I know its one of the age old debates, probably takes place a time or two a year here but with a quick glance back through 5 or 6 pages of posts, I didn't see anything... What's your best all around hook for catching big blues?

My first trip specifically targeting blues I was 17 years old and was rigged with trusty Eagle Claw Kahle hooks... this came from my time on the creek bank chasing mr. flathead. Only made 1 trip on a boat with the kahle hooks and figured out it was time to change.

Second trip, 19 years ago, I started running Gamakatsu Octopus Circle hooks, that was my "Go To" for quite a while.

Fast forward to 2009ish, I made my first trip to Texas and Lake Tawakoni to fish with a family member, this inspired the change from Gamakatsu to Pro Angler Tackle hooks, and I bought my first six Pro Angler rods.

Pro Anglers hooks only held the top spot for 1 or 2 years and I switched to Team Catfish Double Action hooks. We did a LOT of catching with 8/0 TC hooks, all the way until 3 years ago when started getting TC hooks with a sharp burr on the outside of the eye right where it comes back to the hook shaft... it cut the first loop of my snell a couple times and that sent Team Catfish hooks to the tackle boneyard. (I've not found a hook yet that outperforms as far as hooking and holding fish)

A few years ago I started running Whisker Seeker Triple Threat hooks, they have been okay, the quality control has been good but there's no doubt I have missed more fish and lost more fish than I did with the TC hooks.

Reading here, I thought I would order some Minotaur hooks, they came in today. I ordered some 8/0 which were undersized compared to other hooks and the quality control on this first pack of 10 is scary bad. I have 8/0 hooks with a gap ranging from 9/16" to 13/16", and of the 10 hooks, 1 has a point that's already rolled and 2 are just plain dull. The 10/0 hooks look much better as far as consistent gap, only 1 hook with a rolled point and the rest are good and sharp but the rough edge where they eye meets the shank of the hook is jagged and sharp, worst i've seen in that category. Unfortunately for now i'm gonna have to pitch these in the tackle boneyard without ever getting one wet, maybe i'll circle back to them in a few years and see if the quality control improves.

I live about 30 minutes from the Tackle Bandit store here in Oklahoma so I was eyeballin the Boss Kat hooks this weekend while my son was loading up on new crappie plastics. The 8/0 are Daiichi hooks, (just like Team Catfish used to be, maybe still are?) anyway, I got them out of the pack and I didn't find any with bad eyes like they had a few years back, maybe its time to circle back to Daiichi/Team Catfish/Boss Kat?

I know this is like the rod, reel, line, boat, beer, Ford, Chevy, etc.. conversation. There's a LOT of options out there and I sure haven't tried that many of em, but post it up, what's your "Go To" all around hook for blues.

P.S. If I already quit using your favorite hook, its not intentional or personal, maybe its me, not the hooks?

