Fish hooks

  • Hey Guest, Early bird pricing on the Summer Moot (29th July - 10th August) available until April 6th, we'd love you to come. PLEASE CLICK HERE to early bird price and get more information.

Tank

Full Member
Aug 10, 2009
2,015
278
Witney, Oxfordshire
Hi All,

Today I had a go at making a fish hook with a bone barb. Which turned out ok, if not a little big.

9bcfff343c5edc2cd26cba77a3563d8f.jpg


Can anyone suggest any good website with more examples as I am stuggling to find this type of fish hook. Espicalally interest how best to bait these and size verse targeted species.

Edit : or suggested books?


Cheers
Tim
 
Last edited:

Mesquite

It is what it is.
Mar 5, 2008
27,803
2,892
62
~Hemel Hempstead~
That's a neat bit of binding you've done goodjob

The book you want is Indian Fishing: Early Methods of Northwest Pacific by Hilary Stewart. It tells you exactly how they were made and used for fishing. Unfortunately it's out of print and highly sought after so it may take you some time and money to get hold of it.

I've got a small section which I use for reference when I demonstrate how to make these hooks at the moot.

attachment.php
 

Attachments

  • trolling hooks.jpg
    trolling hooks.jpg
    31.1 KB · Views: 196

Mesquite

It is what it is.
Mar 5, 2008
27,803
2,892
62
~Hemel Hempstead~
Try getting hold of spruce roots, split them down and do the binding with that.

It's the traditional way to make them and fun learning how to split the root :)

As for the book here's a taster of it, unfortunately the salmon trolling hook section isn't amongst what's shown :(
 

Tank

Full Member
Aug 10, 2009
2,015
278
Witney, Oxfordshire
Try getting hold of spruce roots, split them down and do the binding with that.

It's the traditional way to make them and fun learning how to split the root :)

As for the book here's a taster of it, unfortunately the salmon trolling hook section isn't amongst what's shown :(

That's my next step to try, hopefully will be out in a week or two to collect some and give it a go.

Thanks for the site I will check it out.
 

Fraxinus

Settler
Oct 26, 2008
935
31
Canterbury
Uncle Ray shows the method here
[video]https://youtu.be/AGIFS3EI1KY[/video]

I set it to start just before the fish hook bit. Apologies if you've seen it before Tim, just thought it pertinent to the thread.


Rob.
 

Mesquite

It is what it is.
Mar 5, 2008
27,803
2,892
62
~Hemel Hempstead~
Uncle Ray shows the method here
[video]https://youtu.be/AGIFS3EI1KY[/video]

I set it to start just before the fish hook bit. Apologies if you've seen it before Tim, just thought it pertinent to the thread..

Good video but it didn't start at the fish hook :) Go to 14:30 for the relevant bit :cool:
 

crosslandkelly

A somewhat settled
Jun 9, 2009
26,265
2,212
67
North West London
Mesquite showed me how to make these at the Moot last year. Split pine roots, two with carved pine barbs and the smallest has a SeaBuckthorn barb.

fishhooks 002.jpg
 

Attachments

  • Fish hooks 004.jpg
    Fish hooks 004.jpg
    29.9 KB · Views: 14

Tomteifi

Nomad
Jan 22, 2016
294
16
Carmarthenshire, South Wales
Good work, a thinner waxed twine would help to downscale things and get it to a more useable size. It looks a bit cumbersome at the scale it is at the moment. Whats its actual dimensions?
0.5mm dia. natural hemp twine has a single strand breaking strain of about 8lbs. so hook wrapping would infinitely increase that and allow you to make a smaller scaled useable hook.
Tom.
 
Last edited:

Macaroon

A bemused & bewildered
Jan 5, 2013
7,209
362
73
SE Wales
Try using Blackthorn spikes for the barbs, very strong and I can definitely attest to their sharpness :(
 

Robson Valley

Full Member
Nov 24, 2014
9,959
2,664
McBride, BC
While there are no explanations, Google UBC/MOA and get into the online collection of some 44,000 artifacts. You can then select fish hook and sort the examples.
University of British Columbia/Museum of Anthropology.
 

Joonsy

Native
Jul 24, 2008
1,483
3
UK
nice work (perhaps you could have used horse hair for the whipping, hard to tell from pics but i'm guessing it would be thinner than cord used), just to add, what you have made is what would actually be called a ''barbless'' hook in todays fishing language, that is a hook with no backward facing barb, fish can easily shake a barbless hook from the mouth if the line goes slack. if you look at the pics in the link RG has provided some of the hooks do have backward facing barbs, these would hold a fish better. The toggle type of ''hook'' is an interesting one as well, the line is attached to the centre of the toggle which rotates to it's widest point when tension is applied to the line.
 

Joonsy

Native
Jul 24, 2008
1,483
3
UK
just to add to above comment tank about barbs. if you have ever watched pole and line fishing for tuna etc you will see the difference a barb on a hook makes, in pole and line fishing a barbless hook is used for the very reason that it falls out of the fish's mouth when line goes slack, the fish is swung out of the water in one big swoop and the hook drops out of the fishs mouth when the line goes slack as the fish hits the deck, for other types of fishing for the pot a barbed hook is better when it needs to hold when there is slack line in the system. Have fun, ATB.
 

Tank

Full Member
Aug 10, 2009
2,015
278
Witney, Oxfordshire
Uncle Ray shows the method here
[video]https://youtu.be/AGIFS3EI1KY[/video]

I set it to start just before the fish hook bit. Apologies if you've seen it before Tim, just thought it pertinent to the thread.


Rob.
Thanks, shame he doesn't show more of the carving as I found that bit the hardest.
 

BCUK Shop

We have a a number of knives, T-Shirts and other items for sale.

SHOP HERE