Hook Shank Length

The hook dilemma is an on going experiment. The only time the short shank hook has made a measurable difference to me is live minnow fishing. Live minnows here are hard to come by in high quality so I just skip buying them. If I am fishing a hand tied jig I like my shorter hook and tie a short tail. then and Berkley live gulp for dressing. I am a hook bender though. I will bend the hook out to the side several degrees and it improves hookups. Not in heavy brush though. Great discussion here folks.

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Originally Posted by GrumpyLoomis

The hook dilemma is an on going experiment. The only time the short shank hook has made a measurable difference to me is live minnow fishing. Live minnows here are hard to come by in high quality so I just skip buying them. If I am fishing a hand tied jig I like my shorter hook and tie a short tail. then and Berkley live gulp for dressing. I am a hook bender though. I will bend the hook out to the side several degrees and it improves hookups. Not in heavy brush though. Great discussion here folks.

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Thanks….and I don’t think you’re grumpy at all.

I studied circle hooks and experimented with them extensively, and shared with many others the many things that I had gathered. I prefer an “Off Set Circle” hook over a “True Circle” hook, which has no such bend as you describe. I felt same as you- more hook ups. I have not altered my fine jig hooks in such fashion, but soon will no doubt. Be assured actually.

Thanks for mentioning your insight. I learned that it all has something to do with how easily the tip sticks something…..or misses. I have seen videos of fish playing Yo-Yo, and inhaling and spitting right back out. Growing up as a fish, I reckon, you end up biting all sorts of things you don’t want to actually eat. You get good at quickly determining and learn to be prepared to spit. Imagine you biting into a Wendy’s cheeseburger, and you felt something odd, how quickly you could spit that. Well fish grab our baits and I imagine many do make an attempt to spit. DeathScope could probably show such activity live.

While long lining- A Crappy is alerted that there is an object. They compare the sensations to those things from their past. Historically this - means that. They then track the object. If interested they make an approach that should offer a position from which to strike. They further analyze their clues given to their other senses as they get closer. Then they lock in and charge in for the attack. Upon capture they often times will turn, and this is where an off-set circle really shines. So your modification is very interesting to me. The trolling motor sets all my hooks. If as that TM pulls the jig back out of their mouth, if it turns and finds a spot to stick……well the deal is done right there. He will thrash and resist and that will slide the tip through and he is in to the bend. My rod indicates and I reel him in.

So do you bend to the right or to the left, and does that change for different sides of the boat, and does it make the lure spin ?

I guess I have never experimented with the left bend as the right just comes naturally for me. The True Turn hook got me thinking of this years ago. Those hooks work well for me . On vacation one time I had know true turn hooks so I started bending. That was on hook and minnow set ups. As I moved to my own jigs it has just kinda become my signature jig. I do not bend hooks on the jigs I make for friends and neighbors as everyone has their own theories.

A little disclaimer here on hook bending. The most effective jigs I've found for this are my tiny jigs.Attachment 411823 Here in the north we wind up with water you can walk on,aka ice. When water here goes from the 40's into the 30's fish get slow and finicky. A number 12 or 14 hook shines in performance with the bend. And it is surprising how big of panfish you can catch on a tiny hook.

Very nice. Thank you for sharing.



I tested my latest jig designs today.

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Kind of nice out there with it being about 55 degrees, light winds once the boat idled down. LOL

I was all set to test my new rod arrangement and it was pretty good. I was able to extend all ten lines behind the boat with no tangles. Turned 90 degrees and such and still everyone came out great. I was able to guide the fish into the back corner area easily enough and once there it was a quick lift and in.

Initially I had set out a nice spread of jigs of differing styles, sizes and colors. That changed pretty quick when it became obvious that they wanted my minnow imitation.


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The top two jigs on right hand side. Again these were made with the Eagle Claw 571 jig hook size 1/0, and the Free Style head in the 1/16th oz size. Slabonator’s Hot Rod bait that was cut down in length to better fit on the hook.

The bite was slow today, but those two jigs caught all the fish.

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There are changes due to seasonal transitions and I am playing catch up. The bladed jigs were ignored, as were the larger jig bodies I had been using. Even the thumper tail jigs were ignored. They wanted a sleek minnow.

Check out Mr Big Pants here.

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He hit it like a champ.

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The hook performed very well. Every time the rod indicated, a fish hit the deck. Once there they were unable to toss the jig like they do with longer shanked hooks. Those get pitched 3 times out of 4. Could be the barb, but I suspect it is more of a leverage type of situation. All lures tracked well due to the plastic being attached better. More aligned.

I was very pleased with the hook and wanted to try a different head with it. Once at home I poured up some new ones to use next trip.

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These are Monster Green with Glow In The Dark powder paint. They glow nicely, too. 2 sizes here, the 1/4 oz and the 3/32nd oz in the Bat Jig design using the new EC 571 hooks in the 1/0 size. I thought a wedge shaped head might do better than the FreeStyle. I have skipped adding eyes and also the baking procedure. My jigs never get chipped and the fish don’t examine them checking for eyeballs or gill plates and fins and such.

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Check out this profile.

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Top is a Hot Rod on the 3/32nd sized head, and the one under that is a larger sized Hot Rod on the 1/4 oz head. They swim very sleekly as they go. The tail wobbles imperceptibly to me above the surface, but I imagine quite tantalizingly when viewed from below. This color combination has been popular with my fish all Summer.

