Do you ever sharpen your hooks? (because I can’t recall seeing a bass lure angler doing so when they are actually fishing)

You might have picked up from this blog that specific instances from fishing sessions tend to inform and influence my thinking a lot of the time. Bass in January are often more than possible around here, but with winter weather and conditions it’s not exactly a given, so any fish we might catch in January do feel extra special with what it can take to get hooked up. It was January a few winters ago which made me start thinking about something so simple and obvious, but because modern hooks these days are so incredibly sharp out of the box or packet I hadn’t really given it much thought……………

The lad I was fishing with hooked up one morning in early January in some stunning conditions, from a specific part of the reef he knows exactly how to target, but the bass came off after a few headshakes. A bit later on he went and hooked up again, but once again the bass came off. From memory the lure was the mullet coloured Tackle House Feed Shallow which I know this lad really likes in winter on the reefs especially, but two bass almost one after the other in January and they both came off? Something didn’t feel quite right.

So I asked if I could see his lure to try and see if anything was a bit off. We are never going to remain hooked up to every fish we ever hook, but it was some bloody good fishing by this lad to hook up to two bass in the one session in January. The fact that both fish came off didn’t wash with me, and because it’s the way my brain works I wanted to see if I could find some sort of explanation. I know that fishing is fishing and stuff often happens without us having a clue as to why, but I took a look at his lure and straight away I saw what I thought the problem was.

Blunt hooks, and I mean hooks so blunt that I could literally not stick them into my thumb. This is not remotely meant to be a pop at this lad because he’s a good mate and he’s a very skilful bass angler. Nope, it’s me recognising that our lures and therefore their hooks get a good old hammering, but perhaps because all hooks these days are so ridiculously sharp out of the packet I wonder if it even occurs to us that their points can actually go blunt over time. How often do you check your hook points and do you carry something with you to sharpen them if needs be? Surely with the relatively light tackle we use which then needs to drive hook points into the mouth of a fish at what could sometimes be fairly long range, then hook points as sharp as possible make perfect sense? Which can be easily missed I might add.

I was trying out some deeper water yesterday afternoon and I snagged a 20g Savage Gear 3D Jig Minnow up on the bottom. I managed to pull it free and then I eased the one hook on the treble back which had opened out slightly (gotta love the FG knot) - but I didn’t check the hookpoint, indeed it wasn’t until I was putting the lures back into the box after washing them that I ran my finger over the hookpoint and noticed that the point had bent over a bit as well, and now it’s what I would call blunt. I will now sharpen it up of course, but it niggles me that I hadn’t automatically checked the hook point after getting the lure back when I was actually fishing.

So perhaps with hard lures which are festooned with two or three sets of treble hooks the odd blunter hook point might matter so much, but I would politely decline to agree with that statement because why the hell not make sure all your hooks are really sharp when who the hell knows which hook point might make all the difference at the end of the day? How often do you replace damaged hooks as well? And of course we can’t not talk about soft plastics here…………..

I don’t know about you, but I fish with soft plastics way more than I could ever have envisaged when I first started getting into bass fishing and I knew literally nothing about them. If I look at any of the soft plastics I turn to for bass or pollack or wrasse fishing then they are all based around that one single hook, whether it be a weedless or J-hook design. I really like the one single hook approach, but we are relying on that one single hook to impale itself in the mouth of a fish. Come on then, be honest here - how often do you check the hook points on your single hooks, and once again, do you carry a means of sharpening them if needs be?

Yep, as with treble hooks, any single hooks I press into use are all incredibly sharp out of the packet or pre-rigged in a soft plastic, but now think about bumping say the Sandeel V2 Weedless along the bottom. Do it a lot and you are obviously going to damage the look of the jig head, but how often do you check the point on the hook? I can’t remember the last time I lost a weedless hook which I would use on the Gravity Sticks, but as handy as this is with minimising tackle losses, to me it means that even more I need to keep a close eye on the hook points - and sharpen them up on a regular basis.

I know that this is some seriously obvious stuff here, but when did you last sharpen your hooks and/or see another angler doing so? Perhaps you all go home after fishing and sharpen your hooks up, but even if you do, do you also carry some sort of simple sharpener with you when you go fishing so you can check hooks as you change lures and sharpen if required? If it’s any help I carry a really simple and really rather cheap hook sharpener like this one here with me all the time - it lives in my lure bag which sits at my side - and then I went on Veals Mail Order and found another couple of hook sharpeners as well. The Tronixpro Diamond Hook Sharpener is here and the Rapala Hook Sharpener is here. Nice and simple and cheap but surely vital? You all have a good weekend and please wish us luck here at home because on Saturday night we’ve got a load of teenagers around for my eldest girl’s 18th birthday party! Yep, I did contemplate inventing a very last minute guiding job over in Ireland…………….

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