The best hook for Texas/Wacky Rig Senko

[thomaskgrosvenor]

I have been using a 2/0 EWG offset shank worm hook for wacky rigging and texas rigging either 4 or 5 inch senkos. It is effective and my question is not in regard to plain effectiveness. My concern lies with hooking smaller large mouth and small mouth bass. Being as one can’t control the size of the Bass that hits their lure, I am wondering if there is a better hook to use that will accommodate various sized Bass. The bigger ones I catch, I have hooked correctly through the mouth. But on occasion, with the smaller ones biting the hook with the extra wide gap, sometimes the hook point will go up through what seems to be the forehead or through the eye or around the eye through the eye socket. I have just recently started removing the barbs from the hooks, which makes removal much easier, particularly with the near eye penetrations. But still, I’d like to hear what conscientious bass anglers have to say about this. I would prefer to use an effective hook that minimizes the aforementioned types of hooksets on the smaller bass but is still effective for the bigger ones.
Also any comments on hook-setting would be welcomed as well. I think my hook setting is pretty good in that I never setting the hook in the gut area of the fish I am catching. But again, I would like to avoid hooking the smaller ones around the eye socket. Thanks.

[stevejordan]

gamakatsu octopus

[Chrisper4694]

i'm pretty partial to the owner whacky rig hooks. they have a straight eye so i can use a palomar knot and the shape just seems to work perfectly at holding the worm with an o ring and hooking the fish, i very rarely miss a hit. set the hook almost immediately (unless you have super human reflexes haha) any bass worth catching pretty much sucks that worm down in one and sometimes two gulps. if you feel more than that it's probably a sunfish (like a little rapid fire hitting)

I use the gamakatsu hooks too, but i've only seen ones with the bent eye, which should be snelled on your line to get the right angle when setting the hook. If you're torn between two sizes go with the bigger. I think mine are 1/0 or 2/0.

[logs22]

Originally Posted by thomaskgrosvenor

I have been using a 2/0 EWG offset shank worm hook for wacky rigging and texas rigging either 4 or 5 inch senkos. It is effective and my question is not in regard to plain effectiveness. My concern lies with hooking smaller large mouth and small mouth bass. Being as one can’t control the size of the Bass that hits their lure, I am wondering if there is a better hook to use that will accommodate various sized Bass. The bigger ones I catch, I have hooked correctly through the mouth. But on occasion, with the smaller ones biting the hook with the extra wide gap, sometimes the hook point will go up through what seems to be the forehead or through the eye or around the eye through the eye socket. I have just recently started removing the barbs from the hooks, which makes removal much easier, particularly with the near eye penetrations. But still, I’d like to hear what conscientious bass anglers have to say about this. I would prefer to use an effective hook that minimizes the aforementioned types of hooksets on the smaller bass but is still effective for the bigger ones.
Also any comments on hook-setting would be welcomed as well. I think my hook setting is pretty good in that I never setting the hook in the gut area of the fish I am catching. But again, I would like to avoid hooking the smaller ones around the eye socket. Thanks.

I have always had problems setting hook using a size 2 with a senko, I only use that size for a narrower finesse worm when Texas rigging. Generally for 5" senkos Texas riig I use a 3 or even a 4 EWG offset. With a 2 I feel like not enough gap between the hook and worm because often I would go to set a hook when I waited beyond strike to make sure it was fully taken by the fish and would end up with a hook flying out of water back at me because rather than set it ripped cleanly out of the mouth. Is my hook set off? Do others use 3-4 size hooks on 5" senkos? I have had issue of deep hooksets on smaller fish but nothing I couldn't carefully remove.

[justin1982]

I feel I get a better hook set with 3/0-4/0 ewg

[thomaskgrosvenor]

I gather the extra wide gap of the EWG hook is what causes the hook point to get in deeper on the smaller bass (around the eye socket for example). The owner whacky rig hooks and gamakatsu octopus look like they would alleviate my problem when wacky rigging.

But how about when texas rigging. With all the vegetation I encountered over the summer, I found myself texas rigging more often. I think the EWG hook seems to be the optimum hook for texas rigging. Can you manage a weedless texas rig with an octopus hook or a hook that does not have the wide gap of the EWG hook?

[acabtp]

i like the gamakatsu g-lock hooks usually in 2/0 for texas rig

[briansnat]

For T-rig on most plastics I use a 3/0 or 4/0 EWG worm hook (usually Gamakatsu). I'll go down to 2/0 for the smaller plastics like the shorter Senkos and up to 5/0 for the jumbo 10" plus worms


For wacky it's a 1/0 Gama octopus.

[Sleeper-6]

I'm not picky about the hooks I use for Texas rigging, Usually I go with a 3/0 - 5/0 EWG Gamakatsu because they are available pretty much everywhere.

For wacky rigging with a o-ring and drop shotting I have been using 1/0 to 2/0 circle style hooks. Not sure what brand, I think they are either VMC or Trokar. Since I switched to the circles I haven't had any gut hooks when I get a little slow on recognizing the bite.

[Heronimo42]

For wacky, I use owner non-offset circle hooks, usually size 2 or 1. For T-Rig, only the Owner CPS hooks for me.