the hook and along the shank of the hook and has an almost circular eye.
- The Tapered Eye – It is similar to the lopped eye variation, but this is more of an oval shape; that’s why it is called tapered and commonly used with dry flies as a bait
- The Needle Eye – This hook eye looks like the open end of a sewing needle; thus, the entire hook is easy to buried in dead or live fish because its needle is less wide.
Conclusion
For over 13 fishing hooks, and each provides its own characteristics, uses, and benefits, approximately 37 fishing hooks are used for certain types of fish species.
And being familiar with the different parts, types, and sizes of hooks will help you choose the perfect hooks for fishing. It is ideal when you go on your fishing adventures.
It won’t give you a hard time catching one because using the right hook doesn’t need too much pressure to pull or catch the fish because the hook’s ability is compatible with the ability or type of fish species.
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