H2O Xpress Coastal Circle Sea Bait Hook Product Review

[Pferox]

I had some H2O express circle hooks before, or so I thought, but these look a lot different from what I had before.  These H20 Express Coastal Circle hooks were a birthday present which took almost half a month to finally use and review.  Maybe I should start at the beginning of this whole thing.  Just to make a short story longer.

I'm not much of a birthday person, as a matter of fact I would rather it went on its way rather unceremoniously.  I don't have anything about getting older, as a matter of fact I'm looking forward to the perks and discounts, to be honest about it.  Now I make a big deal about my wife's birthday, and I really think that when mine comes around she believes it is payback time.

So exactly two weeks to the day before my birthday the wife starts out with: "So what do you want to do on your birthday?"

After a few days of her asking that question and me saying that I don't really have any plans, I answer: "Breathing would be a good thing I think."  Needless to say THAT went over like a Lead Zeppelin.

So She starts with the famous: "What do you want for your birthday?" question. 

Knowing that a smart aleck response might not be good a second time around, I answer: "A brand new Ford Raptor Pickup."  I know there is no way we can afford this so I figured that I was in the clear about any present stuff.

Her next line was: "How about a new fishing reel?"

This is after I just got two new bait runners and a Chinese reel that I really didn't need at the time.  That is when I came up with: "Why don't we just make the day out of it in Galveston, and stop at the Academy there and I'll pick something up."  I was pretty proud of myself, figuring I could buy some time and all of this would pass like water under the bridge.

So the Sunday after my Birthday comes around and we go and have a fantastic day together bopping around Galveston Island, then she pulls into the Academy there.  At that point I can hear the Monkey put his hat on and say:"See ya!"

For the first time in my life I bet, I couldn't find anything I couldn't live without.  Now the pressure is on, I have to pick out something.  I can feel her eyes on me watching me make a decision.  Oh the stress!  Then off in the distance I heard the Monkey voice yelling:"HOOKS you ALWAYS need HOOKS!"

Soo, I see the house brand hooks, they look pretty good, and are pretty cheap so I bought a few packs of the size I normally buy.  I figured that $18 bucks for 6 packs of hooks was a good present.

After paying for those hooks, all I heard on the way home, and from time to time since is:"Man, are you a cheap date."

Her birthday comes up in August, and we all know about payback .......   

Anyways, so I got these hooks.  Lets talk first impressions ......  They aren't circle hooks, well they don't look like circle hooks, they actually look like J hooks and heavy ones at that.  They are sharp, and have a nice black chrome looking color to them.  The hook eye is HUGE which is a plus in my book.  And they are quite affordable, $2.99 for 15 of them in a package. Maybe I should get a little more in depth on this, huh?

These hooks are the most camera shy pieces of mmmm I have ever seen.  No matter how I tried I couldn't get a decent picture.  With the flash they were washed out, without the flash even with a light on them they came out too dark to make anything out on them.  So sorry no pictures, you will have to go to Academy to check them out yourself if you are interested in looking at them.

I want to start out with their size.  I got the #1 and #1/0 size which are the ones I use the most.  They quite thick, very heavy duty, which to me is quite a plus.  I have just about straightened or bent in some way almost every brand of hook I have owned. 

Some examples are in order I would suppose.  My PB redfish of 20 lbs. was caught on an #1 Owner Mutu Light wire circle hook which straightened out, it literally fell out of the fish's mouth when we got the net on the pier.

I had a Sheepshead completely close the gap on a Mustad 3X strong perfect circle hook, which was quite a feat since it is a pretty substantial hook.  I found that out by having the hook fall out of the fish's mouth when I got it on the pier.  One of the weird things about Sheepsheads is that they won't let go until they are out of the water.  As a matter of fact, almost all of my other hook failures have been sheepshead related.

These are much stronger and I am looking forward to trying them on Sheepshead.

The size of the hook eye is much larger than just about all of the other hooks I have tried.  Eagle Claw makes a circle hook that comes close, but even with those I can't run 80lb test line through the eye twice of the 1/0 hook.  60 lb test will double in the eye of the #1 hook.  This is important when snelling them for surf application.

They are sharp, as sharp out of the package as any of my other hooks.  They seemed to stay sharp also, although I am pretty sure the crabs today probably had a little help in dulling them.

Maybe I'm a purist or ANAL, about circle hooks, but I think they shouldn't look like J hooks.  Eagle Claw also makes a hook shaped the same way.  The funny thing is they work like a wide gap circle hook.  Almost all of my catches today on the #1 hook were right where they needed to be, in the side of the mouth, a classic circle hook up.  The point seems to be pointed towards the shank which is what makes it work like a circle, but I'm not exactly sure on that point.  Get the point?

The one failure was the deep hook of the black drum I caught today.  I don't know if it was the fault of the hook or not because I have never seen a fish swallow a hook so deeply that I couldn't even see it, no matter how hard I tried.  I need to go back and analyze what happened to see if I can figure out the actual failure.

All in all, the price is good, they are sharp, and they work for the most part sans one gut hook.  For what they cost, I wouldn't have a problem with tossing the hook after each trip, thus insuring their sharpness.

My first impression is good, although the shape takes a little getting used to.  I'm going to keep using them for a while and try to update after a few trips.