How does a Hook work?

[castlemaine]

Fished with two mates last week and got me thinking. One likes to snell his hooks, one likes to use a locked blood knot and me a uni knot.
All caught and lost fish as well.
Does a knot affect the performance of the hook if it has a straight, bent forward or reverse bent eye?:-/ How about if the gape is straight or offset?:-/
Targeting Moreton Bay snaps _ Appreciate any info?
Cheers8-)

[tunaticer]

Excellent question I have been wondering about too. Looking forward to seeing the replies.

Jack.

[Horse]

Have a look at this report



http://www.fishing.sh/htmfiles/hookreports/tyingvssnelling.html

Cheers

Neil

[castlemaine]

Have a look at this report



http://www.fishing.sh/htmfiles/hookreports/tyingvssnelling.html

Cheers

Neil

Hi Neil
Thanks for the reply.
The article suggests that all hooks would benefit from being snelled. I would suspect commercial fishermen use a snell, for ease of tying a hook, but it obviously catches more fish.
So is snelling the way to go? What are the benefits of the way the eye is shaped then? Maybe I'm asking one of those, "It's my fishing preference and my fishing theory", question that has no real definitive answer. Maybe I'm also looking to hard into it, as well.
What do reckon Tunaticer?
Cheers8-)

[imnotoriginal]

Castlemaine,
do a search on google and look at circle hooks. There's some great articles on the net which go into hook up rates and how these hooks work and give an insight into how a hook acts when it's in the mouth of a fish.
Joel

[castlemaine]

Imnotoriginal
Thanks. No doubt by all accounts circle hooks have a more efficient and better hookup rate. But my question is also what about the other hooks how do they work? Hope I don't sound rude or condescending. Did a seach but found little. Cheers :)

[imnotoriginal]

Imnotoriginal
Thanks. No doubt by all accounts circle hooks have a more efficient and better hookup rate. But my question is also what about the other hooks how do they work? Hope I don't sound rude or condescending. Did a seach but found little. Cheers :)

Not a problem, to give you an example of what is out there, this first article deals with choosing the right hook...

http://saltfishing.about.com/od/accessorie1/a/aa041125a_2.htm

This one a bit more about setting the actual hook.

http://saltfishing.about.com/od/tackleandaccessories/a/aa070515a.htm

Still not exactly what you're looking for, but I've found more talk and information about what happens to a hook when a fish swallows the bait has happened since people started looking more intensely at circles. That's why I suggested looking at the articles. It might also be worth looking at tru-turn hooks because people rate them highly for their hook-up rate.

Personally, I think you're more likely to get a better hookup rate with your standard J hook by snelling. A snell will hold the hook at an angle closer to that the line is following, meaning a more direct path and more force being applied in the direction the hook needs to travel to penetrate the flesh around the mouth. How much of a difference this actually makes though... who knows?

I think the greater variable is the timing and force of the strike. Getting the timing right for that comes down to knowing what fish you're chasing and the technique you're using. You wouldn't smash the hook home on a soft-mouthed fish like a trevally or when using tiny hooks to fish for drummer or luderick. Conversely, you wouldn't go light as a feather on a tarpon or other hard-mouthed fish.

Seeing as you're targetting snapper, you might also want to have a look at an article by Geoff Wilson which deals with him targetting them in PPB using whiting heads for bait. He uses circle hooks, which I know you're not looking at, but he even goes as far as giving the exact amount of drag tension you should leave on your reel for best hook-up rate. The article's on fishnet if you're keen.
Joel

[Noelm]

all sorts of hooks work in different ways, but as a general statement, almost any hook will stick into a Fish (or you) most are manufactured with a purpose in mind, like a long shank for worms (say) or a wide gape for live bait, if you look at them all and fiddle about with some "home" but repeatable tests, it seems that Suicides work the best, as far as "hanging" right, correct "pull" from the line to keep the hook in, and enough offset to prevent the hook from turning and reinserting itself into the bait, thus possibly preventing a solid hookup, I know there is a thousand hooks that are as good or better, but they SEEM to have everything covered, a lot will only use circle hooks, because they were made to hook in the corner of the Mouth, making release easy, and they do have a good hookup rate, but I suspect there must be a possibility of the circle being the wrong way round, and slipping right out of the Fishes mouth, I have used them and have no reason to even think that, but my ever critical mind tell me otherwise! so you see, there is no real answer as to why a certain hook works, they all work, but some work better than others for a certain applications, look at Long Line hooks, thick as hell, very small, and not at all "impressive" but they work very well for their intended purpose.