Anyone want to weigh in on this? Seems I keep hearing conflicting ideas about red hooks (and line, but that is another topic). Are they good because the fish see them and think it is blood in the water or do they disappear? I don't think you can have it both ways! Let's hear from you guys. Tom

Hey Tom. good subject, I read an article last year in outdoor life or field and stream, can't remember what one(I was at the Dr office so I don't have a ciopy of the article) it was about all the hype with red line but i think some of it can apply to hooks as well. Seems that just because red light is filtered out first when underwater it does not mean that it disappear only become a shade of gray and this could possibly make it less noticeable to fish. I am sure the same could be said for red hooks. I guess an item that is red above water and an item of another color would both loose their visible color at a certain depth but would probably appear as different shades of gray underwater. Possibly the fish recognize certain shades at depth and can translate that into representing certain things as blood or anything else for that matter. I would like to hear from Dr Scramm on this one.

Brian

Fish have a visual spectrum different from human. In terms of human visual unerwater, just apply the principals of water filtering visible light. The further one is away from an object, the more bluish grayed out it becomes. The closer one approaches the object the more color pigment it shows because the visible color wavelength are able to reach the eye. The deeper the water, the less visible light is able to penetrate, consequently the visible color wavelength are filtered out accordingingly with red being the first to be filtered out.

In terms of human visual in extreme low light, the eyes switchs to rod cells which sees primarily grayed out colors. You put a lure into these conditions, and it really wouldn't matter what color it is.

The effectiveness of red color hooks may prove to be more in terms of changing out to different hook colors other than bronze. Using a shiny gold or shiny nickel silver hooks have it's advantages. Using a black nickel or subdued black painted hook has other quality to solicit a bite.

UV light spectrum is a different visual. Those neon hot pink, neon green chartruese, neon blaze orange, are able to show their color wavelengths when normal visible light has been grayed out. If you played with those black UV lights in the dark, you will see how some colors are just so much glowing bright over those of others.

As a scuba diver I know that red doesn't dissapear. Red turns to an orange color below 30 feet because of light filtration anything after that it appears gray. The red line thing I'm not sure of but I am a big believer in red hooks. I put a red trible ( front hook) on every crank bait I own and in my opnion it makes a differance especially with smallmouth.

Harry

It is a quirk of nature that water filters light in a very unusual way. Oddly enough, the first component of sunlight that is filtered out by water is UV, the shortest wavelength of light. Here is where it gets crazy- the next component of light that water filters is red which is on the long side of the wavelength equation! Neon colors stand out because they reflect a large portion of blue and visible violet which penetrate water well.  I think red hooks work because we fishermen think they do! Tom

read an article on why the line disappears and the hooks dont underwater. after all the sciencetific mumbo jumbo and tecnical aspects the red line disappears underwater because it is translucent and light can pass through it whereas the hooks are opaque and lite doesnt pass through them. no hard data but it seems from personal experience the red hooks do outpreform tje non reds.

Actually UltraViolet light penetrates water much deeper. Water filters visible light from red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet. UV light begins on the violet end of the visible spectrum. There may be suspended particles that absorb the UV light, hence it feels as if one will not get sunburn underwater.

http://www.tcotackle.com/tcotest2_002.htm

According to these guy's research UV light can go as deep as 750 ft whereas visible light will only go as deep as 40 ft.

Then why do Vanish Transition and Berkley Transoptic work? Only thing I can think of is that it is a UV/a - UV/b thing.  Tom

I've never used either of those lines so I can't comment there claims even in the fish tank with a uv light to it. Maybe they really don't depend so much on UV wavelength, I don't know about them. Never even tried to put a UV light to it to see if it even glows bluish white. I can only surmise that the gold color is infact dependant more so on visible light, rather than ultraviolet light. After all uv light is on the blue side. It's probably more so of the way water filters and refracts light. The color wavelength is bent or combined, so the gold has probably moved over to the brown side. Maybe in the simplicity of seeing a standard XL above water and not being able to see it underwater. Even the old Trilene photochromic line was much like that, clear gold above but clear brownish tint below. It however does glow a nice bright bluish white under a UV light both above water and underwater.


