Matsuo Sickle Baitholder Hooks?

[hawkoath]

Has anyone tried the Matsuo sickle baitholder hooks? I've been fishing for rainbow trout and steelhead using power eggs and a egg sinker and have been having terrible luck recently. In terms of fish landed to decent bites the last two fishing outings have been 6/24 and 1/6. I mainly use Gamakatsu size 8 baitholders and have tried up to size 4 as the fish I am fishing for are usually around 12" and up. I've tried several ways of timing the pull along with hook sizes and even hook colors and can't seem to keep the fish on the hook or hook it solidly in the first place for some reason. My experience with sickle hooks has been that they are extra, extra sharp but they break relatively easy and I was wondering if anyone has had any experience with these particular ones.

[maxpowers]

I am going to assume you mean Matzuo. The hooks themselves are not bad, but I find they bend/break very easily (across all their products). I have used these hooks and other products of theirs in the past, but really didn't like the fact that the hook was not the same shape after a big fish or a snag of some kind (when using their jigheads). Just my 0.02, for what it's worth, I found them sharp hooks that did their job well in every other aspect

[hawkoath]

Thanks for the reply. That's my experience as well. I'm going to have to purchase they are and maybe just throw them away after a successful outing. Right now durability doesn't matter so much as keeping the fish hooked.

[hawkoath]

So I decided to just go and buy it since the price was extremely cheap. After opening them though it turned out that the Gamakatsu were actually just as sharp. Surprisingly the sickle baitholders seem much thicker compared to other hooks or just as thick when normal sickle hooks are thinner. Anyhow I think I'll save them for when I'm bobber fishing.

[hawkoath]

An update on the Matsuo Sickle Baitholder Hooks. After using them for several trips I realized several negative things about the hooks. First off they are not any sharper than regular Gamakatsu and might be worse negating any advantage to having a sickle hook configuration and getting more hook into the mouth. Secondly, the angle of the hook points down too much causing a significant chance of missing a solid hookup (my hookup ratio went extremely down after using them) and you literally have take a pair of pliers and bend them open more. Thirdly, and this might or might not be a disadvantage but the hook is a lot heavier than Gamakatsu (comparing the same size hooks not necessarily stated size as Gamakatsu and Matsu hooks have different sizing charts). Fourth, they aren't as fragile as other bigger Matsuo sickle hooks but they are much more fragile than the Gamakatsu I usually use. Fifth, one hook out of the 25 had a half circular hole in it for some reason. Anyways, I'll save these hooks to give away.

[hawkoath]

Update. After bending the hooks I again took the hooks to a secret body of water for some real life testing and lo and behold the hook up ratio has dramatically increased to the point where I didn't lose a single fish. Now, hopefully the durability of the hook will prove itself as well...

[maxpowers]

Update. After bending the hooks I again took the hooks to a secret body of water for some real life testing and lo and behold the hook up ratio has dramatically increased to the point where I didn't lose a single fish. Now, hopefully the durability of the hook will prove itself as well...

I should have said that in my earlier post too. I find bending the hooks a bit adds to the hookup ratio, but they seriously had issues with breaking, bending and their shape. My 0.02 is there are much better hooks out there for the same price that you don't have to worry about. It's just not a confidence piece of terminal tackle for me.

Glad to hear you're catching em though!

[hawkoath]

Yeah, I feel the same. Unfortunately, I have 100 of them sitting around so I might as well use them. On the plus side they are a lot more durable comparatively speaking than Matsuo's other sickle hooks but their long term durability has yet to be fully tested. ..

[maxpowers]

They're not the worst thing ever, but they're also not the best.....

If you're stuck with them, I'm sure you'll make do