Rather liking these (heavier belly-weight) OMTD Big Swimbait Weighted Hooks

Back in early 2022 when I found out that you could get weedless hooks with somewhat heavier belly-weights than I was used to, it was mainly the Berkley Fusion19 Weight Swimbait Hooks which I ended up using the most. My understanding is that these rather good hooks are now discontinued though. If you look around and you will be able to find various heavier belly-weight weedless hooks, and a while back at that huge Big One Show I came across an alternative from the Italian brand OMTD though. Called the Big Swimbait Weighted Hook, I got some to try……………

If I don’t need more than 2g or 3g belly-weights then I am going to turn to what are essentially my perfect weedless hooks, the Savage Gear 4/0 (2g) and 6/0 (3g) Weedless Corkscrew hooks that we made for the two different sizes of Gravity Sticks. You may have noticed that there are a few different names for this style of weedless hook where you have a little metal corkscrew - also known as a hitchhiker - which screws into the front of whatever soft plastic you have chosen to fish with. It might well be easier to go with the US name for this style of hook, so let’s call them swimbait hooks for now. A lot of soft plastic paddletails are called swimbaits in the US, and because these hooks I believe were initially designed for swimbaits, I guess they came to be called swimbait hooks.

The OMTD Big Swimbait Weighted Hook 7/0 (1/2oz) 14g with the original size Savage Gear Gravity Stick Paddletail

You can usually find various swimbait style hooks with heavier than normal belly-weights on them, but to be honest I have been doing just fine with the now discontinued Berkley ones, plus some stuff we were working on a while back. I lose very few weedless hooks when I am fishing for bass but of course I need to look ahead now that the Berkley versions are no more - hence my interest in the good looking OMTD Big Swimbait Weighted Hook I saw at that show. I do like a wider gape on my weedless hooks especially when fishing with certain types of soft plastics - deeper-bodied paddletails etc. - and you get that with these OMTD hooks. I also like the large eye on the hooks because this plays nice with the corkscrew and a lure clip if you choose to use one. The point on these hooks is pronounced and wicked-sharp, but it’s up to us to carry a hook sharpener with us and touch them up as required (how many of you actually keep an eye on your hook points AND carry a hook sharpener with you? This one here permanently lives in the pockets of my BCWs).

The OMTD Big Swimbait Weighted Hook 4/0 (1/4oz) 7g with the Savage Gear Craft Bleak 12cm

The only thing I don’t like about these particular OMTD hooks so far is the actual corkscrew which each hook comes supplied with. I don’t find it particularly easy to screw it into many of the soft plastics I would use with these hooks, so I take it off and replace it with either one of the corkscrews from the Savage Gear hooks, or these Seadra ones here - slightly smaller corkscrews, and with that easy to use centering pin which does actually make a difference. I always wash my gear down in freshwater after I have been fishing, but with how much we use hooks, they are going to have to show signs of rust over time. Some hooks rust up faster than others, but with how much use I put these components through I am pretty happy with what I use. Time will tell how long these OMTD Big Swimbait Weighted Hooks last on that front, but to be honest I’m just going to keep on fishing with them and see where I get. Hooks get a hammering and I think back to my bait days when I would often only get a single session out of my hooks before binning them.

So for the moment that seems to be me sorted on the belly-weight swimbait style hooks - either the Savage Gear ones we did for the Gravity Sticks, any of the Berkley ones I have left for when I need a heavier weight, and now these OMTD Big Swimbait Weighted Hooks. Available in the sizes and weights above - up to a whopping 11/0 with a 21g bellyweight! - I have found that the 7/0 is good with the bigger, original Savage Gear Gravity Sticks (140mm), the 5/0 plays nice with the smaller 120mm Gravity Sticks, and either the 4/0 or 5/0 is good with the 120mm Savage Gear Craft Bleak paddletail which got me that big March 2024 bass. I use the Savage Gear Slender Scoop Shads a good bit with a cheb weight setup these days, but for the 13cm and 15cm versions of these killer lures I am happy with either these 4/0 or 5/0 OMTD hooks. There is also a regular, non belly-weight version which is called the OMTD OH2400 Big Swimbait Hook, and like the belly-weight version they also go from a 2/0 all the way to an 11/0. They remind me a bit of the rather nice BKK Titan Worm Hook. You all have a good weekend, I am so hoping that the forecast is correct and the onshore conditions do come in on Monday to get my coastline bouncing a bit…………….

The OMTD Big Swimbait Weighted Hook 5/0 (1/4oz) 7g with the Savage Gear Gravity Stick Pulsetail 120

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