Look at where Transition shows next to XL


Different angle


Lines like Stren Original flouroescent and Microfuse will glow above and below water. When it's underwater a lot of it is absorbed, but it still have a blue glow to it when I've got a UV light up to it. Glass does an even better job at absorbing UV light than water. It cuts like 80% of my UV light. Out there on the water, I will say that my polarized glass are able to pick up the flourescent lines underwater much better than other lines. Without my polarized glasses on, it's like they've almost dissappeared underwater.

Regardless the human eye is not adapt to seeing the UV spectrum. It can only pick up some of it. What the fish will see is entirely different. If the lines are truly UV bright, then many fishes the see into the UV spectrum will see a very clear line attached to a lure. Yet these fish will bite the lure. Only leading to the conclusion, that many fish are not line shy. Proving more so, that the invisibility property of flourocarbon lines are built more on marketing rather than application.

I've never had much luck with the red hooks. I've tried them drifting eggs for steelhead and never had a hook up with them. For smallies in the river, i don't get nearly as many hook ups with the reds as i do with the bronze. Just my experiences. How about you walleye guys, have you tried the orange or chartreuse hooks with any success?

They don't think it's blood contrary to most peoples beliefs. It is called "Gill Flare', it happens when baitfish are being chased by predators and it creates a feeding response. Not all red hooks are the same and you should never use a bait with more than 255 red in it when using a red hook. Daiichi calls their hooks Bleeding Bait Hooks, because they are not like most other red hooks, and there is also a contrast trick that helps with this as well, You scrape off a little of the red part on the hooks in intervals to create contrast, which is why it does not matter when the hooks start to have this happen naturally anyway through use. I did seminars on this for years for hook manufacturers at Bass pro Shops and have more on this at my main website.

The bleeding or blood thing is a marketing thing to the consumer.

Hey isn't 255 red the second to last color for 256 shades of red?

I guess it depends on the metal. I see a lot of cheap red hooks out there. It's hard to tell what kind of metal is under the paint. I've had some paint scratched off and I can see it's either a silver or a gold hook underneath.

My wife swears by red hooks but I haven't noticed any differance. I'm more concerned on the style or type of hook.

Sometimes it's not the red hooks or red lines thats so much of a big deal to me.  It's the red lures.  They're just screaming bite me.

Red Lazy Ike size 7 and Heddon Tadpolly in red with red Owner ST 36 size 4.

I use red hooks and cajun red line.I think the line is really good but the hooks do not make any difference.

Hello,everybody me and my fishing buddy did our own little test with both of us throwing the same crankbait right next to each other i had red hooks on the front of mine and he had the hooks on that comes on them when you buy them. i was catching fish 2 to 3fish to his one we did this with him in the front of the boat at frist and then we switched later me up front ..that is how we did our own testing on this subject...i hope this helps we did this at our lake that we fish at alot out here in Ca...mabe some of you can try this in what ever state you live in and give us the results THANKS JOHN

John I have been using red hooks on the front of my crankbaits for the past 5 years and in my opnion they work. I won't throw a crankbait without em

I've tried replacing hooks on some of my pike lures with red and it doesn't seem to make too much of a difference to me but when i replace the hooks on some of the lures I use for lakers they got hit a lot less.

Harry, I started replacing all of mine about this time last year got them all done... I read an article last year then like i stated we ran or own little test and it worked out for the beter. now when i buy new lures that is the frist thing i do before i use them on any fishing trip..It works for me...Esoxhunter where are you from?? We don't have pike out here that i know of... Try it on your bass lures and see if it makes any diff...It would be nice to see how it works or don't work back east....THANKS JOHN

I do most of my fishing in central and northern saskatchewan so I'm not a bass fisherman at all.

John: I don't know what kind of hooks you use on your crankbaits but I use Mustad triple grip hooks. I get them in bulk from Barlow's tackle for like $29 a hundred. I tried the Daiichi Bleeding Bait hooks, thier ok but I like the mustad's better.

