A while back Todd mentioned that I should try out some of the "sickle" style hooks while fishing for salmon in the salt. I saw how well they worked on a river coho trip with him last fall and was curious about their use on a downrigger. I used them exclusively this the first two days out of NB and found a couple of things:

They hold fish extremely well. I can only think of one release off my rigger where the fish was gone. That is a very high hook up rate. If I had to guess, I'd say at least one in four usually are gone, maybe higher.. I may have lost one salmon where the hook slipped in both days fishing. Again, my normal rate would be significantly higher. I used the sickle siwash on my spoons, and the octo's on the hootchies. Caught most fish on the hootchies. For the sake of "testing" my friend was only using regular gami octos. He lost way more fish both off the release and during the fight. This is in no way conclusive as he is somewhat a little rough around the edges to put it nicely.

The only downside I can see for saltwater applications are, first off, they are very difficult to unbutton. I found the standard dowel type hook releaser difficult to use with these hooks. You cant get the right leverage very easy because of the "hard corners" on the sickle section of the hook. Secondly, the flat section between the corners often pins flush to the fish's jaw making it tough to get hold of with pliers. I found myself using my fingers mainly. The octos were tougher to unhook than the siwash. With the siwash the spoon gave me something to hold while trying to unhook them.

So in summary, so far, great fish holding properties, almost too good for selective fisheries.

I am going to continue to use them and see if I can trouble shoot the dehooker issue. One thing I may try is to use a single siwash off a barrel swivel on my hootchies when coho are thick. I think the siwash will give me a better surface for the pliers to grab over the octos. I'm also wondering if a dehooker that has slight corners lke the sickle hook instead of the standard rounded ones would work better with these hooks. If nothing else, it gives me a reason to fish and tinker with gear!

Thanks for the report, elkrun...there are a handful of other guys using them out there this summer, and I hope to hear more success stories like that while using barbless hooks on downriggers...a notoriously easy way to miss strikes.

Fish on...

Todd

I just got mine today and can't wait to get them on my spinners. They look awesome! Thanks Todd!

~steelymann~

Have fun closing them.....

Yep, they take the BIG PLIERS to close em.. thats for sure. I cant see one of these breaking.

What size hooks were you running?

Just curious as to what the "ideal" sickle* hook would be when using a hootchier/dodger combo?

Normally, I run a 4/0 octopus hook.

Also, what about rusting?

Nice tech report.Good luck,
STRIKE ZONE

Was thinking of trying them on some spoons off the rigger myself.

So far I've broke two while closing them when putting them onto spoons (be careful). Both of the hooks that broke were the 1/0. I think I was trying to close the eye further than I needed to.

There's the chink in the armor, they rust and fast. I ran 4/0, and 5/0 off plugs and fly's last year coated with a mixture off anise and w/d before going overboard, rinsed them well when I got home and they still rusted. When they come out in stainless I won't use anything else.

So how about it Todd.......any stainless on the horizon? Curious more than anything.

Rust is a good thing in a selective barbless hook marine fishery.

First off, if you break a fish off, the hook will eventually rust away in the salt.

Second, the rust is a good thing as it creates additional surface texture that resists having a barbless hook slide out. That means more fish to the boat.

And thirdly, it's good job security for T-Rip and rvrfshr.... dadgummit, somebody's gonna have to buy replacement hooks at some point.

Elk - rather than risk breaking the hook why not use a small slip ring to hold it on?

Had no problem closing them. But then again they were size 1's and I do had rather large forearms from watching all the fish porn here!

Popped the eyes on a couple of 3/0 Siwash. Kind of brittle but quickly figured out I didn't need use that much pressure. Nice that the barb tends to break off when crimping it down. Will be trying the hooks in Canada next week.

I love the Mustad 9517XXX for rigging hootchies and bucktails. If Todd can get some bigger hooks (6/0 and 7/0) they would be just the ticket for rigging hootchies, plugs, and larger spoons.

Ya hear that, Ripley? I mean, do ya hear that?

Come again, bushbear.

I used 3/0 octo's for the hootchies. 3/0 for coyotes, and 2/0 for coho killers. The siwash are very heavy gauge wire and while I would have preferred 3/0 on the killers, I was worried the heavy hooks might dampen the action. Like I said, I had no complaints on the hook up ratio, it was through the roof. As for the rusting, I dont know yet. Todd mentioned something about a coating that would help, but they are not stainless so they will rust. I was asked to test for holding ability, especially those moments right after release. They did that very well. A stainless hook would be the way to go down the road if they choose to make them for saltwater applications. I'll know and post more as the summer goes on and I can play around with them.

SJ- I'm not sure I know what you're asking... But we were talking about crimping down siwash hooks. They come open eyed out of the package and you have to close the eye with pliers before you do anything with them. I rig all my spoons with a split ring and a barrell swivel, then close the siwash on the swivel. It keeps the fish from gaining leverage when they twist and either bending the hook, or ripping it out. I think the salmon university site has a diagram on making that modification.

I hear ya on the big sizes, and on the stainless possibilities...I probably don't see going stainless on the horizon, but can see not only bigger hooks, but bigger hooks in a few novel configurations...FnP has already sat down with me and helped me diagram out some possibilities.

For anyone who hasn't participated in it before, having modifications made to existing hook designs is about as easy as doing quantum physics on your fingers...it takes forever, costs a ton of money, and is generally a pain in the ass...but we've done it before, and I suspect we'll do it again...keep an eye out for factory barbless sickle hooks next

Thanks for the reports and tests, guys...I appreciate it.

Fish on...

Todd

i have never lost a fish while using sickle hooks. by far my favorite hook for spoons, spinners, and trolling/casting cut plugs herring for salmon.

Me neither.

Of course a bigger sample size than 4 fish (1 fall chinook, 3 coho) might make my case a bit more convincing.