Sickles failed me.

[LedHed]

My partner is running into a similar situation with Bluegill – especially last week. Tied up some #8s and he was complaining that he was dropping fish. Went out Saturday and used the same jig and didn’t seem to have the problem he was talking about. Sunday I hooked a really nice Bluegill, got him near to the boat and watch the jig drop out of his mouth. Don’t understand what I saw – had a pressure on – hook was fine. As sharp as these hooks are – shouldn’t take a whole lot to set the hook.

We’re starting to cant (bend the tip out slightly) the hooks now. Just sent back a 1000 bronze #8s. They have a flat top, with a burr) on the top of the eye – poured and painted a 100 before I noticed the problem – argh.

[skiptomylu]

I met the owner the other day of Matzuo hooks. We talked a good hour. He told me alot about the sickles and his other hooks.He had been in the hook business for years. Used to work with Eagle claw and designed the Lazer Hook they have He said the walleye guys first started using the sickles back in 2001 and it has just taken off.
Flatfish,,,,Did the hooks break or did they just get off because you did not set them hard enough. As sharp as they are I would not think you would have to set them very hard.
I plan to talk with him today and can ask him about it. Were these rainbow trout?

Well Dave if you talk to him tell him for me I really got tired of his hooks breaking during tying them. That' right, had a good many #4 Sickle hooks break while tying. Also would be nice if they stopped putting the barb on the side of the hook, lot of them like that too along with the eye not being closed.

I still use them more than any other hook just like I have the last 3 years, but it is getting old with their sorry QC.

Now I have to say that I have not had the same experience that Fish_4_All had.

Skip

[laserdoc]

Well Dave if you talk to him tell him for me I really got tired of his hooks breaking during tying them. That' right, had a good many #4 Sickle hooks break while tying. Also would be nice if they stopped putting the barb on the side of the hook, lot of them like that too along with the eye not being closed.

I still use them more than any other hook just like I have the last 3 years, but it is getting old with their sorry QC.

Now I have to say that I have not had the same experience that Fish_4_All had.

Skip

I will tell him about some of these problems/ Plan to call him in a few

[fish_4_all]

I set the hook the same on mine and the fish simply came off, spit it out, whatever when I got to the point I could bring them up to net them. As soon as the head went up in any way they spit it out and swam away.

Hook ups were more for my boys. They didn't have to set the hook really hard and being they are only 7 and 8 they have not quite yet got to the point where they really set a hook on a ultra light 5'6"-6' pole.

Either way, my boys had never lost a fish once I was able to get it turned and headed into the net head up. I had lost very, very few until the sickle jig hooks.

And they were rainbow trout ranging in size from 8 to 18 inches. No lip hooks counted in the lost fish. All the ones I counted I saw spit the hook. We lost a total of 13 fish on the sickle hooks yesterday.

I will have to try turning out the point a little on them and see if it helps.

Landed vs. hooked and fought fish with fly hooks, 10/11. Sickle hooks, 7/25. More hook ups though, fly hooks, maybe 50% bite to hook up. Sickles, 75% hook up or so. I will have to do a lot more fishing with them before I can really compare though. Hook size for one thing was a huge difference. #4 sickle, #10 fly hook. A we fished the sickle hook jig for about 2 more hours.

They were all hooked in the roof of the mouth the best I could tell.

Oh well, maybe trout are not the best fish to catch on sickle hooks. They do have different mouth structures and maybe that makes all the difference.

[LSUguy]

Wow that's weird, not really sure what to say besides maybe not enough back bone on the pole. I've had the exact opposite since using sickle hooks, i've always used the regular round hooks with my jigs and have lost too many to count with them... been using sickle hooks almost exclusively this year and have cut down the loss pretty substantially. I'm getting more upper lip hok ups on the bigger fish and getting 9/10 out of the water and onto my stringer now.

[Fatman]

Fish

I'd say take a look at the jigs where the trout were getting off. If you''re fishing trout in the same places I do then you're constantly checking to see if you dulled a hook tip off in the rocks. I don't care how chemically sharpened any hook is or how long they say it will stay sharp for but I always keep my hook sharpener around, do the nail test and if it doesn't stick give it a few licks with your stone or file.

Fatman

[grubfarmer67]

When ever I am not crappie fishing",I set the hook so hard", that the back fin ends up stuck in my forehead"!!!
I never have this problem w/the sickles."I fish trout w/ gold #8 matzuo sickles usually.The problems i usually have to face..."no pun intended..."is the inevitable gut hook"!

[fish_4_all]

The hooks is sharp, it was brand new and I don't hit any rocks with it. But I don't set the hook very hard either, never had to. I guess I need to set it harder.

Maybe I need to try a loop instead of clinch knot, maybe that was part of it.

Like I said, I get a lot more hook ups but I lost a lot more fish that I actually got to fight. Will be the end of the week before I get to try again but will try setting it harder or maybe setting it a second time, maybe that will help. I use ultra light rods and will be using the same thing for crappie so have to figure it out before I start losing crappie and bass with the same jigs.

[flatfish46]

Heres the problem the wide gap of the sickle and the narrow mouth width of a smaller trout does not allow for proper hook placement upon set your proably lipping them at best a trout mouth cannel is shorter also it dosn't allow for the hook to fully straighten if it's turned in his mouth you need to be using 8's 6 's max Fish I'll shipp you some in the A.M.You won't have this problem with paper mouth's I was banging them with 1/0's today on a proto type bait I'm working on.

[fish_4_all]

Sounds like that might be the problem. All of them simply spit the hook. lift up to net them and open mouth and hook flies at head. But it did make sure I stayed on my toes to keep them from hitting me in the forehead. Much appreciated FF46.

Will make sure I post if it makes a difference.