Well, I'm a firm believer in the those hooks. The sickle siwash, get most of 'em from RVFSHR. They be good hooks. Have I broken any? Yes. But, never on a fish. If you use the pliers that are grooved for crimping stuff, put the eye of the hook in and firmly squeeze together, no breakage, if you use plane old non-grooved pliers, and the hook is not straight in them, and slips when you crimp down, you'll sometimes break the eye. But, would you rather have a few broken hooks or more bite and sticks in the water????, I say more clean hookups is more important than a few dry land breakeges. I know there was a batch lesser quality strength hooks a while back, but they've gotten it fixed, and luckily I never had any of those. But they are good quality hooks for sure and do stick fish well. Nearly 1oo% on blackmouth last year, pretty impressive results on everything else this year.