Fishing with Rod Discussion Forum
Fishing in British Columbia => General Discussion => Topic started by: dave c on February 05, 2019, 07:25:02 PM
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Has anyone had issues with these bending. Bent one on a snag today and had another bend when fighting a fish. Had another bend last year fighting a fish as well. A friend has had the same issue. I use 12lb seaguar leader. Would think line would break before hook bends.
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Have had the same issue and stopped using them because of that reason, even had a 1/8 oz snap at the bend last season on a fish around 20. I've started ordering American maxi jig heads, which have a straight shank hook. I've found the paint to last longer and the hooks hold fish a whole lot better despite them not being sickle hooks.
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Interesting you mention this. Been using those jigs for a bunch of years now and considered them bulletproof but had a few open up on chum just this last season. Thought it was just bad luck, but maybe there's been a substandard batch or something recently.
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Maybe he's gotten a cheaper supplier
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I use his 3/8oz painted jig heads when I tie twitching jigs. Never had a problem. I was spooled last Coho season. When I was at the end of the line my rod had a bend of all bands I thought it would snap. The hook ripped out of its mouth and the jig was fine. Could this be an issue with his smaller hooks ?
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I've been using the 1/16oz jig heads (I like them for threading shrimp on, they stay on better). So far only one has bent a bit in the last several years, but that was after quite a few fish last season until one bigger fish finally bent it (after landing it! ;D ).
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Will try buying online.
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I've had it happen 5 or 6 times, along with a couple snapping at the bend. It happens. All hooks have bad batches at one time or another.
I believe they are matzou. I always grab em with my fingers by the point and pull back as hard as I can before I tie on them. If they spring back or feel solid/don't flex, they are good. I find with matzou, if they are going to bend, they'll bend out by hand - I'm thinking they got missed in the tempering process.
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have you tried an egg weight in front of a tube fly. The jig motion is similar to jigs. the fly moves even better and does not sink to the bottom. The hook choice would be numerous.
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I've had it happen 5 or 6 times, along with a couple snapping at the bend. It happens. All hooks have bad batches at one time or another.
I believe they are matzou. I always grab em with my fingers by the point and pull back as hard as I can before I tie on them. If they spring back or feel solid/don't flex, they are good. I find with matzou, if they are going to bend, they'll bend out by hand - I'm thinking they got missed in the tempering process.
I think you nailed it with the bad batches and missed tempering as I have had great luck with Bent Rods 3/8 jig heads on all but one occasion. Three of 5 in one pack broke off while pinching the barb - which I have not done on any other hook before.
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The Matzuo sickle hooks hold extremely well with a fish hooked. When you hit a snag the point of the hook is pulled horizontal to the bend of the hook and it bends pretty easily.
Any long point hook will have this problem.
You can bend them back (to some degree) and I have done this frequently. I have never seen one break.
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depending on how old the hooks are, it could be an issue caused by Matzuo's parent company going Bankrupt in 2017.
Ownership has changed and so has the location of the distribution warehouse for Matzuo hooks.
They may also have had to change hook makers in 2018 and the quality may or may not be what it once was.
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Surprised Mr. Toth hasnt responded :D
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Surprised Mr. Toth hasnt responded :D
Tag him on this thread. Oops forgot u can’t do that on here. Probably hasn’t seen it yet.
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Could be a bad batch of hooks. Certainly not outside the realm of possibility.
With sickle hooks I find you really need to drive a solid/deep hookset. The hook needs to penetrate to the bend or at least close to it. If you succeed in doing this the hook is very unlikely to bend out, and the fish will have a harder time spitting the hook than if you were using a standard round bent hook (aka Owner jig hooks). If the hook is just tacked in place you risk bending it out.
I've noticed if floating 1/0 jig hooks (1/4oz or bead head) if I'm using my lighter rod (med power, 8-12 line rating) I'm MORE likely to straighten a hook than if I'm using my heavier rod (med-heavy, 12-20 line rating). The lighter rod just doesn't drive the hook deep enough.
I don't seem to have this issue driving #1 jig hooks with the lighter rod.
