What are the best hooks to use for Drone Fishing?

In this article, we look at some of our favourite hook styles and brands & why we use, what we use.  Choosing the correct hook is extremely important in increasing your catch rate.  Get this wrong and you will continually miss fish particularly the larger fish, so read on for more!

If you visit your local fishing shop, you are bound to see a huge number of different types of hooks on display from all sorts of different manufacturers, different styles and then a range of styles – but which ones do you choose when Drone Fishing?  There is a bit of subjectivity in choosing hooks and even which brand to choose from, Firstly however we always say choose the hook for the species and size of the fish that you are targeting, that’s a good starting point.

Sizes of Hooks when drone fishing

For the most part people around the upper part of the North Island of New Zealand will be targeting Snapper, and generally this species comes in a range of different sizes, from sub 30 cm (undersized fish), to 40cm+ units, so a good place to start for sizes is the 6/0 hooks.  This is a good size that will catch the good fish but is likely to let the smaller fish get away. Another Option is to look at the larger 7/0 Size.  This size is good if you are really only after the bigger fish & know that they are around.  You will find also that the style of hook also changes when size you are needing to go with, ie. a Black Magic 7/0 Recurve Hook can a completely different size that a Gamakatsu Recurve Hook, so be aware of this.  Because many people in the North Island are targeting snapper – then the above size options are perfect, but if you are targeting other species for example Trevally – you will need to use smaller hooks for example 5/0 is a good size.  So depending on your target species – choose your hook size wisely.

Style of Hooks for Drone Fishing

We mostly use Recurve or Circle Hooks when drone fishing – almost entirely.  There are some really good reasons

for doing this.  Firstly when drone fishing, although you can normally feel the fish biting, it is not a good idea to strike the hook.  This will normally lose you the fish, and lose your bait also.  Because the Sand Grabber sinker on the outer end of the backbone doesn’t move and is locked into place, the entire system itself operates more like the Longline sitting on the bottom.  This means fish will come in and pick off the baits.  For this reason you really want the fish to self hook themselves & this is where the Recurve hooks are perfect.  A the fish comes into take a bite, they leave and they are much more likely to get hooked to lip hook themselves using a recurve or circle hook.  This also helps in another way – because if you lip hook a smaller fish that is not legal and you want to get it back unharmed into the water, then it is much easier to release the fish that is lip-hooked quickly and with little damage and stress to the fish. You can see in the main image of this article a perfect example of a Fish that has been lip hooked while drone fishing.

Brands of Hooks for Drone Fishing

There are all sorts of different brands of hooks out on the market, and most people have their own favourites.  Some of the major brands include:
– BKK
– Owner
– Black Magic
– Gamakatsu
– Eagle Claw
To be honest all of these brands above will use good quality steel in construction that are not likely to bend of break for the most part.  We ourselves tend to like a good Stainless Hook, although Black Magic have very good Recurve hooks that are Black. 

The other big reason that you want to go with a known brand like the ones mentioned above is that you need the hook to be sharp when you buy it & importantly STAY Sharp for a long time after.  Having a slightly blunt hook point is the sure way to lose good fish.  Again the brands above will do the job for you.  Another important maintenance tip – is to ALWAYS check your Hooks for corrosion or bluntness before you go fishing & this is where a piece of sandpaper comes in handy if you do find a bit of corrosion on your hooks.  You can see that the hook in the image certainly needs a run-over with some stand paper.  If you find that a hook is just far too corroded – then it is best to dispose of it before going fishing, because you dont want to be in a position where you have that “Once-in-a-lifetime” fishing on your line & lose it – just because your hook breaks due to past corrosion.

We hope you have found this short article to be informative and useful for you! If you have any other questions in relation to hooks for drone fishing – please don’t hesitate to reach out to us, thanks and tight lines!

Please note that all our articles are put together by our team and should not be replicated or plagiarised in any way without express written permission.