Loosing fish - hook sharpness

[Mossy1577]

I recently fished a match on our local water and went after small silvers using an 18 fine wire maggot hook, but I lost so many small fish that “came off” After hooking. What fine wire hook do you recommend in 18, 20, 22. Are carbon hooks sharper?

 

[Silverfisher]

Not particularly fine but I use size 18 drennan silverfish for most my silvers fishing and they seem really good to me.

 

[Ken the Pacman]

Blunt hooks make you bump fish on the strike but do not contribute to fairly hooked fish as the point is already in.

 

[JLK]

Your elastic was probably too heavy.
Try using a Preston slip No.5 solid. (The blue stuff) through a pulla.

 

[Mike atkinson]

You should change your hooks at least 3/5 times a session, your hook will blunton, regardless of how many fish you catch, dragging along the bottom, etc

 

[endpeg]

Gamma black or green excellent silvers hook

 

[Silverfisher]

You should change your hooks at least 3/5 times a session, your hook will blunton, regardless of how many fish you catch, dragging along the bottom, etc

Not sure you have to worry about changing that much on most venues. I mean I often do change hooks that often thanks to pike but even without them it's rare I change hooks more than once or twice a session (such changes being due to bluntness from a snag or sometimes lost to a snag) and have never noticed the hook ups reduce quickly enough to have to change more often than that once or twice.

 

[Silver fan 82]

I would say change if need be but 3 or 5 times a session seems excessive unless needed?

 

[Silverfisher]

I would say change if need be but 3 or 5 times a session seems excessive unless needed?

Exactly just got be be reactive haven't you, modern hooks don't go blunt often and you know when you need to change them. It's rare I use a hook for more than a couple hours or so anyway as a pike, carp or snag tends to relieve me of them by that sort of time so they don't get the chance to go blunt but on the odd occasion they don't get broken off hooks seem to stay sharp pretty well and I don't find myself needing to change them very often at all.

 

[neil fallows]

Was it a barbless hook? is so and on pole you need a very soft elastic.

 

[Neil ofthe nene]

My choice is the Sensas 3530. I use it on the canal for small silvers and unless damaged I don't change the hook just for the sake of doing so. Same rig and hook might get used on multiple sessions.

My other canal hook is the sadly no longer made Fox MP1, formerly the Image IM1. Designed by Mark Pollard he told me last year that there is a chance of it reappearing. I guess he holds the intellectual rights.

 

[Mike atkinson]

Not sure you have to worry about changing that much on most venues. I mean I often do change hooks that often thanks to pike but even without them it's rare I change hooks more than once or twice a session (such changes being due to bluntness from a snag or sometimes lost to a snag) and have never noticed the hook ups reduce quickly enough to have to change more often than that once or twice.

Where I go feeder fishing, it’s a very gravely bottom, I notice a difference as soon as I put a new hook on???

 

[Lee Richards]

When I used to feeder fish the faster water of the Lower Teme a lot I used to get through a packet of smaller hooks in a days fishing.
Not worth losing fish by being tight and lazy.

 

[Silverfisher]

Ah for feeder I see. I thought you meant float as I’d assumed the OP was float fishing. Very rarely blunt hooks float fishing unless I snag up. I only feeder fish on rivers so almost always loose hooks to pike before they get the chance to blunt lol

 

[Lee Richards]

He was float fishing but you will still blunt hooks tripping over a gravel bottom,possibly even more so.

 

[Silverfisher]

He was float fishing but you will still blunt hooks tripping over a gravel bottom,possibly even more so.

Yeah definitely but not often more than a couple times a session in my experience. Obviously bottom dependant as you say.

 

[Total]

7

Ah for feeder I see. I thought you meant float as I’d assumed the OP was float fishing. Very rarely blunt hooks float fishing unless I snag up. I only feeder fish on rivers so almost always loose hooks to pike before they get the chance to blunt lol

To be fair, unfortunately the OP gave us very little information of where, what and how he was fishing.......Always a problem with posts similar to this as giving definitive answers is a real ache....

 

[TrickyD]

Where I go feeder fishing, it’s a very gravely bottom,

Try an inturned point.

 

[mickthechippy]

Your elastic was probably too heavy.
Try using a Preston slip No.5 solid. (The blue stuff) through a pulla.

using a really soft elastic is not always the answer,

that depends on the depth, or the length of line-rig between the pole tip and the hook

if there is a relatively longish length, by the time the elastic has powered up to provide enough tension to bury the hook point, the chance of a good hook hold has long gone

by uprating to a stronger elastic, it negates this effect

 

[Chris Calder]

Worst hooks I ever used was drennan silverfish for getting blunt quick and bumping fish, now use guru F1 pellet hook for silvers.
Still have a blunt hook now and then though, last week was getting loads of skimmers in a silvers match, hooked and landed a decent carp and then had about 5 bumped skimmers one after the other, changed hook and another two hours catching without a blunt hook.

Even straight out of the bag some can be blunt, never had guru f1 make blunt out of the bag but have had drennan silverfish bad batches.