This past season while bass fishing, I spent a lot of time experimenting with different drop shot hooks and have come to the conclusion that I definitely like one more then others. I tested the following hooks in sizes 1 and 2/0: VMC Octopus, VMC Sureset Drop Shot, Owner Wacky, Gamakatsu Finesse Wide Gap, Gamakatsu Split Shot/Drop Shot, Gamakatsu Octopus.
The VMC Octopus is similar to a "circle hook" and it features a short shank that is somewhat rounded and the shank extends into it's bend, though to a much lesser degree than a circle hook. Very lightweight, strong and sharp. Seemed to lose more fish when using the VMC hooks.
I found the Owner Wacky Hooks to become dull very quickly and they required hook sharpening quite often. Numerous fish were lost on these hooks due to dull hooks not holding in the mouth or jaw.
The Gamakatsu Hooks were all extremely sharp and seemed to hold all fish hooked. Can't recall losing a bass when rigged with Gammy hooks.
The Gamakatsu hooks all feature ultra sharp points that were able to stick to everything they touched. The bend behind the point holds nose hooked plastics in the perfect position ninety degrees from the line. Plastics used in this test were XZone Slammers and Fat Slammers. The point was able to penetrate the hard upper lip of bass caught and the sharp barb did not let the fish throw the hook when they were being reeled in.
The Gamakatsu Finesse Wide Gap Hook was designed for situations where you need a big hook but a long shank worm hook would be too much. This hook has plenty of bite for hooking big bass but the short shank design is not to obvious and does not take away from your presentation which is key when finesse fishing a drop shot rig. These small hooks definitely pack a big punch and give you the legendary Gamakatsu sharpness in a short shank package. The eye of the hook is turned slightly upward to align the needle point with the direction of the hook set. The design of this hook makes it perfect for drop shot fishing with thicker baits that require additional gap, but don’t need the added weight of a larger worm hook. The Gamakatsu Finesse Wide Gap Hook was the winner hands down as it had a 100% hookup to landing ratio. I highly recommend these hooks for dropshotting.
