I know with all the experts on carp fishing these days, and all the Neat Euro Gear out there that is Now available to the states carp fishing in America has Blown up!..
well, the last few days I have read threads asking about carp hooks and there sizes. Now I do NOT claim to be a carp pro or to know it all, but I will give my advice if I know a lil somthin about it.
I fish for Wild carp, but my passion is pay lake carp. In the carp world I am Known as a Euro Laker, this is someone that Combines both Euro, American, and paylake style into there carp fishing.
The basic corn and chunk method works really well and over the years I have taken some trophy carp with this method ( heck for a few years it was the ONLY method for me for wild carp ). As with most anglers being species specific You gotta have the right gear. NOW with that said you do NOT need all sorts of fancy gear to land a trophy carp, but the more you get into it it really does help when your elbow deep into a 20+ pound carp that doesn't want to see your perty face.
Well if this turns out to be a good thing I will post up some info that I have gained over the years that Has worked for me, different tips, methods and ideas that is always Open for debate and I welcome the feed back. the first thing I will be doing is the Hook side. Now these are MY OWN Opinions and thoughts and do NOT reflect you or your methods , these just work for me.

the hooks below are just a few Basic Hooks I use when I am Fishing the European style of carp fishing ( which involves a hair rig ). the hooks are as fallows:



As with Most Carp anglers we tend to run a smaller hook that in most cases fishermen would snicker and laugh. As you may have Noticed, the hooks are all the size of a dime or close to it. this for me has been the key to landing trophy carp in my short time targeting them. When i first got into carpin i used the standard Eagle claw bait holder siz 4 , 6 , 8 and had mild success with them. As with time , I tried gammakatsu octopus , Mustad , and a few Euro Style of hooks. last year i got into paylakein' More in depth and started to ask around to the great paylakers here in the north as well as some of the folks at the southern paylakes. mike reimers and herkel put me on the Owner Mosquito hooks size 2 and man I have yet to find a hook that gives better hook sets and stays into the meat more then these hooks , even better they stay sharp even after a dozen or so fish have been landed on them. ( my record is 13 ) as with most things in fishin , its all about preference and what you like as an angler.



when I use these style of hooks, I run a Hair Rig As seen here which allows me to hook up with the fishes lips 98% of the time. This Keeps from Gut Hooking as will Most anglers will tell you will ruin a fish for good and Most likely kill the catch. this method of fishing dates back into the 80's in Europe ( from what I have read ) and has been profected by All sorts of American, Canadian and Mexican carp anglers just to name a few. As I said before and I will say it again, I am NO Expert just an angler who loves to fish for carp and an astute carp head. I am always listening and willing to learn new methods, ways and means to help me further my carping experience.



American Style of hooks are Really great for carp fishing , But with most anglers who have landed a carp, the Hook has to be of Quality. Sure you can purchase hooks at the five and dime and have a great day carpin' but Please remember you get what you pay for. I know when I first got into the sport of carp angeling, I just used any ole hook I could find , but I soon quickly found out that it did matter. Now don't get me wrong, the American Style of hook is great, but Most of the American Made hooks seem to be Stamped ( or Pressed ) and not truly made for the angler in mind , but more so of lets make a ton and lots of money. Now I know some may read this and say yeah right , but it is True, very few company's make a NON stamped or press hook anymore. Eagle claw is coming around , Mustad make a great hook but the very best I have found as for american hooks was the owner ( course I think there a japan company ). Take for example the Eagle claw Egg Nympth hook, designed for salmon ( I think ) but make one of the very best ( Low cost ) Hair rig hooks I have ever used. its simple basic design works really well in a hair rigged situation and work just as effective as a corn chunk and sling hook. I hope others will chime here and give there opinions and info and make this an Informative thread here on the NAFC.

Thanks;

Eric Ridenour

www.bigezworld.com

When I started out seriously targeting carp here on the Hudson in NY, I was looking for equivalent pieces of Euro-style equipment myself, starting with the terminal end, where all the business begins and ends. One of the first things I noticed was that hooks specifically intended for carp are made of thicker wire (around the 1X-2X range). Not as easy to find straight off the usual racks. There are a lot of hooks that will still work out well, though. Gamakatsu Octopus Inline Circles were a surprise as to how well they worked, the regular Offset Circles a disappointment (wound up taking a pair of pliers and straightening them so the point lined up with the eye and shank of the hook, made a huge difference). Tried their Walleye Wide Gaps, a forged hook that also resembles their Drop-Shot hook. Good, strong hook, razor sharp like all Gamakatsu's, but the thinner wire makes hook pulls and tearing a real possibility if your drag is set too tight, especially with a braided line. On the Mustad front, their Kahle hooks sized from #8-#4 will work fairly well if you don't need to horse them too hard, but again I found they don't work as well if they are the offset variety. Their fly hooks with curved shanks meant for caddis and shrimp patterns are good choices if you opt for the 2X variety. Tiemco makes the same pattern, again in 2X. Eagle Claw has pretty much all of these same varieties available, but I find the quality is spotty from package to package, so I tend not to use them for anything any more. The only hooks from Eagle Claw I have had any confidence with are their Lazer Sharp Circles, but I use those for cats, not carp, and NY cats aren't monsters compared to their Southern brethren.

A word on actual carp specific imported hooks. This season I finally broke down and spent the money on a few packs of the Korda brand carp hooks. Once the sticker shock wore off (price is only for 10 hooks) and they actually got here,the first thing to notice is just how sharp they are out of the package. I'm a diabetic, I'm used to sticking my fingers, but these things are lethal. I like Gamakatsu for the same reason, but these are even more so. Matte grey finish, no shine or flash to them, slight little microbarb so they sink in completely under nothing more than rod pressure, and stout enough to handle anything you could throw at them. I've only had one loss of a fish using them so far, and that was my fault, I didn't check the hook point for damage before I tried to use it again. Very high quality hooks for those who don't mind shelling out the cash for their equipment.