I dug this from the archives out of sheer boredom...where is everyone today? Gamakatzu is my favorite.

yeah im with you there mo. those are the only ones i get.

I like the bass pro xps hooks. I have had no problems with them and you cant beat buy two get one free at the spring classic

I like gamakatsu also

Can't argue with the effectiveness of Gamakatsu. They've got my vote.

I use gamakatsu almost all the time , I just started useing the bass pro shop's xps and have not had any thing go wrong with them. JOHN

Hmm...never tried those BPS hooks...anyone ever try Matzuo? They're a sort of "bargain" brand...half the price of Gama's but probably equal in performance. They are my best seller at the fleamarkets. I've used them when I ran out of Gama's and they are a great hook.

I have tried the bps ones there ok. But I still think Gamakatzu are sharper. I’ll have to check out Matzou.

I am restricted by the style of hook I prefer. Seems that the only octopus circle hooks I can find smaller that about 1/0 are made by Gamakatsu. I suppose it could be worse, like if the only brand available to me was utter junk. For a while I could find Matzuo snelled circle hooks but my local Sports Authority seems to be eliminating their fishing dept. Never had a problem with them.

pegsguy- if it looks like there starting to get rid of there fishing dept. i would say keep an eye out for some sales.

Posted By Bassman47312013 on 03 Feb 2012 12:17 PM
pegsguy- if it looks like there starting to get rid of there fishing dept. i would say keep an eye out for some sales.

Same here...The Sports Authority in my neck of the woods seems to be carrying less and less fishing gear and tackle. S.A. used to stock Quantum reels, Cabo's and Boca's...not anymore...I found a deal last year, I picked up the Cabo CNW 30 (trolling reel) for under 70 dollars...That reel retails for 179.99. So keep an eye out...maybe more deals to come!

nice grab barresi yeah i need to start looking around more and hit up alot of garage sales

I have replaced the hooks on all my lures with either Gamakatsu or Owner hooks. For catfishing I use only Gamakatsu Octopus Circle hooks, 4/0 for channels, 8/0 for flatheads. 

My favorite is whatever is on sale. You can catch the same amount of fish on an Eagle Claw as you can on a Gamakastu! Be confident in your ability, and the hook doesn't matter. I've seen modified paper clips catch fish.

There's alittle more to it than that...True any ol'hook will catch a fish, or get caught in a fishes mouth, but there certain qualities that some hooks have over others. For example: some hooks are sharper than others, some will resist rust longer than others, some have a stronger breaking/bending point than others, and thats just to name a few examples. So the reality is, not all hooks are created equal, no matter how confident you are or your skill level. And I use Gamakatsu about 95% of the time.

I like Gamakatsu hooks for their sharpness. They seem a more britle then Owner hooks. So I use salt water heavy duty Gamakatsu's for large Pike and Muskie's. Can't beat the sharpness of the Gamakatsu's.

I'll tell you what I've noticed...some hooks stand up to today's soft plastics better. Anyone who has tossed a worm into their tacklebox with the hook still in it knows what I'm talking about. Hooks with a bronze finish(Eagle Claw) seem to be most affected by this. Hooks with a black nickel finish(Gamakatsu) seem almost unaffected. My advice...spend the extra $1...and save the headaches!
                                                                                                                                                                              

I have been using Eagle Claw hooks for 30 years.
I make around 300 to 400 jigs a year for friends and family.
I have never had one break, i have bent a few and just bend them back and keep fishing.
I don't miss many fish and they must be more than sharp enough as I fish ultralites most of the time.
I am a multi species guy and fish for everything.
I have used the more expensive hooks but (IMHO) they don't help me catch anymore fish than I do with Eagle Claws.
Salt in the soft plastics will take the finish off most hooks if left long enough.

YellowBear: are you using the gold colored Eagle Claw hooks? I also cast a lot of jigs and the only hooks readily available to me are the 675 style Eagle Claw. These have a gold colored finish and I haven't had a problem with plastics affecting them like they seem to do on the bronze coated hooks. All of my worm hooks are black nickel finish.

Holy Moly! I still cannot believe the amount of interest in this thread that I pulled from the archives...out of sheer boredom. At least now I know how to get things moving in here! I have posted topics I felt were more interesting, but they went basically unanswered. At any rate, glad to see everyone responding!
  
  Another little tidbit: You know that little tackle binder the club gives you with life membership? I have my Gamakasu worm hooks stored in it...with the worms. And by with...I mean exactly that...the appropriate hook is stored with the appropriate worm. Right there in all that salt, and I have yet to see one rust. When I noticed(a few years ago) that the Gama's were unaffected by salt, I started storing them this way...saves me quite a bit of time not fumbling around with those little hook packs.
                                                                                                              

I also use that binder to store my most frequently used baits and have found that keeping the appropriate hook stored with them saves not only time but the embarrassment of getting to the hole and finding one or the other sitting in a different tackle bag back at home. I would actually like to find some additional "pages" for the binder.