I have heard that about the smaller hooks from Minotaur as well. I tested all their smaller hooks and wasn’t a fan either. One thing about Minotaur is their customer service. If you’re not satisfied with the hooks then give Randi a call and he will have new hooks in the mail tomorrow. His number is (919) 609-0206 I try and steer my people to the larger hooks when they ask me which ones I like. Smaller hooks tend to have thinner wire and finer point and are cheaply made for the most part so they have a lot more issues with them. One thing I have learned is every hook company comes from the same 3 factories and is rebranded when it gets here. I am on Pro-Staff with some of the largest sellers of hooks in the country like Mad Katz, Tackle Bandit, and Minotaur and those guys have told me quite a few of the hooks are damaged during the shipping process as hooks are banged around and is more of a problem with the smaller hooks. I always check my points and knock off any burrs with a file if I see one. I run 2 hooks in the winter and I absolutely love them both. My favorite is the 10/0 Carolina Smasher Hook. It is a Minotaur Hook but you can only get them at Carolina Lake Weights. I know Carolina Lake Weights inspect every hook being a smaller company. It has a super wide gap and an aggressive offset which are both the 2 most important things to me. My other hook is the Minotaur 12/0 Big Sue. It is basically the same hook but in a 12/0. I have had a chance to run all the Minotaur Hooks as they brought me on as Field-Staff to help test their products and make improvements because they had heard from some of my other sponsors that I would be honest with my opinion and not blow smoke. I’m not a fan of the smaller hooks to be honest but the 12/0 Big Sue is dialed in. Im not one of their promotional guys either, they just brought me in to test their stuff and help them improve. I never run 8/0 this time of year anymore for big fish because I just lost way too many big fish on them. 8/0 aren’t large enough to get around the tooth patch on bigger fish and unless it is a really good hook up in the corner of the mouth, we would miss a ton of our best fish. I run 8/0 for eater sized fish when there is still a chance to catch a bigger fish. In the summer I will even switch to 6/0 when I’m on strictly eater sized fish and in the summer I run Dales Bloodline in 8/0. I ran Nocturnal Nation Lucky 13/0 before Minotaur and they are great hooks as well. Expensive since every one is hand sharpened and inspected but good hooks. I switched from Triple Threats by Whisker Seeker, which I ran for 3 yrs and when I switched, my hook up ratio dramatically improved and I mean dramatically. I bet my hook up ratio on big fish went up 25-30%. Judging hook up ratio can be difficult but when you catch 20-30 big fish on a good day like we do, you can really tell a difference in hooks. 5 yrs ago I used Team Catfish Double Action 8/0 for a good 5 years. Before that I used Didtchi 7/0 and Gamakatsu 8/0 for 10 yrs. It’s no secret I run a lot of stinger rigged big baits this time of year. I love the 12/0 Big Sue in the nose and the 10/0 Carolina Smasher stingered in the Tail. For single hook rigged big head pieces or big body slabs, I run the 12/0, and for medium filets and body pieces I run the 10/0 Smasher. These hooks will all catch some eaters but I try and use bigger baits this time if year, especially when dragging, to help filter out some of the smaller fish. We are targeting teeners and bigger until March. I am so confident in these hooks I’d be willing to put them up agains anyones out there.

If you want to try them you can only get the Minotaur 10/0 Carolina Smasher at this link: Carolina Lake Weights. Use discount code ElGato10 for 10% off all your orders.

Minotaur Hooks at this link: Minotaur Hooks and use code ElGato25 for 25% off.

Choosing the right hook is all about confidence and with so many hooks out there to choose from it is overwhelming. If I had to choose 1 hook to use for big fish it would be the 10/0 Carolina Smasher.

Good luck finding a good hook. It’s one of the hardest things to build confidence in. I am 100% confident in my hooks because they flat out put the Smackdown on big fish every week for us.

Interested why you miss more fish than the other brand?

I am fairly new to this game and started out using Mustad circle hooks. I switched to the whisker seeker offset octopus circle hooks and I love them, although they are pricey.

https://whiskerseeker.com/catfish-octopus-circle-hooks-offset-octo-cir/

I like the offset as the snell knot just makes the hook hang perfectly, and the hooks seem super high quality and they stay sharp enough you need to keep your pinkies completely out of the way when storing, as they are razor sharp and stay that way.

I just noticed whisker seeker have launched a new product, Catfish Hybrid Circle Hooks TripleThreat in size 12/0.

I had the same experience as Box Fish with those hooks Bob and I ran them for 3 yrs. Very noticeable amount of lost fish. Not talking about short strike days where it’s just a strange bite and lost fish are expected from being skin hooked. We lost tons of fish on those hooks on hammer down days where the fish was hooked up and came unbuttoned. My current hooks have a considerably higher hook up ratio for us. Not sure why those others lost so many fish for us and I’m not going to try and figure it out. Lost confidence in them and moved on. I did prefer those Octopus circles you posted a link to Bob but since the company totally did me wrong on their rods I quit giving them my business and pulled all my support. I’m sure some guys are going to tell you they work great for them, and if they work good for you then I recommend staying with them, but just about all the guys I know that tried them no longer use them and that goes for all their equipment. Their quality control was the worst I had seen and it is well documented in my past posts anbout all the issues I had with them from day 1. Gen 1 Versa rattles coming apart, versa 2s leaking, scale draining from magnet on battery door, eyes popping out from rod, eye wraps cracking, skins coming off the rod handles. I stayed with them when they made it right but as soon as they started backing out of standing behind their product I left. Really a bad play on their part as I took all my people and left. I just kept trying different hooks until I found some that work good for us. The products I use now aren’t because I am sponsored by them. I am sponsored by them because those are the products I use and I shared that with all my people which gained the attention of these brands. It’s very difficult to judge hook up ratio unless you’re catching a ton of good fish in a single trip. I couldn’t care less what hooks guys use but I do enjoy sharing with people what works for us and what doesn’t.

