Steve Vaughan wrote;

Could you recommend what size hook to use with 18mm baits, I’ve been using size 8 but find i am missing lots of runs on this size

Hi Steve

That’s not quite as simple a question to answer as a lot of people might think, and it certainly isn’t straight forward.

Firstly it depends on the hook itself, as each manufacturer seems to make up their own sizes and they vary immensely. Unfortunately there isn’t a national standard hook size to work from. For example a size 6 Korda long shank is dimensionally a much bigger hook than say a Drennan super specialist of the same size.

I personally carry a huge selection of hooks, yet I generally only use perhaps 3 or 4 of these in various sizes.

Another important aspect is the length of hair and alignment used. By this I mean that a longer hair will react differently in a carps mouth than a short hair. Also a simple no Knot Knot will react slightly differently to a shrink tube aligned hook, due to the way the hook tuns in the fishes mouth.

If I had to give a size hook that I would use with an 18mm bait then my choice’s would be either a size 6 Korda Long shank X or a size 4 Drennan super specialist.

There are exceptions to this though as another thing worth considering is weed, snags, gravel bars etc and in these situations I may step up a size of hook.

I generally use shrink tubing with my rigs and fish with a Kicker ( shrink tubing that extends over the eye of the hook and points inwards to the hook point )

I hope this has been of help, please feel free to contact me through Quest baits if you have any other queries

Cheers, Jamie

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