They sell binder pages at Bass Pro and Cabelas . I prefer Owner Hooks Myself

Affirmative on those Owners psg...they are a great hook also. PG, I also thought about adding "pages" to that binder, but mine is pretty tight to close now! Maybe room for one. I would like to get my hands on one more whole binder. Then Use it for spinnerbaits.
                                                                                                         

BPS sells a basic binder with about 10 pages for about $12. I have one and bought an extra pack of pages for it. It has a velcro closure so you can stuff it without having to close a zipper.

Pegsguy,
Depends on what is on the shelf when I buy hooks.

I like the Gamakatsu an trokar hooks

"Favorite" hooks is really about application. I was a hard core Gamakatsu fan for a while. Their Superline hooks are pretty much unbeatable for strength when flipping, but I recently found Eagle Claw has a flipping hook that does a great job. So far I have only used it in 3/0 and in that size I like it better than the Gamakatsu SL hook. I always did feel the the G-SL was a little light and opened up a little too easy compared to G's larger size hooks. Anyway, I plan to see if Eagle Claw has it in larger sizes. The 3/0 Eagle Claw flipping hook is perfect in a Ribbed Flipping Grub.

For t-rigging a Club-O its pretty hard to beat a Daiichi Copperhead. I use the 5/0 for 5" Club-Os and for 4" I like either a 3/0 or a 4/0. Its not as weedless as an inline style wide gap hook, but it has a much better hookup ratio. Its still a lot more weedless than wacky rig when you need to get back in the brush.

For wacky rigging I pretty much only use a Gamakatsu Wicked Wacky Hook. 5/0 and 3/0 for 5" and 4" Club-Os respectively.

For light wire worm hooks I really like X-Point. They are really sharp and the cutting blades of the point go through plastic and into the fish super easy. That's super important when using a light hook.

..

I think I have Red Gamakatsu hooks on my line.

i don't care what anyone says, Eagle Claw hooks have never let me down.

gamakatsu for me

I don't have particular favorite brands, as much as I have specific favorite hooks. I love eagle claw's weedless wacky worm hooks, gamakatsu's offset EWGs, and mustad's KVD triple grip trebles on my go to crankbaits.

Gamy's

gamakatsu

This one's kinda tough for me. I don't really have a favorite.  My top choices would be hooks by Owner, Mustad, Eagle Claw, VMC, Gamakatsu, Excalibur and Matzuo.
If I had to pick one favorite it would be Mustad for the best combination of quality for the price although Eagle Claw has great quality at the lowest price of any of the hooks I list above. The Excalibur Tx3 trebles are actually one of the best hooks I have ever used but they don't seem to be very popular and their selection is limited. If I had to pick just on quality the Owner hooks I have used are top notch.
If you find something that works well for you then stick with them and enjoy the fishing!

Looks like I made a spelling error in the above post. The brand name Excalibur should be spelled XCalibur.

The matzuo hooks are nice, they seat well but do lack the structural strength for the eyelet actually. They work well for a novice fisherman like me

What is your favorite brand of hooks? I have to say that is an impossible question.

I have a good relationship with the guys at TTI. I do use a lot of their hooks, and I design some molds for jigs and spinnerbaits directly for their hooks. I couldn't specifically say they are my favorite brand (or brands since they actually have several Daiich, X-Point, etc) for everything. I really like the jig hook they use for the Butt Draggger and the Copperhead in 3/0 to 7/0. I think the jury is still out on their spinnerbait hooks. I need to catch more fish on them. LOL. Pretty hard to beat their little Mr Crappie hooks for small baits.

BUT... I still mostly flip with a Gamakatsu Super Line hook, and I mostly wacky rig with a Gamakatsu Wild Wacky Hook.

For fishing buzz frogs if the action is hot and I am getting mostly big fish I'll use a Daiichi Copperhead, but if its 20 minutes or more between strikes on average I think the Owner center point with the barb in-line to tie stays in the frog a little better even if it doesn't hook up quite as well. I have to use a trailer with the Owner setup.

Its really all a trade. There are even some cool Eagle Claw hooks out there. For anybody who likes an old style z bend worm hook its pretty darn hard to beat their Teflon coated hook, and their new flipping hook might give Gamakatsu a run for its money.

All I can really tell you is what I like. I can't tell you what you like.

general hook-owner. Fly-tying hook-gamakatzu