Sickles failed me.

I actually do like them for how sharp they are but their holding power so far leaves a lot to be desired. No it wasn't crappie, it was trout but I lost 4 fish right at the dock today and my sons lost 5 combined which never happens with my other hooks.

I don't know if I was not setting the hook hard enough or these hooks just suck for trout but I am not impressed so far. Before the sickles today I could count on 1 hand the number of fish I had shake a hook in the water after getting them to the dock. Above the water sure, but not in the water.

I tied them on using a clinch knot if that might have made any difference. It was 1/16 #4 that all the fish were lost with.

Did I do something, could it have been the hooks or was it just bad luck?

I personally never use sickle hooks. I lose a ton of jigs just using regular hooks, but those things look terrible. And I catch probably 95 percent of the fish that bite my jigs.... regular ole bronze hooks, none of this fancy shmancy needless stuff

Sorry to hear, id have to wonder if they were bass or crappie. I do my best to always set the hook fairly strong as id rather lose a fish to a pull out or mouth tear than than lose a good fish because he was never really stuck. While fishing weedless bass jigs i have watched my friend lose fish after fish because he is not setting the hook, more like just lifting or loading the rod tip and never really hooking them. I use the ron popiel modow "set it and forget it". If you set it good enough initially they are on for good.

They were trout, haven't gotten into any bass or crappie with them yet. I thought I set the hook, I did the same i do with my regular fly hooks and no glory. The good thing is they were not huge fish but losing so many fish with them makes me wonder if I need to set them harder being they are longer tip hooks than I am used to.

Oh well, at least I know small jigs work almost as well to at least get bites and hook ups as regular flies even though I don't land as many with sickles.

I met the owner the other day of Matzuo hooks. We talked a good hour. He told me alot about the sickles and his other hooks.He had been in the hook business for years. Used to work with Eagle claw and designed the Lazer Hook they have He said the walleye guys first started using the sickles back in 2001 and it has just taken off.
Flatfish,,,,Did the hooks break or did they just get off because you did not set them hard enough. As sharp as they are I would not think you would have to set them very hard.
I plan to talk with him today and can ask him about it. Were these rainbow trout?

Here in sw mo. we use sickle hooks all the time. No problems, hook up rate improved.

I caught a 25lb cat a couple weeks ago on a #2 sickle with no problem.;)

Just another gimmick to catch a fisherman...I have used them and see no advantage over regular hooks...If your hook ups have improved you were probably doing something wrong to start with..

They are fantastic for catching brush piles, etc.., but so are treble hooks:eek:

Some days fish arn't taking the bait right the only thing you can do is keep hooks sharp and change colors or baits.

I have been using Sickle hooks for a couple of years and this year was the first time I had any problem missing fish on them. The fish were hitting very hard and sucking the jig in very deep on the few that I hooked and I noticed they were just barley hooked in the roof of the mouth so I took the hook and bent the shank so the point was sticking up more and that solved the problem no more missed fish. So it could have just been the way the fish were hitting that day.

My partner is running into a similar situation with Bluegill – especially last week. Tied up some #8s and he was complaining that he was dropping fish. Went out Saturday and used the same jig and didn’t seem to have the problem he was talking about. Sunday I hooked a really nice Bluegill, got him near to the boat and watch the jig drop out of his mouth. Don’t understand what I saw – had a pressure on – hook was fine. As sharp as these hooks are – shouldn’t take a whole lot to set the hook.

We’re starting to cant (bend the tip out slightly) the hooks now. Just sent back a 1000 bronze #8s. They have a flat top, with a burr) on the top of the eye – poured and painted a 100 before I noticed the problem – argh.

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Originally Posted by laserdoc

I met the owner the other day of Matzuo hooks. We talked a good hour. He told me alot about the sickles and his other hooks.He had been in the hook business for years. Used to work with Eagle claw and designed the Lazer Hook they have He said the walleye guys first started using the sickles back in 2001 and it has just taken off.
Flatfish,,,,Did the hooks break or did they just get off because you did not set them hard enough. As sharp as they are I would not think you would have to set them very hard.
I plan to talk with him today and can ask him about it. Were these rainbow trout?

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Well Dave if you talk to him tell him for me I really got tired of his hooks breaking during tying them. That' right, had a good many #4 Sickle hooks break while tying. Also would be nice if they stopped putting the barb on the side of the hook, lot of them like that too along with the eye not being closed.

I still use them more than any other hook just like I have the last 3 years, but it is getting old with their sorry QC.

Now I have to say that I have not had the same experience that Fish_4_All had.

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Originally Posted by skiptomylu

Well Dave if you talk to him tell him for me I really got tired of his hooks breaking during tying them. That' right, had a good many #4 Sickle hooks break while tying. Also would be nice if they stopped putting the barb on the side of the hook, lot of them like that too along with the eye not being closed.

