It might sound counter intuitive to suggest a hook is too sharp, but I read a comment by a highly renowned builder in which he was somewhat cringing at the fact guys put ultra sharp hooks on wooden plugs. The comment suggested our custom wooden plugs are dying too young due to excessive hook rash and puncture damage from using hooks that are "too sharp."

In the past I always used mustads on my plugs and filed the points a bit to sharpen them. Never had an issue hooking or keeping fish hooked, even before the "super sharp" generation of fish hooks emerged.

Your thoughts???

nonsense,hook rash doesn't do anything that effects how a plug catchs fish.and i don't want to hear how a plug become inaffective when it absorbs water.i believe the effectivness of a plug is were you put the plug and the action the plugger imparts the plug.many of the plugs i fish myself are weighted to the point of being jigs.

My thoughts are the plugs are gonna take a beating just the same....they will suffer hook rash no matter what hooks you use. What are you going to do put "dull" hooks on your plugs? Plugs with Mustads suffer the same exact damage though it may take a tad longer......or does it? If you catch alot of fish on a plug its going to happen. They are made of wood after all and they are not going to last forever!:) Caught way over 100 fish on this plug (way over) been abusing this plug for 3 seasons and I just retired it but I could have kept fishing it until I lost it....... it will still catch!

Mustad hooks aren't the same as they used to be since they had to stop using the dangerous chemical whatever it was. I still have some of the old ones I got from John Haberek and I use then sparingly.

I agree with John about hookrash being nonsense, the plugs still catch, they aren't dying an early death.

I also think the VMC hooks are a lot harder or it could be the coating so the point stays very sharp a lot longer and thus does more damage to the wood. You can see it when you cut the VMC's and sometimes get breakage. Too hard. Metal on wood will always be won by you know what. Too sharp:confused: I always keep my hooks as sharp as possible so I like that I don't always have to keep sharpening it.

I think the reason is wood has gotten too soft:)

Just fish them without hooks...problem solved! They will still look good and nice and shiny!!:jump1:

The hooks are fine.

Use a better epoxy.

Look at after-hours plugs. I have some that are a dew seasons old and barely show any hook rash. His epoxy is insane!

I only fish vmcs or owners both of which are crazy sharp.

That's one of the reasons I like the PVC, it stands up to the hooks so much better.

I plan on bringing some to plug fest for yoh guys to try out.
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That's a bullsheet response from a plugbuilder using a crappy clearcoat
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My thoughts exactly Nebe!

I notice a problem with my plugs. Often the VMC hook will snag on the side of the plug and remain out of position ruining the retrieve. Since in many spots your first cast has the highest return rate, a ruined cast probably costs you a decent chance at fish.

That's a bullsheet response from a plugbuilder using a crappy clearcoat
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I don't use clear coat on my PVC plugs.

Was just saying that different epoxies hold up to hook rash better than others.
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I notice a problem with my plugs. Often the VMC hook will snag on the side of the plug and remain out of position ruining the retrieve. Since in many spots your first cast has the highest return rate, a ruined cast probably costs you a decent chance at fish.

has happened to me before matter of fact i was testing some plugs yesterday and only had naked sealed wood grain and the darn hooks kept sticking into the side of the soft plug. Epoxy would cut that percentage down quite a bit but have seen it happen.


I think Eben was talking about the guy that was complaining, not you Chef C

Oh I'm overly sensitive lately since I fell and hasn't been fishing lately.
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BigFish- over the life of the plug you just retired.... did you change out the VMC hooks or just sharpen them as needed.... looks like one of your warriors.... a lot of quality use!

Changed the hooks once or twice.....once you hook fish it seems the salinity from the fish mouth begin immediately to corrode the hooks? Just my theory! They rust all on their own without catching but once you begin catching......they break down quicker.

Bigfish Your plug looks like mostly boofish and hook marks. I,ll bit it will be good for another twenty years.
I still use a couple of green needles from the eighties that have been sanded by bass . The hole back end and they still catch fine

99.9% Bass on that plug! I do not recall any blues on that one?

It might sound counter intuitive to suggest a hook is too sharp, but I read a comment by a highly renowned builder in which he was somewhat cringing at the fact guys put ultra sharp hooks on wooden plugs. The comment suggested our custom wooden plugs are dying too young due to excessive hook rash and puncture damage from using hooks that are "too sharp."

