A basic guide to fishing hooks and what baits you can use on the size of hook you will be using for carp and coarse angling. This is a general guide only because bear in mind that manufacturers sizes of hooks can vary quite significantly. What may be a size 14 hook with one manufacturer could be a 16 with another.
Ok. Your going to choose a hook to catch your fish; how do you decide what size of hook you are going to use?
1. do you choose a hook to match the fish you are going to catch or
2. a hook to match the bait you will be using?
The answer is really a mixture of both!
Barbless Fishing Hooks
I recommend all anglers fish using barbless hooks. The advantage of using barbless hooks is that they are easy to remove and do not harm the fish as much as a barbed hook could.
If you only have barbed hooks you can use a pair of pliers to crush down the barb.
I believe that barbs were initially introduced to stop the bait coming off and not to hold the fish on once hooked.
| Hook Size | Baits used on the hook – use this as a guide only |
|---|---|
| 26 | joker, bloodworm |
| 24 | joker, bloodworm, squat |
| 22 | joker, bloodworm, squat, pinkie |
| 20 | maggot, caster, punched bread, hemp, double pinkie |
| 18 | maggot, caster, double pinkie, punched bread, hemp, tares, redworm, mini-pellet |
| 16 | double maggot, double caster, punched bread, pinch of bread paste or paste bait, redworm, dendrobaena, sweetcorn, expander pellet, hemp, tares |
| 14 | bread flake, bread paste, paste bait, double maggot, double sweetcorn, worm, dendrobaena, cocktails, pellet, expander pellet, meat |
| 12 | bunched maggot, bread flake, bread paste, paste, meat, double sweetcorn, worm, dendrobaena, cocktails, chum mixer, meat, mini boilie, peanut |
| 10 | paste, meat, bread crust, chum mixer double sweetcorn, meat, chum mixer, 10mm boilies, tiger nut |
| 8 | lobworm, paste, bread crust, bread paste, meat, triple sweetcorn, 10mm boilies, 14mm boilies, 2xchum mixer, maize, tiger nut, 14mm pellet |
| 6 | lobworm, paste, bread crust, lip hooked live bait, meat, 14mm boilies, 20mm boilies, 14mm+ pellet |
| 4 | lobworm, paste, bread crust, lip hooked live bait, meat, 20mm+ pellets, 20mm+ boilies |
| 2 | lobworm, paste, bread crust, lip hooked live bait, meat, 20mm+ pellets, 20mm+ boilies |