I still use them more than any other hook just like I have the last 3 years, but it is getting old with their sorry QC.

Now I have to say that I have not had the same experience that Fish_4_All had.

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I will tell him about some of these problems/ Plan to call him in a few

I set the hook the same on mine and the fish simply came off, spit it out, whatever when I got to the point I could bring them up to net them. As soon as the head went up in any way they spit it out and swam away.

Hook ups were more for my boys. They didn't have to set the hook really hard and being they are only 7 and 8 they have not quite yet got to the point where they really set a hook on a ultra light 5'6"-6' pole.

Either way, my boys had never lost a fish once I was able to get it turned and headed into the net head up. I had lost very, very few until the sickle jig hooks.

And they were rainbow trout ranging in size from 8 to 18 inches. No lip hooks counted in the lost fish. All the ones I counted I saw spit the hook. We lost a total of 13 fish on the sickle hooks yesterday.

I will have to try turning out the point a little on them and see if it helps.

Landed vs. hooked and fought fish with fly hooks, 10/11. Sickle hooks, 7/25. More hook ups though, fly hooks, maybe 50% bite to hook up. Sickles, 75% hook up or so. I will have to do a lot more fishing with them before I can really compare though. Hook size for one thing was a huge difference. #4 sickle, #10 fly hook. A we fished the sickle hook jig for about 2 more hours.

They were all hooked in the roof of the mouth the best I could tell.

Oh well, maybe trout are not the best fish to catch on sickle hooks. They do have different mouth structures and maybe that makes all the difference.

Wow that's weird, not really sure what to say besides maybe not enough back bone on the pole. I've had the exact opposite since using sickle hooks, i've always used the regular round hooks with my jigs and have lost too many to count with them... been using sickle hooks almost exclusively this year and have cut down the loss pretty substantially. I'm getting more upper lip hok ups on the bigger fish and getting 9/10 out of the water and onto my stringer now.

Fish

I'd say take a look at the jigs where the trout were getting off. If you''re fishing trout in the same places I do then you're constantly checking to see if you dulled a hook tip off in the rocks. I don't care how chemically sharpened any hook is or how long they say it will stay sharp for but I always keep my hook sharpener around, do the nail test and if it doesn't stick give it a few licks with your stone or file.

Fatman

When ever I am not crappie fishing",I set the hook so hard", that the back fin ends up stuck in my forehead"!!!
I never have this problem w/the sickles."I fish trout w/ gold #8 matzuo sickles usually.The problems i usually have to face..."no pun intended...:rolleyes:"is the inevitable gut hook"!

The hooks is sharp, it was brand new and I don't hit any rocks with it. But I don't set the hook very hard either, never had to. I guess I need to set it harder.

Maybe I need to try a loop instead of clinch knot, maybe that was part of it.

Like I said, I get a lot more hook ups but I lost a lot more fish that I actually got to fight. Will be the end of the week before I get to try again but will try setting it harder or maybe setting it a second time, maybe that will help. I use ultra light rods and will be using the same thing for crappie so have to figure it out before I start losing crappie and bass with the same jigs.

Heres the problem the wide gap of the sickle and the narrow mouth width of a smaller trout does not allow for proper hook placement upon set your proably lipping them at best a trout mouth cannel is shorter also it dosn't allow for the hook to fully straighten if it's turned in his mouth you need to be using 8's 6 's max Fish I'll shipp you some in the A.M.You won't have this problem with paper mouth's I was banging them with 1/0's today on a proto type bait I'm working on.

Sounds like that might be the problem. All of them simply spit the hook. lift up to net them and open mouth and hook flies at head. But it did make sure I stayed on my toes to keep them from hitting me in the forehead. Much appreciated FF46.

Will make sure I post if it makes a difference.

For trout I use mainly #8 sickles,occasionally #6. Those #8's stay in the fish even when I pinch down the barb. With crappies steady pressure puts them on the bank. I fished one weekend and didn't lose a fish on the sickles,and I caught a good mess of fish.I lose fish but the hookups and fish caught have definitely gone up since I started using these a few years ago.

Tell ya what i used to never use sickle especialy the deeper you go seems like you loose controle fishing heavier cover with that hook gap however this year thesese hooks made a believer out of me when i caught these big toads, i would have to say had it ben any other hook i might not have landed theses fish especialy with the hook gap, and buried deep in the uper cartlidge or top pallet!

Now i use these hooks on all BNB Cappie jigs just about, and carry a exsclussive with Matzuo hk co.

Crappie Dale
Team BNB Crappie jigs
Caddo Lake DReam Team