Hooks and Rigs

Fishing hooks at Charlie's Fishing: treble hooks, single hooks, offset hooks, dropshot, wacky and stinger hooks for predators

The hook is the smallest part of your setup and the one that decides whether a take becomes a fish in the net. On this page you find our fishing hooks for predator fishing: treble hooks to upgrade or replace the hooks on your hardbaits, inline single hooks, offset and Texan hooks for weedless softbaits, dropshot and wacky hooks for finesse fishing, jig hooks with a bait keeper, assist hooks and stinger rigs, and spare hooks for lure systems such as the Fiiish Black Minnow. They come from BKK, VMC, Gamakatsu, Toppies, Fiiish, Madotachi, Savage Gear, Illex and Rapala, for pike, zander, perch, black bass and sea bass. Below we explain what each hook type is for, and which size to pick for your lure and the fish you are after.

Treble hooks: upgrading and replacing the hooks on your hardbaits

Trebles get blunt, bent or rusty, and many anglers swap the factory hooks on a new jerkbait or crankbait straight away. The BKK treble hook Spear-21 SS is a fine wire treble with BKK's Super Slide coating: the thin wire gives a hardbait more freedom to move, and the coating helps the point slide in on a soft take. It runs from #8 to 3/0, with 5 to 8 trebles per pack depending on the size. The BKK Armorpoint Hyperlatch-71 SS is made of Hyper Carbon Steel with an extended needle point, Super Slide coating and an epoxy sealed eye, in #6 to 2/0, for jerkbaits and twitchbaits. Want a little extra colour at the back of your lure? The VMC UV Hooks Orange Round Treble and the VMC UV Hooks Assorted Round Treble (yellow and pink) are VMC 4551 trebles with a UV coating that stays visible in clear and murky water, 4 or 6 per pack. VMC uses them on lures such as the Rapala Soft Peto; read more in our Rapala Soft Peto guide.

When you replace a treble, start with the size the lure came with. A treble that is too big can catch the line or the other treble, and a heavier hook can change how a suspending jerkbait hangs in the water. As a rule of thumb: #8 to #6 on small perch crankbaits and minnows of about 5 to 7 cm, #4 to #2 on twitchbaits and jerkbaits of 8 to 12 cm, and #1 to 2/0 on big pike jerkbaits and glidebaits. Find the lures in Hardbaits, or go straight to Jerkbaits, Crankbaits & Twitchbaits and Topwaters.

Inline single hooks and split rings

An inline single hook has its eye turned in line with the point, so it sits straight behind the lure instead of sideways. The BKK IMP Single Hook is a forged inline single with a needle point, made to replace the trebles on hardbaits and metal lures. With one point instead of three it tends to snag less on weed and rocks, and it is quicker to unhook, which helps when you return your fish. It comes in #8 to #1, 10 per pack (9 in #1). Inline singles are popular on topwaters and metal jigs for sea bass; see Seabass and Metal Jigs and Spoons.

Most hooks are fixed to the lure with a split ring. For big lures and pike, the VMC Heavy Duty Split Ring is a stainless steel split ring in sizes 3 to 6, rated from 40 to 120 kg, 16 per pack. Opening a split ring with your fingernails is no fun, so use the Rapala Split Ring Plier: its shaped tip holds the ring open while you slide on a new treble. The Rapala Mag Spring Plier (15 cm, stainless steel, line cutter) is the all round plier for unhooking and cutting line. More snaps, swivels and split rings are in Small fishing tackle, and replacement parts for lures in Spare Parts.

Offset and Texan hooks for weedless softbaits

An offset hook has a bend just behind the eye. That bend holds the head of a softbait in place, while the point is tucked back into the body, so the rig comes through weed, wood and stones without snagging. On the strike the point pops out of the soft plastic and into the fish. This is the hook for the Texas rig, the Carolina rig and the cheburashka rig. The VMC Hook 7316 Texan Strong Wide Gap is a strong wide gape offset hook for worms, creature baits and craws, from 2 to 5/0, 5 per pack. The VMC Cheboo offset hook is light and strong, with a red stopper that keeps your softbait on the hook cast after cast; it runs from 4 to 5/0 and is made to combine with cheburashka weights. For big softbaits there is the BKK Titan Rider, a heavy weedless hook with a locking spring that holds swimbaits, tubes and creature baits in place without tearing them, from #1 to 8/0.

