For years now, I've been advocating the Zog Bend to create better exposure for the strike and fish-holding properties during the fight.

Saw Bob's recent piece in SSJ about bending the shank about 1/4 of the way from the eye.

Anybody else been doing this to their siwash hooks?

I've been bending mine for quite a few years for both salt water applications and river, I was missing a few fish while fishing hootchies from DR, and started bending the hooks and the catch ratio did go up.

Do you have to heat up the steel before making the bend so they don't break?

I'm a octopus hook fan on hoochies, but without exception, my spoons sport Gami open-eye siwash hooks and I've never broken one from bending it.

I always use a two axis bend on my siwash, resulting in a bend similar to the octo.

Offsetting the point to one side of the shank and decreasing the "gape" by increasing the bend results in a great hook-up to land ratio in my boat.

The shank bend is interesting and is something I will probably play around with.

I gotta admit that the hook Silver Horde is putting on their new Kingfisher Lites are worthy. That's the first stock hook that I've ever fished on a trolling spoon.

I have been doing the shank bend with siwash in conjunction with the Herzog bend for several years on my tadpollies and hot shots for steelhead and when pulling other plugs such as kwiks for salmon. It definitely helps, but its not the do all end all. You will still miss some fish, its just part of the game.

If you do the shank bend, make a careful check of the hook after landing large fish, you will weaken the steel a bit and make it more vulnerable to increased bending. I cant remember losing a fish to a broken hook, although some have been removed that looked like pretzels-

I've always bent my siwash hooks similiar to the way Bob shows. I puts the point of the hook in line with the direction of the pull, resulting in a more direct hook set. It holds fish better too in my opinion.

So if I don't buy SSJ, is anyone going to show me what Bob's shank bend looks like?

Sg

I've never put the bend in a si-wash,been told a million times to try it and never have.Never really needed to either,I'll try it some day.Good luck,
STRIKE ZONE

I'd never purposely put a bend in a tempered steel hook...and I'd use a hook that doesn't need one to hold a fish.

Fish on...

Todd

Stam?

Rico?

I have always bent those hooks as well, someone gave me that advice right from the beginning. The only hooks I have ever had break or bend are factory octopus style.

For siwash, other than Matzuo, I off-set the point and sometimes turn it back towards the shank a little. I'm not clear about how the shank is bent - up, down, sideways....????

What kind of hook might that be Todd?

i believe it is offset from the shank. say 3 degree orso.

One that's not a round bend siwash...

Fish on...

Todd

Try the river fisher hooks then you don't need the bend!

Bob acutely bends the top 1/4 of the siwash shank toward the point... kinda like this jig hook from Gamakatsu, but not nearly as long, and only 45 degrees of bend rather than 60.



I can see the mechanics of direct line vector and how that would be beneficial.

M-m-m-m-m......imagine that!

I know TRBO likes to use a treble hook on his spinners where legal. I have the new SSJ but can't copy the picture of the "bob bend" onto this site.


Your going to miss some fish (coho, steelhead) on spinners no matter how you rig the hook, its just due to the slashing nature of the strike.

IMHO kings especially the larger ones just come up behind the spinner, open up & eat em. Those fish I tend to hook solid, if they come off its due to a bad knot or a pull out.


These have been working pretty well for me, really good if you fish barbless.







Also like the Gami siwash in 1/0 -3/0 with the hand cranked offset bend, its a lighter wire hook than the Matzuo.



c/22