Over the years I’ve settled on my favorite hooks. I use a round-bend Gamakatsu worm hook in various sizes for soft-plastics. For hard baits I like the Daiichi Death Trap round-bend trebles. The only other hooks I use on occasion are Roboworm rebarb hooks. A lot of guys will take hooks out of their packages and keep them in storage boxes sectioned off according to size and type. Not me; I keep the hooks in their original packages in a storage box until after I use one. Then I put it in a box with other loose hooks that I’ve used. I do this because of hook corrosion. As long as a new hook is in a plastic bag and you can keep air away from it, the better the chances that it won’t start to corrode or become dull.
When air and moisture or humidity mix and are allowed to touch a hook, it’s contaminated – it starts to rust. So if I’m practicing for a tournament and use a hook, I’ll put in a box with other practice hooks. In the tournament, I’ll use a fresh hook out of the bag every time, and I’ll check the hook point frequently. With trebles, I only put new hooks on my jerkbaits or crankbaits when the tournament begins; otherwise, in practice I use the hooks that came on the lure or the ones that I used in the previous tournament. In practice, I’m not so interested in catching fish as finding them. In a tournament, I want every hook to be as sharp a possible because I don’t want it to be the cause of me losing a fish.
—- Pringles pro Vic Vatalaro, Kent, Ohio