Pick the offset size by the thickness of your bait: the gap between the shank and the point must be wide enough for the body, so the point can come free on the strike. As a starting point, 2 to 1/0 for slim worms and craws of 5 to 8 cm, 1/0 to 3/0 for 8 to 12 cm softbaits, and 4/0 or bigger for bulky creature baits and big softbaits. Put a bullet weight or cheburashka from Weights in front, and choose a bait from Craws & Creature Baits, Ned's & Worms or the rest of our Softbaits. Our Frapp Dotty Dart article shows four rigs step by step, including the cheburashka and the Texas rig.

Dropshot and wacky hooks for finesse fishing

On a dropshot you hook a small softbait through the nose, so it hovers above the weight and moves with every small shake of the rod tip. The BKK Dropshot Hook Armorpoint is made of Hyper Carbon Steel with a needle point and Super Slide coating, and its shape keeps a nose hooked bait at the right angle; sizes #4 to 2/0. The VMC Dropshot Hook (VMC Light Dropshot 7119) is made of flat pressed vanadium steel with a locking curve, in 2, 1 and 1/0, and it pairs well with the Rapala CrushCity The Stingman. Read our CrushCity softbaits article on how to fish it.

With a wacky rig you hook a stick worm right through the middle, so both ends flutter as it sinks. The Gamakatsu Wacky Worm 318 has a wide gap and a round bend for softbaits up to 15 cm, sizes 2 to 3/0, 6 per pack. The Gamakatsu G-Finesse Weedless Wacky adds a flexible wire weed guard for wacky rigs around weed, jetties and other cover, in 1/0 and 3/0, 4 per pack. The BKK Predator WG is a wide gape finesse hook with a forged shank and a micro barb for both wacky and dropshot, #1 to 2/0, 6 per pack. For dropshot and wacky, size #2 to #1 suits most perch baits, and 1/0 to 2/0 suits bigger baits for zander and bass. Our HideUp finesse guide shows which baits we fish on these rigs, and you find the baits in Ned's & Worms, Perch and Black Bass.

Jig hooks with a bait keeper

A jig head is a hook with a weight moulded on, and a good keeper on the shank stops your softbait from sliding down after a few casts. The BKK Hyperlatch Round Jig Hooks have BKK's Hyperlatch keeper, which holds the softbait without tearing it, from 1/0 to 5/0 and 5 to 25 g, 3 per pack. The Toppies Tungsten Jighead is a small, dense tungsten head on a Mustad hook with a bait holder, 3.5 to 10.6 g. The VMC Bullet Jig has a forged hook with a locking curve, from 1 g on a #4 for perch to 28 g on a 5/0 for pike. For finesse fishing there is Charlie's Tungsten Ned Rig (2.8 g, 3 per pack), and for big Illex Dexter Shads and Dexter Eels the Illex Dexter Tip Up Head, a screw-in head with a ring for belly rigging. Which jig head weight and hook size to fish with which softbait is explained on our Jigheads page; our zander guide for beginners also covers it.

Stinger and assist hooks for softbaits

Pike and zander often hit the back of a softbait, where a jig hook does not reach. A stinger puts an extra treble in the belly of the bait. The VMC Pike Chain Rig carries a 2/0 Hybrid 1X treble on a chain of barrel swivels and split rings that pike teeth cannot bite through, in S (7.5 cm), M (9 cm) and L (10.5 cm). The BKK Chain Stinger Rig has BKK Spear-21 Super Slide trebles and Z shaped pins, in #1 to 3/0. The BKK BB Trigger-21 UVO Stinger Rig has a UV finish for deep, stained or dark water, with a clear size guide: 1/0 for softbaits of 18 to 22 cm, 2/0 for 22 to 26 cm, 3/0 for 26 to 30 cm and 4/0 for 30 cm and above. The VMC Pike Chain Double carries two trebles for softbaits from 16 cm upwards. For vertical and pelagic fishing, the BKK Assist Spear-21 SS Hooks are trebles with welded bait spikes that you push into the back of a shad, with all three points exposed, in 2 to 2/0. More rigs and sizes are in Rigs & Stingers, with the baits to go with them in Pike Softbaits and Pelagic. Our VMC Mustache Rig article shows a stinger on a pike bucktail.

