Wonder what your experience is in bending hooks back into shape. Do they lose a lot of strength? I have had some big pike twist up my jackhammer hooks and jigs pretty badly and I'm still trying to figure out if it is worth trying to fix them.
Wonder what your experience is in bending hooks back into shape. Do they lose a lot of strength? I have had some big pike twist up my jackhammer hooks and jigs pretty badly and I'm still trying to figure out if it is worth trying to fix them.
I bend them back all the time,especially treble hooks catching those damn drum,as I am the drum KING. I keep an assortment of treble sizes and a good set of split ring pliers handy in case one does break while bending back in shape.We don't have pike down here,but have had some big flathead and blue cats slam jigs and hardheads with hardly ever bending the heavier wire hooks to where they broke bending back to shape.
I've definitely bent trebles back into place, particularly in tourney situations where I'm too amped up to take the time to replace them. No issues there until I've bent them several times. The exception is the fluorine coated types of hooks (the ones that almost look like tin like Gamy G-Finesse, Owner Zo-Wire, etc.) that tend to break if you try bending them back...assuming they don't break before bending in the first place. I've also bent a lot of light wire jig hooks back on things like spider jigs, Keitech jigs.
But I've never had the guts to try and bend back bigger single hooks like you'd find on a Jack Hammer. I've definitely had it happen between pike, muskie, and bowfin ("dogfish" to people in MN, "mudfish" to most in the South) catches on Chatterbaits, swim jigs, and frogs and I've always just retired them at that point. To be fair, the points usually end up rolled in those situations to where it'd require a lot of filing to bring the point back to respectability anyhow.
At the end of the day, when it comes to the bait you either definitely throw it away or maybe throw it away. I wouldn't use one you've bent back in a tournament situation as the consequence of it not working is a lost fish that could be a difference maker. I suppose you could also lose the fish of a lifetime with it when out fun fishing. If you're OK with that risk, you don't have anything to lose in at least trying!
2011 Skeeter ZX225
225 Yamaha HPDI Series 2
Minn Kota Ultrex 112 52"
Console: HDS 16 Carbon
Bow: HDS 12 Carbon, Solix 12 G2, Mega 360, Garmin 106 SV, LVS 34
If I’m out and it happens I just bend them back. When I get to someplace where I can change them then I’ll just get a thicker one a replace them.
I do it quite a bit, whether it's from a pike or from pulling out of a snag. I've personally never had an issue but I also don't tournament fish. I will say that I will only bend a hook back into place a couple of times though. At that point I feel like I've weakened the hook enough that if it bends out again I'm tossing it.
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