The Red Hook Phenomenon

Through the pass few years I have noticed many more lures with red hooks. With a little research on subject, here is the "blood connection." Fish naturally strike blood and injury. Also, when fish feed they show red in their gills which stimulate feeding. Crappie have been known to bite a red hook without a minnow, and they will attack a minnow if it has an injured spot before one that does not. Dark red is better than light red or organge, and red does not disappear underwater. Red hooks are not new. Heddon used red hooks on some of their lures back in the forties. And even more interesting, my grandfater back in the thirties painted all his lures red and white. I still have those lures, and I remember as a kid, my father making fun of him for doing so.

A buddy of mine who owned a bait shop back home showed me something many years ago. He would take a red jig head and lower it into the minnow tank and the minnows would swarm the thing. Other colors did not get the same results. It was pretty interesting.

so there is some truth behind it....

[QUOTE=Bonefish;312631]Through the pass few years I have noticed many more lures with red hooks. With a little research on subject, here is the "blood connection." Fish naturally strike blood and injury. Also, when fish feed they show red in their gills which stimulate feeding. Crappie have been known to bite a red hook without a minnow, and they will attack a minnow if it has an injured spot before one that does not. Dark red is better than light red or organge, and red does not disappear underwater. Red hooks are not new. Heddon used red hooks on some of their lures back in the forties. And even more interesting, my grandfater back in the thirties painted all his lures red and white. I still have those lures, and I remember as a kid, my father making fun of him for doing so.[/QUOTE]

I've also noticed that a lure with a spot of finish knocked off seems to work better sometimes that when it was new and shiney

Reminds me of a trick i used years ago for Crappie when using minnows. I would slide a small piece of red plastic worm up the hook to cover the hook eye. It would outfish a plain hook all the time.
Dang, I need to get back to basics, I havent fished anything smaller than 20# test for the last several years. :)

So the red cajun line... Invisible or not?

[QUOTE=BanditMan;312665]So the red cajun line... Invisible or not?[/QUOTE]

The red line is transparent the hook is reflective.

Have read many articles about red and red hooks. Red in color is not visable at a depth of approx. 10 feet.
I have also caught a lot of fish with crankbaits with red hooks where the fish was caught on the red hook. This is almost always the front hook.
Pitch out a bait with a red hook in 10+ feet of water and then jump in and see if you can see it!

Don't really care what they say----all of my crankbaits have one red hook----on the front. Guess what???? All of my bass ALWAYS are hooked on the front hook and most of the time the back hook is stuck somewhere else on the body for a little added security!

next time you go to an outdoor world or some where that has a large fish tank, take along a laser pointer use it to project a dot on rocks and cover where bait fish would hold and watch the results. the fish will follow the dot like a cat and even had a few try to pick the thing up off the rocks blue gill and crappie were the most reactive to it but mosyt of the fish had at least some interest in it.

Red wave lenghts of light are one of the first wavelengths to wash out in deeper water. Maybe they look black in deep water where there's no red light to reflect off the red colored hooks.

Something to think about. Don't always fall for those Marketing gimmicks guys. Think for yourself.

I have been thinking about this for a while and never really knew what I thoght it was funny but once I focued on the question a bit and remembered the way that light waves go though or don't go though the water it became more clear to me.

Black color is the absence of color

Red colored lures absorb all other colors but red. Red is reflected off a red colored object.

Same with a green colored object. Green light waves are reflected off green objects and all the other visible wave lenghts of light are absorbed by Green.

Bluegreen is one of the wave lenghts of light that penetrates water the farthest. Green plants are reflection the green portion of the sunlight off the green leaves of the plant.

If there are no green wave lengths of light reaching the plant leaves they will appear to be black instead of green.

My partner and I have always fished shiny gold hooks, I started using red hooks and outfished him 2 to 1. He has switched to red hooks. They work. I've also noticed jigheads with the new lime green hooks are doing better than the plain. Hey it works for me!