Spare hooks for lure systems

Some lures have their own hook system, and only the matching hook fits. The Fiiish Black Minnow Spare Hooks Krog are the slightly offset, weedless spare hooks for the Fiiish Black Minnow, in N2 (90), N2.5 (105) and N3 (120), 4 per pack; see our Fiiish Black Minnow guide. The Madotachi Hooks for Soft Hanitas Crank 3 and Soft Hanitas 4 are weighted Ichikawa Muscle Hooks in 3/0, with 0.45, 1.3 or 2.6 g built in, 3 per pack, to fine tune the Soft Hanitas. The Savage Gear Line Thru Roach Rig is the replacement rig for the Savage Gear Line Thru Roach 25 and 32 cm, on Carbon49 wire with SGY-1X trebles. See the full ranges of Fiiish, Madotachi and Savage Gear Lures.

Which hook size for which lure and species

Hook sizes run two ways: from #8 up to #1 the hook gets bigger as the number gets smaller, and from 1/0 upwards it gets bigger as the number goes up. So a #8 is small and a 5/0 is big. As a starting point:

• Perch: trebles #8 to #4 on hardbaits of 5 to 8 cm, dropshot and wacky hooks #2 to #1, offset hooks 2 to 1/0
• Zander: dropshot hooks #1 to 1/0, offset hooks 1/0 to 3/0, jig hooks 1/0 to 3/0 for softbaits of 8 to 12 cm
• Pike: trebles #2 to 2/0 on jerkbaits and glidebaits, stingers 1/0 to 4/0 depending on the length of the softbait, a heavy weedless hook for big softbaits in weed
• Black bass: offset hooks 1/0 to 4/0 for Texas and Carolina rigs, wacky hooks 1/0 to 3/0
• Sea bass: inline single hooks on topwaters and metal jigs, Fiiish spare hooks for the Black Minnow

A few more tips: check your points after every snag, as a blunt hook costs more fish than any other part of the rig; replace rusty trebles; and match the wire to your rod and line, with fine wire for light finesse tackle and heavier, forged hooks for pike. Find the lures by species in Pike, Zander and Perch.

Which hook for which situation

• Upgrading the trebles on a jerkbait or crankbait: BKK treble hook Spear-21 SS
• A treble with extra colour in murky water: VMC UV Hooks Orange Round Treble
• Fewer snags and easier unhooking on hardbaits and metal jigs: BKK IMP Single Hook
• Texas and Carolina rig with craws and creature baits: VMC Hook 7316 Texan Strong Wide Gap
• Cheburashka rig along stone banks: VMC Cheboo offset hook
• Big softbaits weedless through weed beds: BKK Titan Rider
• Dropshot for perch and zander: BKK Dropshot Hook Armorpoint
• Wacky rig around cover: Gamakatsu G-Finesse Weedless Wacky
• Jig head that holds your softbait in place: BKK Hyperlatch Round Jig Hooks
• Pike on short takes with a big softbait: VMC Pike Chain Rig
• Vertical and pelagic fishing with a shad: BKK Assist Spear-21 SS Hooks

See the full hook ranges of BKK Hooks, VMC, Gamakatsu and Toppies, and all small parts in Terminal Tackle.

Why buy fishing hooks at Charlie's Fishing

We stock hooks in many sizes, and every product page lists the sizes and the number of hooks per pack, so you know what you order. Everything ships from our stock in the Netherlands, with fast delivery across Europe. Not sure which hook or size suits your lure? Send us a message and we are happy to help.

What size treble hook should I put on my lure?

Start with the size the lure came with. As a rule of thumb, #8 to #6 on small crankbaits and minnows of 5 to 7 cm, #4 to #2 on twitchbaits and jerkbaits of 8 to 12 cm, and #1 to 2/0 on big pike jerkbaits and glidebaits. Too big a treble can catch the line or the other hook.

What is an offset hook used for?

An offset hook rigs a softbait weedless: the bend behind the eye holds the head of the bait, and the point is tucked back into the body. It is the hook for the Texas rig, the Carolina rig and the cheburashka rig, so you can fish through weed, wood and stones.

Which hook should I use for dropshot?

Use a dropshot hook and hook the softbait through the nose, so it hovers and moves freely. Size #2 to #1 suits most perch baits, and #1 to 1/0 suits zander and bigger baits. The BKK Dropshot Hook Armorpoint and the VMC Dropshot Hook are both made for it.