Harry

Harry,Thats what i use also i tried a couple differnt brands and did not care for them..Then i started useing mustard and have stayed with them..I'm not sure what i paid for them but i'll look for my invoice..If barlows is cheaper i'll start ordering from them....THANKS FOR THE INFO......it's good to talk to you have a good day .JOHN

jtaylor23, there have been numerous studies done on this topic.  Some say red hooks give you a big advantage and others say that they don't work at all.  One of these studes, which I think I read about in an In-Fisherman magazine, is the one I firmly believe is true.  If I can remember correctly, it said that bass don't have the mental ability (capacity) to reason, unlike humans, and that they cannot associate red with blood, simply because it is not in their brain capacity.

Son not everything you read in those books you keep quoteing from are a sciantific fact, most are just opnions. If red hooks didn't work, why is it that I catch more fish on a red hook over a bronze or black hook. Give them a try you may be suprised. Strike King spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in reserch before they came out with the bleeding bait series of baits THAT WORK. Most all bait company's put some type of red on thier baits.

fisherfanatic, as i said in my earlyer post we did our own experiment and that is where i came up with my results... I too have read many differnt books and got mixed results. that is why i wrote what i wrote... i know that everybody will have there own opinion i was just shareing the results that we came up with....I live on the west coast, If you don't live on the west coast the next time you go fishing try it and see if it works or don't work as it would be nice too add your result to the experiment just so the rest of the club will have more info when they go on ther next fishing trip. Thanks for your feed back.... JOHN

I really believe that angler confidence has a lot to do with the success of any bait. The only time I have ever noticed a big difference in catch rate due to hook color was when perch fishing and gold hooks outcaught anything else by a wide margin. (But I still replace the front treble on my lures with a red hook anyway!) Tom

Posted By basbandit on 17 Nov 2010 12:08 AM
Son not everything you read in those books you keep quoteing from are a sciantific fact, most are just opnions. If red hooks didn't work, why is it that I catch more fish on a red hook over a bronze or black hook. Give them a try you may be suprised. Strike King spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in reserch before they came out with the bleeding bait series of baits THAT WORK. Most all bait company's put some type of red on thier baits.

I've got a red and white Strike King spinnerbait (with red hooks) and I'd have to say that it's worked great!   My second to largest bass was caught off of it, along with a few other nice ones.  Strike King's a nice brand.

I also feel that one of the prime reasons that red hooks are so popular is that the big lure companies have made such a big deal about them.  If the advertisements were not in almost every fishing magazine and on comercials featured on the most popular outdoor TV channels, they probably wouldn't be as popular.

when i fish powerbait and its a bluebird day out i can see the red reflecting through the worm and mabe that attracts the fish?

Not a real scientific test, but last summer I got badly outfished by my brother in the same boat using the same crankbait for walleye.  The only difference was that he had red hooks and red paint on the gills.  I switched to the same lure and the catch rates were almost identical.  I have found that it doesn't always make a difference, but I always make sure I have some red hooks in my tackle box. 

Posted By fisherfanatic on 17 Nov 2010 11:01 AM

Posted By basbandit on 17 Nov 2010 12:08 AM
Son not everything you read in those books you keep quoteing from are a sciantific fact, most are just opnions. If red hooks didn't work, why is it that I catch more fish on a red hook over a bronze or black hook. Give them a try you may be suprised. Strike King spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in reserch before they came out with the bleeding bait series of baits THAT WORK. Most all bait company's put some type of red on thier baits.

I've got a red and white Strike King spinnerbait (with red hooks) and I'd have to say that it's worked great!   My second to largest bass was caught off of it, along with a few other nice ones.  Strike King's a nice brand.

I also feel that one of the prime reasons that red hooks are so popular is that the big lure companies have made such a big deal about them.  If the advertisements were not in almost every fishing magazine and on comercials featured on the most popular outdoor TV channels, they probably wouldn't be as popular.

Oh yeah, and it was a scientific survey.  The evidence did conclude that fish don't choose red over other colors.