Hooks

• Heath Anderson

The right hook is one of the most important pieces of equipment for a bass fisherman to have. It is necessary for the hooks to be kept sharp and be well maintained in order to be able to consistently set them in the tough mouth of a bass.

Worm Hooks
Offset Shank Worm Hook, Wide Gap Hooks, Oversize Worm Hooks, J Hooks

Circle Hooks
These hooks have a curved-back point that results in almost a circular shaped hook. The curved-back point results in more jaw-hooked bass rather than gut-hooked bass due to the fact that the hook will only grab onto an exposed surface. Circle hooks are ideal for rigging live bait, wacky worm rigs, or split shot rigs. Setting the hook with a circle hook will cause it to be pulled from the mouth of the bass, instead just pull up on the rod and keep tension in the line and the bass will set the hook itself.

Treble Hooks
Treble hooks consist of three hooks that share a single shank and are typically used on crankbaits, poppers, stickbaits, and other types of artificial lures. They are designed to securely hold fish and therefore are also sometimes used as stinger hooks at the end of lures.

Bait Hooks
Bait hooks usually have a shorter shank than other hooks and are used solely for rigging live bait including night crawlers, minnows, and crayfish. The smaller hook size keeps it out of sight from bass and allows the live bait to move naturally in the water, but it unfortunately also results in a larger number of gut-hooked bass.

Weighted Hooks
Weighted hooks are basically wide gap hooks with built-in weights that can provide extra mass for casting soft plastics, and eliminate the need for extra weights to be added. Soft plastic lures such as worms, lizards, and swimbaits are primarily used with weighted hooks, or a weighted hook can be used in the form of a jig head.

Trailer/Stinger Hooks
Trailer or stinger hooks are hooks that are added to the end of lures such as buzzbaits, spinnerbaits, or soft plastics in order to improve the effectiveness of your lure in case in case of short strikes or strikes from behind. They typically are smaller than the main hook.

Sizes
A hook with that contains a 0 is always one size bigger than the size before it. Meaning that a 4/0 hook is a size larger than a 3/0 hook and so on. However hooks that contain only a number work the opposite way. A size 5 hook would be larger than a size 6 hook.
Hooks from the smallest to largest size: 32, 30, 28, 26, 24, 22, 20, 18, 16, 14, 12, 11, 10, 8, 6, 4, 2, 1, 1/0, 2/0, 3/0, 4/0, 5/0, 6/0, 7/0, 8/0, 9/0, 10/0, 11/0, 12/0, 13/0, 14/0, 15/0, 16/0, 17/0, 18/0, and 19/0