This week we take 5 branded carp hooks and make them go head to head in a series of tests to see which hook reigns supreme.

Each hook will endure a strength test, an underwater corrosion test, a sharpness and quality test out of the packet.

This test will also take into consideration price as this is an important factor when choosing a hook.

The reason this test came about, was after a discussion on hook brands with a few regular readers of the blog.

After searching the web for a similar test I found nothing and this is most likely due to carp magazines and website having strong ties with most big tackle brands. If a hook had bad results in a comparison test this would ruin any advertising features with that brand in the future.

This tackle blog is lucky as it’s always been independent in any views and is not biased to any tackle brand, just a carp angler that loves talking about carp fishing tackle.

The hooks going head to head this test are the following:

Fox Edges Arma Point Curve Shank Hooks

Nash Fang Twister Hooks

Drennan Super Specialist Barbel Hooks

ESP Cryogen Curve Shanx Hooks

Korda Kaptor Weed Kurv Shank Hooks

Each packet of hooks are a similar size (size 6) and are a similar pattern which are curve shank pattern.

Let’s begin the test…

Sharpness test

All the hooks seemed to be sharp out of the packet as expected but the hooks that stood out here was the Fox hooks.

They seemed to be a little sharper than the others, having a longer hook point is most likely the reason why they appeared to be the sharpest out of the packet.

Strength test

In the past I’ve a had a few branded hooks open out and damage largely due to the fact they wasn’t the strongest for snaggy type lakes. Using a weak hook can result in losing fish, so this part of the test should be interesting.

The first two rounds of the test consists of adding weight to the hook to see if any hooks would result in opening up or damaging due to the pressure.

The first round I added 1.5lb (0.68kg) of leads to the hook and all hooks past this strength test as you would generally expect.

Next round I added 8lb (3.62kg) of leads to the hooks and yet again every hook past this test.

Due to not having any more weight I could add to the hooks I came up with another not very scientific way to test the strength of each hook… by crushing them with pliers and here’s the results:

• The Nash/Drennan hooks were very easy to crush.
• The ESP hooks were a little harder to bend.
• The Korda and Fox hooks were even harder to bend than the ESP hooks

Quality test

One of the biggest complaints you hear a lot is quality of the hooks out of the packet so this had to be included in the hook shootout. Was there any inadequate hook that would be more suited for the bin than in the lake? Let’s find out.

Every hook seemed to look consistent in quality and sharpness as would be expected.

The Korda hooks stood out in terms of quality as they have a dark PTFE coating with a non coated, corrosion resistant hook point where the other hooks have coating all the way throughout the hook.

Every hook in this test was undamaged and ready to be casted out which I am very pleased to report.

Underwater test

Although this test may not affect the short session angler that regularly uses brand new hooks. For those who need to leave a rig in the water for a larger amount of time choosing a hook that does not easily rust or damage is of paramount importance.

In this test the hooks were placed in water to set times to see what would happened to the hook quality.

After 24 hours there was no signs of rust on each hook. After 48 hours there was still no rust or damage to any of the hooks, resulting in a rethink of how the test would continue.

I decided to try leaving the hooks for a longer duration, which was a few days to see if any of the hooks would survive not rusting or damaging and here’s the results:

• The Fox hooks were most rusted and large patches of rust
• The Korda and Drennan hooks had small patches of rust
• The ESP hooks had one small patch of rust near the eye of the hook
• The Nash hooks surprisingly did not rust at all

Price

Cost can also be a crucial factor when choosing a hook, using a brand new hook regularly can result in more fish and this is a method that a lot of good anglers use to great effect.

Surprisingly the Nash Fang Twister hooks came out the most expensive and the Drennan Super Specialist Barbel hooks came out the cheapest.

Here’s the price difference below:

• Nash Fang Twister hooks – £6.29
• Korda Kaptor Kurv Shank hooks – £5.99
• Fox Edges Arma Point Curve Shank hooks – £5.24
• ESP Cryogen Curve Shanx hooks – £3.95
• Drennan Super Specialist Barbel hooks – £3.85

Overall results

Due to the strength and sharpness out of the packet, I would say the Fox Edges Arma Point hooks are ideal for short sessions on weedy/snaggy waters.

If you fish a lot of different types of waters, a good all rounder hook is ideal such as the Korda Kaptor hooks or the ESP Cryogen hooks. These hooks have the strength and sharpness to cope with most waters.

If your fishing long sessions and need to leave your rig in the water longer than 24 hours than the Nash Fang Twister hooks should cope in this situation due to its anti corrosive properties.

Conclusion

Thanks for reading our Hook Shootout 2017. This guide is a little different to anything we’ve posted on the blog before so if you enjoyed it please let us know in the comments below.

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