Bassin' USA - Bass Fishing Forum Archives

Its interesting that the red hook thing has took off . When I was a kid we would go down to the river with my grandpa and fish with jig heads and mister twister grub heads for small mouth and mostly pike . One day my cousin bought a pack of red jig heads , my grandpa ran out and borrowed the pack he caught 7 smallmouth that day . The next day we went back using only regular gray jigheads , result a big goose egg .So the next day me and my brother painted all of our gray jigheads red , alot of people have argued but after a few trips they seem to want the red ones to . I have experimentetd with crank baits , bleeding baits , worm rigs . Crank baits I have experienced little to no difference . buzzbaits ( bleeding bait ) we played around with throwing the same bait in the bleeding series and the not . the bleeding bait always produced 1- 3 more fish . Worm fishing rigs I do believe the red hooks draw more attention to the hook rather than to the bait so I stopped using them however on texas rigs try a red bullet weight it seemed to slightly make a larger difference . Everyones time on the water differs and what works for some dont work for others . Hope this helps

It's no surprise to me that the red jigheads worked for you. I have been using red headed Road Runners for years and they definately out-produce any other jig head color day in and day out. My uncle once smoked me with a red crankbait, though I tried the same bait in differnt colors. At the time, I didn't own a red crankbait. Luck? coincidence? Color? We'll probably never know, I do know I have confidence in red line, lures, hooks and sinkers and confidence is 50% of the game, at least to me.

The Red Hook debate, I have switched sides. Now I am a believer, strangely enough it was the spring crappie bite last year that made me take another look at red hooks.

I ran out of my preferred Eagle Claw Gold Aberdeens, 1/0. The tackle shop was out too, they had a few boxes of red, and I wasn’t about to take the time to drive 50 miles round trip for the gold. Not when the crappie were going hot and heavy.

Back on the fish I tied one on, my other two rods had the golds, after an hour the red hook had racked up three fish to one over the gold. Not only that, the red hook seemed to produce larger fish.

Curious I cut a gold off and tied a red on. Same results. Borrowed a gold from my wife, cut the reds off and went gold for all three sets. (I do not raid my wife's tackle box! That is a very dangerous thing to do! Mine however, is hers to raid as she pleases.) Bite frequency fell of noticeably, switched back to red, bite frequency increased.

That weekend I hit the lake with a bud who was pre-fishing for a tourney trail event. The fish had staged on secondary points, tight schools, we slow-rolled Spinnerbaits with red strands and hooks. With decent bite frequency, but a lot of short strikes, even with a trailer hook. He kept at it with the spinnerbait while I switched to a suspending crank. Not as good a bite, changed the belly hook to red. A noticeable increase in bite and hookup. Short version, he used the suspending bait, red hook combo to place in the top ten, with less than a pound between first and tenth. Last I spoke with him he had changed all his hard baits to red hooks. With good results, I spent a lot of time last fall doing the same to mine.

Later last summer I discovered that stripers and sand (white) bass are just as fond of the red hooks as bass.

I’m a believer.

Richard

Welcome aboard Richard, I'm convinced red does have its advantages and can't find any disadvantges. Nothing works everytime and nothing fails everytime. Johnnie.

Some of this red stuff mystifies me. I've used red hooks on my plastics, and cranks. It didn't seem to matter with the plastics. As far as red line, I had always thought the idea was to hide you're line as best you could, now, Johnnie, you're saying it's better. That's good enough for me. Where do you order the stuff. As far as red spinnerbaits, what are you guys talking about? Red blades, skirts, and hooks? Red jigs and plastic trailors? Carl

I found the line, BassPro carries it, and I'd like to correct myself. I had posted that red was the last color to lose in deep water, I had it reversed. sorry carl.

Carl,
To the human eye and camera eye, the color red in line starts to turn gray at about three to four feet.
On the spinnerbaits, I like a red hook and strands of red mixed into a white or salt and pepper skirt. I think, maybe, red blades are a little much. I'm only trying to emulate a blood trail or gill flash, not a completely mangled fish. Might catch too many catfish on that!!
Crankbaits, sometimes completely red baits work, especially on blue bird-high pressure skies and clear water. I prefer just some slashes of red along the baits sides, maybe painted on gills, my wife's red nail polish is disappearing and she can't figure it out. Johnnie

Thanks Johnnie, I'm ordering so much basic tackle right now, that I wanted to add to my orders without additional shipping charges, and orders. Thanks for the fast respose. Carl.

After thinking about it for a while, it makes sense. Know what the most consistant color combo for worming deeper water has been on Eufaula for years?

Red Shad, I use the 10" Berkly Power bait worm, which produces nearly year round. Red Neon is another consistant producer.

Blue Fleck and Watermelon Pepper are the second choices.

Thanks for the welcome Johnnie, I've been gone for a while, computer troubles and been laid up for a while. Didn't get to fish much, or do much of anything late summer and fall.

Actually, red is the color that is supposed to be filtered out first in water. So if that is fact, then the reason the red hooks might be working so well is the fact that the fish can't even see them. Just food for thought.