Hooks

Can I purchase hooks at Anaconda?

Yes, you can. Types and sizes of hooks vary widely and provoke spirited debates between anglers as to the pros and cons of various hook options. Here at Anaconda, we stock a huge variety of hooks for all types of fishing and species of target fish.

Fish hooks have been around for centuries. Once they were made from wood, bone, stone and other natural materials. Today, most fishing hooks are made of steel and are precisely crafted. There are hooks for specific types of fish, hooks with different styles, quality and with different features. Whether you're fishing saltwater or freshwater, live bait or artificial, there will be a hook that can catch your fish.

Do you have any tips on choosing the right hook when fishing?

Decide on the species of fish you want to land. Larger fish need larger hooks, smaller fish need smaller hooks. Some fish are more suspicious, which means you will need a smaller hook to catch them unawares.

Decide on your bait. Different hooks are designed for use with different kinds of bait and lures.

Match your hook to your method of fishing. Some hooks are better for bait-casting, some for fly-casting, and others for bait and lure spin casting.

Make sure the eye of the hook is closed, so the knot will not slip off the hook when a fish bites.

Check the hook for sharpness. Some hooks are mechanically sharpened and can be re-sharpened. Chemically sharpened hooks are sharper, but may not last as long and can generally not be re-sharpened.

Choose a more resilient and durable hook that if you want to avoid corrosion problems when saltwater fishing.

Use barbless hooks if you're going to catch and release.

How do I know which hook size to buy?

Hook sizes can seem confusing at first - when the hook size is expressed in a single number, the size of the hook gets larger as the number gets smaller and vice versa - so a size 32 hook is smaller than a size 24, which is smaller than a 6. Larger hooks are defined with a slash symbol ( / ) and work in the opposite way, with a 1/0 being smaller than a 7/0 (pronounced 7-aught). The smallest standard sizes available are 32 and the largest 20/0.

Hooks are also made from various wire gauges or thickness. They run from very thin wire to thicker gauge wire, for example fine wire, heavy wire, extra heavy, 2X heavy, 3X heavy, 4X heavy and higher.

What else do I need to know about fishing hooks?

As well as being available in different sizes, hooks also come in a variety of shapes, such as J-hooks, Circle-hooks, double and treble hooks, and more. Different species of fish and bait or lures will require different hooks, so if you are starting out, buying an assortment of hooks is essential.