Have you ever wanted to drag a bait through a stretch of river that has some gnarly looking timber and cover that you know has a big flathead sitting in it? You know if you drag a bait anywhere near that cover you will be instantly hung up and end up busting off. What if you could improve your odds a bit – I’m not promising you won’t get hung up but it might be worth a try. If we can keep your hook’s point protected until the fish hammers your bait and buries the hook in his jaw then you’ve got a fighting chance to win the battle.
The challenge is you need a big sharp circle hook that gets set by the fish as he takes your bait. You don’t set the hook – you let him inhale your bait and then the circle hook does the rest. We need a BIG weed guard style hook – trouble is most weed guard style hooks are small hooks not made for the kind of heavy cover and big baits we use.
With all of that in mind I set out to make a nice big 10/0 circle hook weedless/snagless. I wanted a BIG hook that will drag a BIG bait in heavy cover without getting hung up. Here is what I came up with and a few pictures to show how I make them. It is pretty simple actually and after making a few you will find you can make them fairly quickly.
Here is what you will need to make a Snagless 10/0 Circle Hook:
Hooks: I use Mustad Ultrapoint 10/0 Demon Perfect Circle Hooks (39951NP-BN)
Wire Guard: I use a six inch piece of AFW Surflon Nylon Coated 1X7 Stainless Steel Leader Wire 90 lb Test Black
Line for tying wire to hook: Any line will work – I use some 30# test Power Pro Moss Green that I found lying around. Any line or thread will do.
Superglue: You will need to put a few dabs of superglue on the hook threads.
Heat Shrink: I like red. I use a ½ inch or so of 1/4” – 1/8” red Heat Shrink Tubing.
Here is the build with some photos:
Step #1: Take the 6” piece of Nylon Coated wire and double it up and run it through the front eye of the hook and have it lay along the shank of the hook as shown in the picture. I hook the curve of the wire behind the barb of the hook to temporarily help hold it in place.
Step #2: I take about a 12” piece of the Power Pro line and I pinch that in my finger on the shank of the hook. Once I have everything kind of lined up, I release the loop from behind the barb and move the loop out of the way so I can wind the Power Pro around and around the hook shank to hold the Nylon Coated Wire in place.
Step#3: Make it a nice tight wrap from the back of the hook to the front and back so it holds down the wire. When you have it wrapped nice and tight – take the superglue and put it along the wrapped line on the hook. Put glue on the top, sides and bottom.
Step #4: Snip about a ½” of the red Heat Shrink and slide it over the point of the hook. If you make it too long it won’t slide over the hook point so you may have to play with it to get it to fit. Once it is on, slide it up the shank of the hook to cover the threads but not too far to be in the way of the eye of the hook.
Step #5: I use a heat gun but you can use a lighter or candle to heat and shrink the red heat shrink over the threads. Don’t try to just use the heat shrink to hold the wire on the hook. I tried that – the heat shrink is not strong enough to hold the wire in place and it stretches the heat shrink and tangles up. Also just try to heat the heat shrink and avoid heating the nylon coated wire as best you can. My heat gun on a low setting worked perfectly.
Step #6: Move the loop back behind the barb and you are done. You don’t have to leave the wire behind the barb – the weedless hook should work fine even when in front of the barb. There is play in the guard and you can kind of push it and pry it to fit to your liking.
There you go – Go catch a BIG Flathead!! I have 8 photos that I will attach – it may take a couple of posts to fit the pictures in
Attachments:
Snagless-1.jpg
Snagless-2.jpg
