Cheap Chinese hooks?

[niveker 0]

I don't think anyone is insulted.   

Couple of points, Mike. 

We're talking about the potential issues that may arise using 'cheap' hooks, one of those issues is the hook bending for whatever reason, most like poor quality control. 

Secondly,  a hook is more likely to bend when a fisherman doesn't play the fish out until its dead, but tries to get it in the net quickly.  

A poorly made, light wire, #16 or #18 hook can be weaker than the tippet I use, predominantly 4x- 6x nylon, so roughly 6-3# test.  

[cphubert 0]

Not insulted - enjoying the discussion. I will at times purposely bend a hook for shape prior to tying or open the gap for increased hooking opportunity. some hooks break vs bending same box of hooks. Some models/makes are or where known/suspected to be more brittle due to manufacturing and suffer breakage when pinching barbs or possibly poor casting (whipped on backcast?) or point hitting a rock on retrieve or backcast? ending up with a fly with a short blunt hook (no point or bend) I have had a few fishermen save the fly to show me. I agree I have never seen a hook straightened out by a fish in normal freshwater angling salt/offshore angling may be a different story.

[niveker 0]

 

 

6 minutes ago, cphubert said:

Some models/makes are or where known/suspected to be more brittle due to manufacturing and suffer breakage when pinching barbs or possibly poor casting (whipped on backcast?) or point hitting a rock on retrieve or backcast? ending up with a fly with a short blunt hook (no point or bend)

I notice this mostly with some older Mustads, wondering why I'm getting short strikes until I examine the hook and its broken off on the bend.  

7 minutes ago, cphubert said:

I agree I have never seen a hook straightened out by a fish in normal freshwater angling salt/offshore angling may be a different story.

I've had this happen, I know I have a picture of the brown trout and the bent hook somewhere, but haven't been able to find it.  How I ever got that fish to the net with that bent hook, I'll never know.

[cphubert 0]

7 minutes ago, niveker said:

I've had this happen

I have heard of it but never seen it myself always suspected a hook that missed tempering or not tempered properly. A quality issue like the missing or open eyes, poor point sharpening, etc. I will have to look- I used to have a box of hooks (mixed) from different manufactures that I found issues with, I expect it when buying a box of 100 or lot of 1000 but not a pack of 10 or 25.

[upnorthtier 0]

Just test the hook for strength. Grab the hook at the bend with a pair of pliers or use the vice and try bending it, if it bends easily no good, then repeat and see how many times you got to bend it before it breaks, less than 4 isn't good.

I have hooks open up on me all the time, especially dry fly hooks size 14 and smaller. No need to be a big fish for this to happen, the hook set alone can do it. When a hook opens up on me i toss it and tie a new fly on.

I tried bulk hooks from china before and they ended up in the trash can. Not saying the ones you got are bad. The ones i tried would break at the bend on a 12 inch fish. For me the hook is the most important thing for fishing. Lots of house brand hooks tried and tested from members here for less than half the price of brand name hooks, i would use those if i were you.

 

[niveker 0]

I did buy a box of Umpqua fly hooks a couple of few years ago at Cabelas, size 14 I think.  I didn't test every one, but the few I put in the vise I could bend them with the thread.  I should have thrown them out, but I use them to tie flies that I give to my brothers.  

[chugbug27 0]

5 minutes ago, niveker said:

I should have thrown them out, but I use them to tie flies that I give to my brothers.  

 Revenge is sweet

[upnorthtier 0]

27 minutes ago, niveker said:

use them to tie flies that I give to my brothers

Haha that's too funny

 

[mikechell 0]

8 hours ago, niveker said:

I don't think anyone is insulted.   

Couple of points, Mike. 

We're talking about the potential issues that may arise using 'cheap' hooks, one of those issues is the hook bending for whatever reason, most like poor quality control. 

Secondly,  a hook is more likely to bend when a fisherman doesn't play the fish out until its dead, but tries to get it in the net quickly.  

A poorly made, light wire, #16 or #18 hook can be weaker than the tippet I use, predominantly 4x- 6x nylon, so roughly 6-3# test.  

Thanks for the answers!

[Dave_M 0]

I tie for trout but dont use the cheap chinese hooks because they are brittle,I did buy some cheap TEMU  4/0 limericks to gang together for beach fishing every one I slid and squeezed the side cutters into the gap at the eye to open it a little to slip the barb of the next one through snapped and flew across the room..... I switched to Mustad and no problem. I dont think I'd even risk using a single hook ...they were all blunt too.

[Ephemerella 0]

The risk is not necessarily with where the hooks are made, but in the care and consistency of the tempering, and of course the source and characteristics of the raw wire. After the hooks are formed from relatively soft wire, they are tempered, which partially aligns the iron atoms into a crystal matrix. The magic is getting the metal hard enough to resist bending on a big fish, while not making the metal brittle (snapping off when one crushes down the barb, or again a big fish). Each hook size, and sometimes each batch of raw wire, requires its own tempering oven temperature curve, heating and cooling to optimize the metal characteristics. A factory that can do this consistently makes better hooks. Those that try to economize by buying wire from the lowest bidder, or running the same tempering curve on all the hook sizes, or are not meticulous in controlling temperature and time, get lousy results. I'm guessing hooks from TEMU are not made with the needed care, and they know no one is sending them back for a refund.