Thanks for the reply. I was more referring to terminal tackle like worm hooks and such. When crankbait hooks start to rust I just replace them.

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Thanks for the reply. I was more referring to terminal tackle like worm hooks and such. When crankbait hooks start to rust I just replace them.
You are wasting your time and money toss them and replace. If you buy new keep them in the plastic packs to keep this from happening again. Gammy hooks as sweetwater said are the best hooks made.
I personally like Owner hooks and Gamakatsu hooks a close second. To answer your question yes, you can fix them but the time to do it and materials may be more than replacing the hooks depending on how many you have. If they are Owner or Gammi hooks at about 75 cents each then maybe you can give it a try but if they are eagle claw type or Generic offset hooks I would probably just replace them.
But if you want to fix them here you go.
make sure the hooks are clean from rust and have a needle point . make sure there is no rust in the line tie area. depending on how bad the rust is you can may be able to clean them off but if the hooks are pitted then discard them.
first wash them with soap and water and a brush. 2nd, soak them in CLR to remove and kill the rust that is existing and then wash them in dawn dishwashing liquid and hot water again. take them out and dry them immediately. Once you get them all cleaned from the rust and dried you can either coat them individually or soak them in firearm barrel blueing solution. this will give you the rust protection that has been worn away. make sure that you don'e let the blueing material gel up and overcoat the hooks , but if you submerse them for a couple hours this should turn your hooks/ black/blue colored. You can papertowl dry them off and make sure they are all dried. After I did this I may put a slight coat of oil on them just to make sure that they do not rust again and store them in a plastic bag or well ventilated box
Once rust gets on a hook its toast. Rust pits the metal weakening it, and it will break if put under pressure. I've snapped too many hooks on a hookset to even mess with thats had rust on it. Sometimes i didnt even know they had any rust, but when you look at where the hook broke youll see that rust was there
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