Quick funny anecdote: So last fall the wife and I are fishing the Harrison river for chum. On her rod (a bent Rod's hook, but my own tie) I tied on the chum jig that had been out fishing all other chum jigs by a mile. On my rod I tied an average, nothing special, chum jig. After a couple hours she has hooked about 8 and me 2 or 3. I didn't tell her she had the "money jig" on. Let her think she was whooping my arse fair and square. After lunch she hooked about 6 in an hour to my 1 or 2. But every one came unbuttoned after a short fight after the hookset. She is getting pissed. I'm telling her to keep her rod up and so on. She says I AM (!!). Loses another fish or two. I'm catching SFA. Finally she says my leader is getting pretty rashed up, you mind cutting it off and tying a new one on? I say ya no problem. When I go to cut her jig off I see that the hook is bent OPEN, and quite a bit! I'm like THIS is why you keep losing fish! Your damn hook point is pointing to 3-o-clock! I bent it back with pliers and she proceeded to land the next fish she hooked. Clean doe chum (back when you could retain them). B-O-N-K. Morale of the story: give you gear + leader a check after each fish. Replace leader or bent back hook if required.
Another funny anecdote to illustrate the power this jig has over chum: A couple weeks before the day mentioned about with the wife, fishing the Harrison with a buddy. We were up past the piles just HAMMERING chum all morning. I was fishing the money jig (actually I named it "cash money"). That jig got rode hard and put away wet. We decide to gear up and go fish the mouth. Roll in around 11am. Several guide boats anchored up. Many recreational boats anchored up. I manage to find a good spot to scoot up on shore. I prefer to fish from shore as I can walk up and down until I find where the fish are lying that time of day; whereas, in a boat you often get "stuck" around other boats and you have to cast to the same water, or pull anchor and move. Anyway, we don't rush to start fishing. We watch and see what is going on for about 15 minutes. No one is catching anything. Yawn....we put out rods together. I walk up a bit about 200 feet to where I was hooking chum the other day. No one is fishing/standing there - sweet! I start up a chat with a guide across from me. He says SFA for about the last 30 minutes. He's thinking of going else where. Chum are there but have lockjaw. I toss in FIRST cast...drift...drift...BOOM!! Land a huge male, yuck, release. Guide remarks how lucky I am. Couple more casts...BOOM! Land a clean doe. B-O-N-K. Now guide is quiet. Clients look a bit pissed. I landed 2 more males in the next 15 or so casts. Then said I needed to take a break as my arms were getting sore. They proceeded to fish for another 15-20 min and caught nothing. LOL! Sorry dude - it's not me it's the jig I swear it!!!
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There is no difference in the hooks I am using.
I guide people using jigs all year and I am having no issues with my hooks.
We are using the same hooks as always.
It is possible that a box of hooks from the factory were made poorly or with a sub par metal or something, but I personally have not had an issue.
I can assure you if the hooks were a problem I would be the first one to switch to another hook.
I take my steelhead fishing very seriously and would take immediate action if there was a problem with my hooks.
One thing I have been telling people for years is you need to set the hook when using the sickle hooks, with the angled bend you must make sure to sink the hook into the bend of the beaked point. I have had people complain of hooks opening until they started setting the hook, then all issues were gone. This also results in many more landed fish using any hooks for that matter.
I traveled to the Bulkley and Copper Rivers this fall and we had 4 days of non stop catching of large, hard fighting Steelhead. We did not bend a single hook out and landed Steelhead to 25 pounds. We used both 1/4 oz and 1/8 oz hooks exact same as the ones you see in stores selling Bent Rods jig hooks.
So best I can say is "set the hook", you will not have an issue.
Also between me and clients we land hundreds or maybe even a thousand Chum every fall, I can seriously report no issues with bent hooks except when a client doesnt set the hook.
Observe a sickle hook and you will see how if only the tip of hook has grabbed it would create an angle of pull that would result in it opening.
Also use small needle nose pliers to pinch just the barb down. A sickle hook has a very curved beak point, if you use a large flat plier it will snap the tip as you are basically bending a curved piece of metal flat. The hardness of a hook is important to keep sharpness, so a softer hook can be more mallable but also lose its point quickly.
Hope this helps anyone having an issue.
I fish more than most anyone and I assure you, if I have hook issues I will change them for others immediately.