I used the 3/32 size because I am cutting away the collar and figure it to be close to 1/16th when done. The 1/4 size because that is as big as it gets for that mold. I really like to have heavy jigs in kind of close, and light jigs back behind me a ways.

I fished the middle of the lakes a lot and the minnows school up and make their way along. Looks kind of hairy when you see them getting smacked around. I imagine these look like scattered minnows trying to find the school again. I really like the profile and while it may seem simple and silly, to me it is a big deal. I have created hundreds and hundreds of jigs, and now this is what I am down to. Dialing them in.

I got a report from a highly experienced fisherman and his teammate and they said the fishing was slow for them, but the ones they managed were nice size. It is so weird how all the fish seem to do the same thing, at the same time. They came up to chat some and then set off in a different direction.

Anyways I felt my take was good and they are cleaned up and in the fridge waiting for dinner tonight. She loves fresh fish and I her, so everything works out. I safely installed the new dryer as well, so I will get the Dat A Boy treatment tonight.

Can you tell I like that hook ?

Very nice. Monster green with glow in the dark? Where did that come from? You have my interest…… :popcorn

Early this morning I awoke, and instead of tossing and turning and bothering her, I just started the coffee and my day. Read new threads and that didn’t take too long. Nothing to do so I found something to do.

Eyes. Yup they are not necessary for jigs that are being trolled, but I added 3D eyes to my Monster jigs. The adhesive backing is not enough to keep them in place. I hear that if you buy expensive eyes that the adhesive will hold. Mine are cheap Chinese eyes and they fall off very easily. However it does make it easier to align them properly. I view the jig straight on to see if they match. Not concerned so much the view from the side. I want symmetry so they swim well.

What I did was using a paring knife and my thumb, affixed the eyes, then stuck the jig onto a scrap piece of styrofoam. Then I applied UV resin to overcoat each eye using a brush. Then quick set the resin with my UV light, and out onto the back deck to cure all day in the Sun. The sunlight cures very well and tonight those silly little eyes will be permanently attached.

I tried using just glue to attach the eyes, and it works fine. However with me wanting to use great big eyes on little jig heads, the edges of the eyes stick out and away from the surface of my Bat Jigs. No issue with the Free Style because it is flat. Bat Jig round. The resin will fill that gap and that prevents weeds from getting in there. Yesterday there were tons of floating weeds and in some areas it was unfishable because the jigs were goobered up. So anything to reduce this is good.

Pain teaches well, so I remembered to be very careful with the resin. If some gets on something, then you touch that something, then rub your eyes…….well it is ugly trust me. Burns like gasoline.

I also tried something odd. I attached a few plastic baits to some jig heads, and when I resinated the eyes, I eased some of it between the jig and the plastic bait to “glue” them tight. Not sure how well it might work, but it is possible I will get a good connection. Maybe better than glue especially given that I am cutting down the baits and have a flat end up against the jig head.

Anyways adding unneeded eyes made the time fly by while I waited to get ready for work.

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I have finished the eyes and started attaching plastic baits. Everyone seems to like these smaller sized baits, and now that Winter is upon us I suspect I should transition downward in sizings. The baits are all about 2” in length, and are sleek and will swim effortlessly behind those green heads.

I weighed the finished heads to check and see what I really have. The 1/4 ounce size weighed in at an average of 0.24 ounces. The 3/32nd size should weigh 0.9375 ounces and weighs instead 0.10, so even after cutting away the collar, the bait is still heavier than stated. For reference a 1/16th ounce weighs 0.0625 ounces. So they are larger than the 1/16th size by some amount. Converting the decimal back to fractions gives a 1/9th ounce as the true size of the head.

So these will dive somewhat deeper than 1/16th oz jigs. About as much as a 1/8th. This means I will need to just be aware that I am somewhat deeper than normal back there.

I have some new baits arriving on Saturday and saved some of the heads for when I get those in hand. Bob’s Jigs out of Hemphill, Texas. He doesn’t just ship and forget. He follows along and sends updates as the package goes. I think this is my third or fourth order from him. Anyways he was more than willing to shoot the colors that I had requested, and get them out the door. I like that kind of willingness to please.

I have a pile of curly tail grubs in the smaller size- 2” and it is time to break those out and make some lures. While I have a nice assortment of bladed jigs, I think the fish are telling me they don’t like them this time of year. Odd but maybe not so much. I just need time on the water to see where the fish take me. The weather liar is claiming highs in the low 60’s today with 15-20 mph winds. Saturday a high of 50 degrees, rain and winds 20 mph. Sunday a high of 67 with winds at 15 mph. Not exactly my kind of weather, but I might make a run at Sunday.

Different lead alloys have different weights by volume. I was trimming the collarsoff some jig heads last night. The Arkie ones seem to be pure lead. They are dead soft. The ones I buy made at a local shop are a much harder alloy. More like one would expect from a cast bullet.

What type of lead are you using? All my lead I use is around 95% lead 5% antimony. I prefer the harder lead and sure it’s heavier. Less likely to wiggle on a hook, wire inserts stay put better and will stay the color you poured it even months later. I made the switch years ago when having the spinner insert wiggle out like you were having problems with.