In the past I always used mustads on my plugs and filed the points a bit to sharpen them. Never had an issue hooking or keeping fish hooked, even before the "super sharp" generation of fish hooks emerged.

Your thoughts???

they are only too sharp when they end up snagged in my anatomy.. other than that...I have no issues..in my experience, sharp hooks catch more fish than dull hooks.. the new Mustads are not worth the steel they make them out of..... the plugs seem to hold up pretty well with the epoxy.. definatly bettter than the days of spray bombs and not much else..... and when they are toast I retire them and make another.. no big deal... I have noticed/experienced the same thing that numby and the professor have... damn point embedded in the plug....that is most aggrivating..Kind of like and eel ball !

Changed the hooks once or twice.....once you hook fish it seems the salinity from the fish mouth begin immediately to corrode the hooks? Just my theory! They rust all on their own without catching but once you begin catching......they break down quicker.

More likely the fish scratch the plating on the hook and expose the less rust resistant metal beneath.
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That may be the case but my point is once a VMC starts catching it corrodes alot faster than ones that have simply been in the water be it scratched or the fact that the slime/bodily fluids in a fish' mouth speed up the corrosion process.

like vmc's ... would be an improvement if they curved the point in like the eagle claw's to reduce hook rash ..

I thought about that Ed but I don't think it would help? It is what it is.....sharp hooks and wood?:)

like vmc's ... would be an improvement if they curved the point in like the eagle claw's to reduce hook rash ..

X2

I notice a problem with my plugs. Often the VMC hook will snag on the side of the plug and remain out of position ruining the retrieve. Since in many spots your first cast has the highest return rate, a ruined cast probably costs you a decent chance at fish.

I'm not sure of the name of this, but some of the smaller freshwater Zaras I've seen have hook hangers that prevent the belly treble from swinging forward -- maybe limits the swing to the sides as well; the treble can only lay flat against the plug to the rear. Wonder if there is a heavy version.

I'm not sure of the name of this, but some of the smaller freshwater Zaras I've seen have hook hangers that prevent the belly treble from swinging forward -- maybe limits the swing to the sides as well; the treble can only lay flat against the plug to the rear. Wonder if there is a heavy version.

The Chas. Russo flap tail used those one way hangers...

nope must resist. i'm not going to make heavy duty version, nope not going to do it.:smash:

nope must resist. i'm not going to make heavy duty version, nope not going to do it.:smash:

Besides, you need to focus all your energy on the 14 inch, 10 oz super sized danny plug.

LOL. 5.5 oz so far but the lead is slowly adding up with each version.

All I hope is when I am done screwing around I don't go back to original version that George told me just to add larger hooks too and it should be fine.

nope must resist. i'm not going to make heavy duty version, nope not going to do it.:smash:

your safe..they already make them...just for the salt.

It might sound counter intuitive to suggest a hook is too sharp, but I read a comment by a highly renowned builder in which he was somewhat cringing at the fact guys put ultra sharp hooks on wooden plugs. The comment suggested our custom wooden plugs are dying too young due to excessive hook rash and puncture damage from using hooks that are "too sharp."

In the past I always used mustads on my plugs and filed the points a bit to sharpen them. Never had an issue hooking or keeping fish hooked, even before the "super sharp" generation of fish hooks emerged.

Your thoughts???


not all plugs.

I do not believe there is such a thing as too sharp of a hook.

I think as fisherman we tend to over analyze everything and forget that a fishing plug is a tool. A fishing plug is designed for a specific purpose to hook a fish, most of us fish for striped bass and when they become very large they have very tough jaws and i want the sharpest hooks possible to penetrate those jaws.

I have taken my biggest fish on plugs that you would cringe at because i missed the through hole and there is a hole in the side of the plug. I drilled the weight hole where the belly hole should be so there is a huge gap. I fished all these plugs as do many other plug builders but we all do one thing and that is try to use the sharpest hooks.

Will a vmc give you hook rash - certainly. I think that is character to the plug not something I am at all worried about.

not all plugs.

your just saying that because it's true.:)