Brand, shape, size, etc.
Looking for a good sharp hook to put some night crawlers on to catch mainly small mouth and bluegill.
So just simple kids farm pond fishing.

Preferably from Cabela’s as I have a gift card.

No need to overthink this if it’s just kids fishing in a pond. Get a box or two of any generic hook. Make sure they’re small enough for bluegill mouths is the biggest priority. Enjoy!

I like to use #6 snelled, barbed Eagle Claw. They also have non-barbed, easier to get the fish off for catch & release.

A small wire hook . Aberdeen. I like Tru-Turn. Size 8 for bluegill. Size 2,4 for the bass.

The thin wire causes less damage for the fish you put back. Many bluegill fishermen use an extra long shank wire hook to keep the hook in the mouth instead of swallowed.

Good luck and tight lines!

Long shank cricket hooks are easier to remove if gut hooked. I like #8 for panfish.

Long shank hook. Especially for kids who are a little slow on picking up a bite.....helps from keeping the hook from getting completely swallowed.

Btw...night crawlers are far too big for bluegill unless you cut them up into inch sized bits. Try meal worms if you can get them, crickets or red worms....in that order.

My experience with hooks, mostly sized for saltwater bay fishing but some smaller pond and river fishing, too, is as follows.

Eagle Claw hooks are too soft. If you hook a bigger fish than you are expecting, the bend in the hook will unbend and you will lose the fish.

Gamakatsu and VMC hooks are too hard. If you hook a bigger fish than you are expecting, the hook will break and you will lose the fish.

I've had great luck with Owner hooks.

I think Owner is mostly known for big saltwater hooks, but I've actually caught a lot of panfish on small Owner circle hooks (as have my kids).

Circle hooks (in general, not just Owner) are great for kid fishing. You aren't supposed to set them, just let the fish take them, so they work better than most anything else with distracted kids. Circle hooks are also very resistant to gut hooking (which is why they are mandated in many saltwater tournaments and some states mandate them for certain species or types of fishing). Fish also have a really hard time spitting the hook once hooked.

Circle hooks look weird. The reason for the turned-in point is that you're supposed to just let the fish swallow the bait and swim away. The turned-in point keeps the hook from catching as it slides back out to the fish's mouth, then catches hard as the hook hits the corner of the fish's mouth on its way out.

It sounds too complicated and fussy to possibly work, but it really does - circle hooks have an uncanny ability to hook up on a surprising percentage of solid strikes, and almost always with a textbook corner-of-the-mouth lip hook.

I have no doubt that a very experienced fisherman who is paying close attention and fishing with a traditional hook can do better, but for just sitting around with a line in the water occasionally reeling in a fish, they're unbeatable.

quote:

Originally posted by maladat:
Eagle Claw hooks are too soft. If you hook a bigger fish than you are expecting, the bend in the hook will unbend and you will lose the fish.

I don't even know how many thousands of fish I caught as a kid with those Eagle Claw snelled hooks, a worm, a sinker, and a bobber. Brookies, cutthroats, perch.... You name it. They're cheap and they work just fine. Heck, I still have a few packages in my tackle box and use them from time to time.

quote:

Originally posted by Gustofer:

quote:

Originally posted by maladat:
Eagle Claw hooks are too soft. If you hook a bigger fish than you are expecting, the bend in the hook will unbend and you will lose the fish.

I don't even know how many thousands of fish I caught as a kid with those Eagle Claw snelled hooks, a worm, a sinker, and a bobber. Brookies, cutthroats, perch.... You name it. They're cheap and they work just fine. Heck, I still have a few packages in my tackle box and use them from time to time.

Maybe the smaller ones are fine, I've lost a lot of fish to straightened hooks bay fishing in Texas with Eagle Claw wide gap hooks from 1/0 to 5/0.

I've never had an Owner, VMC, or Gamakatsu hook straighten out doing the same kind of fishing, although like I said, I've occasionally had VMC and Gamakatsu hooks break.

quote:

Eagle Claw snelled hooks

^^^
I have never had one straighten out the hook. Of course if you get a shark on the line all bets are off. They are fine for perch, bluegill and whatever small fish you might have in a farm pond. Using light weight tackle adds to the fun.

quote:

Originally posted by Gustofer:

quote:

Originally posted by maladat:
Eagle Claw hooks are too soft. If you hook a bigger fish than you are expecting, the bend in the hook will unbend and you will lose the fish.

