The Best Freshwater Fishing Hooks

In this article I will draw upon my three or so decades of fishing experience to outline some of the best freshwater fishing hooks that are on the market today. Rather than getting into individual manufactures, I want to focus on the style of fishing hook and what application said hook is most effective for. As long as you purchase your fishing hooks from a quality manufacturer, some of which would include; Eagle Claw, Gamakatsu, and Mustad, you should be in good shape and be dealing with a quality fishing hook.

What is most important when it comes to freshwater fishing hooks, in my experience, is that the correct style is used for the particular type of fishing or bait that you are using when you are fishing. The point here is that when you change the species of fish that is being targeted or the type of water that is being fished, it is often necessary to change the style of hook that’s being employed, which is where the information contained in this article comes into play.

1. Treble Hooks – Treble hooks are most often seen dangling from fishing lures, and as any serious bass fisherman will tell you, the type, design, and sharpness of the treble hook that you use on your fishing lures is of the utmost importance. The other place that treble hooks are often used is when fishing for trout or catfish with any type of bait that needs multiple hook shanks to help to hold the bait onto the hook. In any case, there is little doubt that treble hooks are among the best and most popular fishing hooks available to fishermen.
2. Gang Hooks – Gang hooks are the least well known of all of the fishing hooks being outlined, but that doesn’t mean that these hooks aren’t the best when it comes to using one particular type of bait, live fishing worms. Gang hooks are actually a pair of small fishing hooks that are tied back to back on a leader, which makes hooking a live worm much more natural and realistic than any other method. If live fishing worms are the bait, gang hooks should be the hook of choice.
3. Worm Hooks – These wide gap, offset shank fishing hooks are perfect for rigging plastic worms, salamanders, and other soft plastic baits for Carolina and Texas rigging. This is why these particular fishing hooks are so popular among bass fishermen. As a matter of fact you would be hard pressed to find a bass fisherman worth his or her salt that doesn’t have an assortment of worm hooks at the ready whenever they are fishing.
4. Salmon Egg Hooks These unique little fishing hooks are designed specifically for hooking and holding fragile salmon eggs as fishing bait. Obviously these hooks are most often used for trout fishing, as salmon eggs are a popular bait for hungry trout. No matter, there is little doubt that these specialized fishing hooks are the best when it comes to using salmon eggs as bait.

Whatever species of fish you choose to fish for or whatever type of bait you choose to use, the aforementioned fishing hooks are some of the best freshwater fishing hooks that are available to anglers. If you aren’t familiar with any of them, you should probably familiarize yourself sooner, rather than later.