So I was wondering if Matzuo has stepped up with their sickle hooks or are they still crap? I had really good luck with the rvrfshr sickle hooks two years ago both octos and siwoosh.

Anyone tried trokars octopus hooks yet? There expensive but I thought I might give em a try.

Check out gamakatsu's sickle/octopus hooks. i think they're new. they're called big river bait hooks if i remember right but its a sickle/octopus. I tried them out at the end of winter run and loved them.

I am switching all of my king sized plugs with single hooks over to Gamy Big River Bait hooks. They are wicked and have been around for a while.

As for the Matzuo sickles, I have used them happily for quite a few years now with no real complaints. I have broken a few when wrenching then out of jawbones with pliers, but have yet to have one break due to anything other than my laziness and haste. I like the thinner wire as it seems to hook more fish than a thicker gauged hook of the same size.

Hmm to bad their not making those Gamys in any smaller sizes but yea there lookin good. Thanks for the info!

Matzuo hooks are pretty decent in my opinion. I like their jig sickle hooks a lot better than the gami jig hooks. I always bend the gami's. The normal octopus gami hooks are great quailty tho.
My favorite hooks are the mustad ultra points, not sure if they have a sickle hook line yet tho

I love the sickle octopus hooks especially barbless. Never buried a hook deeper in the roof of a kings mouth before. Unfortunately, the quality ones are hard to find now.

Been thinking about trying the VMC 7356 to see if they have the same holding power with the similar curve. I wish they made the barbarian jig hooks in smaller sizes.

Mustad also makes a sickle design now, 412NP-BN. Nothing smaller than 2/0 though. Haven't been able to find them to try them. Not even sure they are sold in the US.

Save a few plugs for the open-eye sickle that Gamakatsu will be releasing soon. Maybe you'll get to stick a Kenai MEGA-hawg with one this summer.

Word. Counting on you to help me with that.

I've only really had one true Kenai beast on the line, and it won, no contest.

Love the matzu sickle siwash for my hootchiee spinners for coho,other than that I don't use'em.I also thought about switching some k15's over to the gami big river single hooks.Good luck,
SZ

Hang in there guys!!!

Winterun

I was a big fan of the matzuo sickle siwash hooks for a while. I put them on all of my plugs, spinners and spoons and then something changed in their process and they became too brittle. I started having breakage issues with the open eyes. They would crack when crimped, a few failed when crimping, but worse I had several fail with fish on. I was stubborn because those hooks had worked really well for me for a while, but after close to a dozen failures on fish I decided to switch out. When bending the eye open with my split ring needlenose I had close to a 70% breakage rate. The 1/0 and 2/0 seemed to be the worst I think the 3/0's were more durable, but in any case I'm done with them. I've switched back to gami siwash and I'm trying the mustad ultrapoint. I haven't used the mustad's long enough to make a conclusion, but I like the factory offset and the greater than 180 curve that should result in less fish lost. My only concern is that is might also reduce hookups. I will be waiting for the arrival of the gami sickle siwash because IMO that design is hard to beat.