I don't even know how many thousands of fish I caught as a kid with those Eagle Claw snelled hooks, a worm, a sinker, and a bobber. Brookies, cutthroats, perch.... You name it. They're cheap and they work just fine. Heck, I still have a few packages in my tackle box and use them from time to time.

I have to agree with this. I've caught salmon up to 40 lbs with Eagle Claw hooks with no issues. They're not my first choice but they worked well enough in a pinch.

Jim

Now that I think about it, I don't remember ever straightening a hook as a kid fishing with mono. One possibility that occurs to me is that these days I generally fish with braided line, which has virtually no stretch compared to monofilament (which is only slightly less stretchy than rubber bands).

That means that there's a lot more instantaneous force when a fish gives a yank - think about yanking a rope vs. a bungee cord.

Maybe the relative softness of Eagle Claw hooks is only an issue with braided line and the modern, high-drag reels designed for it.

If that's the case, Eagle Claw hooks would be perfectly fine here. Braided line is more trouble and money than it is worth for casual fishing and especially kids.

Use a pliers to press the barbs down so you don't tear up the fish's mouth.

Just make sure you're using very small hooks, fish like bluegills don't have big mouths. I'd get basic #8 hooks.

Eagle Claw will certainly do. But since you asked for "best," Owner Ebi Baitholders meets your request. Owner is my go-to hook for, well, everything. Frogs, worms, finesse, Carolina rigs, fishing with floats, drop-shot. Owner is the bomb digity.

https://www.ownerhooks.com/product/ebi-baitholder/

quote:

Originally posted by Micropterus:
Eagle Claw will certainly do. But since you asked for "best," Owner Ebi Baitholders meets your request. Owner is my go-to hook for, well, everything. Frogs, worms, finesse, Carolina rigs, fishing with floats, drop-shot. Owner is the bomb digity.

https://www.ownerhooks.com/product/ebi-baitholder/

I agree, I find Owner hooks to be significantly better than any of the other brands.

The circle hooks I mentioned using for pond fishing above with my daughters are Owner Mutu Light circle hooks around size #8 or #10.

https://www.ownerhooks.com/product/mutu-light/

Under a bobber with a split shot and a piece of Gulp corn (basically tough, porous rubber bits shaped like corn kernels soaked in stinky fish attractor juice - https://www.berkley-fishing.co...ts/gulp-corn-1082277 ) is a magic setup for perch, especially for little kids that aren't paying close enough attention or aren't coordinated enough to set a traditional hook reliably.

I've been on a number of little kid group weekend trips (when my daughter was 5-10 years old) where a bunch of kids were fishing around a pond and my daughter would pull fish after fish out of the pond (little perch) while no one else caught anything.

Perch love Gulp corn, and the Mutu Light circle hooks are so forgiving that the fish pretty much just hook themselves and she could reel them in whenever she noticed her bobber moving around or getting pulled under.

I really think it's an unbeatable setup for little kid pond fishing.

I'm partial to

or

^^Yup. Dupont spinners

quote:

Originally posted by Micropterus:
Eagle Claw will certainly do. But since you asked for "best," Owner Ebi Baitholders meets your request. Owner is my go-to hook for, well, everything. Frogs, worms, finesse, Carolina rigs, fishing with floats, drop-shot. Owner is the bomb digity.

https://www.ownerhooks.com/product/ebi-baitholder/

Ummmm...$4.25 each?

Did you forget that the OP is trying to catch sunnies in a pond with his kids, not trophy swordfish?

quote:

Originally posted by PASig:

quote:

Originally posted by Micropterus:
Eagle Claw will certainly do. But since you asked for "best," Owner Ebi Baitholders meets your request. Owner is my go-to hook for, well, everything. Frogs, worms, finesse, Carolina rigs, fishing with floats, drop-shot. Owner is the bomb digity.

https://www.ownerhooks.com/product/ebi-baitholder/

Ummmm...$4.25 each?

Did you forget that the OP is trying to catch sunnies in a pond with his kids, not trophy swordfish?

Look again. It's a pack of 9.