I've been using the Gamakatsu's for the the last few months and I've had quite a few fish come unbuttoned, especially bigger ones. I just thought it was either the way I was hanging my baits, or maybe just not getting the hook set when I would reel down on em. Gonna have to make a change.

Just curious how you guys handle the drag on your reels. I keep mine locked down all the way because my reels have about a 20 pound max drag and I'm running 30 pound mono now. I've never had one snap the line, but am I missing some hook-ups because there's no give on a takedown?

Geno, guys use drag in a variety of ways. I started tightening mine down a little more when I started running planer boards 8 yrs ago to help with the hook up. The Abu 6500 was not designed as a trolling rod to pull planer boards either and the drag just isn’t great for that application. When I get a big fish about 20 yrds from the boat I back off my drag. I do this not because I’m worried about breaking the line. I loosen the drag so that when the big fish gets close th the boat and starts thrashing, he doesn’t rip out a shallow hook like a skin hook or a whisker hook. Those types of hookups will get ripped out with a tight drag.

Interesting reads. It sort of surprises me that multiple people have had the exact same experience with some hooks and the fish coming "unbuttoned." I guess when it happens to many folks, maybe there's some fire with the smoke? I actually learned the term unbuttoned from a long time member here on TFF, he went by TrlMan, I have fished with him several times and we used to stay at his fish camp (second house) on Tawakoni...he runs Gamakatsu, faithful to the brand but almost always had a "came unbuttoned" story by the end of the day. Sounds like I really need to be less stubborn and buy, buy, buy. Just spend the money and get to testing, its like rods, line and everything else, i've not been in the game as long as many have, but we sure have a LOT more options for quality gear than we did 15-20 years ago. Really appreciate the replies and honest responses, hopefully a few more will chime in, I want to get a short list of 3-4 hooks to get on the boat for testing sooner rather than later.

Cat,

You just saved me 23.50 on some of these hooks. Thanks, that is really awesome getting that kind of savings.

Edit: I did get on your live feed and did try to type and follow you guys on all that, but that is way out of my league and was to fast pace for some older guy with fat beat up fingers and hands lol...

Mustard Demon Circle.............once I switched to these I've found zero reasons to change.You can spend more but I'm not sure you're getting more.

As for drag I mostly use Penn Squall 2's with 33 lbs of drag............even though I'm using the minimum of 40 lb mono and max of 65 lb braid I still do not lock my drag down completely.I've just never done it..........but if it works for you

The Penn reels now are really nice reels, but forever they never used the sprag bearing to get the instant anti-reverse, and the very reason I went to Shimano reels many years ago. But they build some really nice stuff now. Penn 2's are freaking incredible, I've pulled pretty nice groupers off the man made reefs in the Gulf with them, but you have to hammer the drag down hard and go to combat fishing, or you will never move that fish the first 10'.

Now while the grouper are a force to fight with, it's on the first 10-15' off the bottom, once moved off the bottom they are not that hard to get to the boat. We have some freshwater fishing, like fishing the cattails and heavy grass that I will go to combat fishing to get any fish I catch, out.

Where I really use the drag and it's ability is getting a really nice fish to the boat and sometimes, the first time they see the boat and they literally just take off. You can let the drag work the fish and tire the fish if you have good water, loosen off the drag and give the fish a little room to tire.

You can get in situations where it's really neat to tighten the drag down till you get the fish in better water, then you can loosen the drag up and let the drag wear the fish down, before getting it close to the boat. Key thing here though, you need the drag to work with to do this.

You take the reels with the lever drag and they have wrote the book on how to do this and perfectly each time, once you adjust the drag right on the lever. It's pre-set drag that you set the minimum and maximum amount you want to be able to use with the throw of the lever. They are really addictive to fish with once you see how they work and how you can use them.