Why Ringed/Swiveled Hooks?

Fisherman have found over the years that Ringed Hooks have given them a special edge when fishing whether it was in a difficult bite or catching a bigger fish. Ringed Hooks have been used for many years by commercial fisherman in and around the South Pacific. Commercial Fisherman work very hard at concealing their successful fishing techniques, but now their secret of Ringed Hooks is out and professional fisherman all over the world are demanding them. A Ringed Hook allows your connection to have more flexibility. Your bait will swim more freely and have a more natural presentation. Your catch rate will go up because Ringed Hooks have less of a chance to wear a hole in a fish’s mouth. Ringed Hooks will also give you more value for your fishing dollar because at the end of your trip, you can wash them off and reuse them. Reason, you'll be tying your line directly to the stainless steel ring which is more corrosion resistant than the standard hook. Note, Ringed Hooks will not guarantee you catch fish. There are a number of techniques that goes into catching fish, such as experience, bait selection, conditions, moon phase, etc., however, they are designed to give you that special edge when you need it the most. Swiveled hooks give you the same advantage as Ringed Hooks x 4.

Our Process?

We have a complete twelve step process that goes into making the hooks and we have three separate inspections prior to being sent to you. We only use Surgical Grade Stainless Steel Rings and all of the Swivels we use are SPRO Ball Bearing Swivels.

Customizing?
We can make any custom terminal rig that you may require. We also provide hook replacement on jigs and Swivels added to any of your rigs or jigs.

How much to ring hooks?

The price for the Ringing process is $.95 each hook for 6/0 and under, $1.45 for above 6/0. There isn't any sales tax since we classify this as a repair. Your hooks go through the same 8-step Propriety process as our other hooks. They come back to you in the original packaging unless they are loose, Then we will package them in our special 4mil bags at no additional cost.  Finally, your hooks are put into one big 4mil bag filled with nitrogen to protect them from moisture during transit.

When should we NOT use Ringed Hooks?

When you are in a “Wide open bite”, when you are fishing for “junk” fish.  When your fish catch rate doesn’t matter, When the fish are eating banana peels and when you have enough fish in the hold that you really don’t want any more. Then we must ask when should we use Ringed hooks.  On most sport fishing boats we are in competition with other anglers. So if we are in a picky bite, or a bite, which only a few fish are caught on each stop, or when we are fishing for a fish of a lifetime, or you feel that you are out-matched by the fisherman around, then that’s the time. RINGED hooks give your bait more freedom of movement, a pivotal action that will always give you the proper pulling angle when fighting a fish and a secure positive connection that you won’t have to worry about failure (Like Perfection loops and un-seated Uni-Knots).

How much more do Ringed Hooks really cost?

Let’s say you took a 7-day trip. You would probably use about 25 circle hooks or 50 “J” hooks for the trip on the average. If you paid $1.50 more per hook for RINGED hooks your cost would be about $25 more for circles and about $50 more for “J” styles. If you figure you would probably spend $2500 for the cost of the trip, Loss of work, Beer and snacks…25 bucks isn’t that much considering you will be catching more fish and having a better time.

What is the reason for corrosion resistant hooks?
These hooks are best for multi day trips, hooks will rust sitting on rack so by second or third day they will start to get rusted from saltwater spray.

Any advise for a 10 day trip?

You are chunking as more of an option than as a design like on a longer trip. The most important thing is to match the hook to the size of the bait and your target fish. If your target fish is over #125 than it is recommended to "Step up" your hook strength to match the bigger fish, Like using a "Super" Mutu than a Mutu, using a Offshore than a Gorilla or using a Penn "Super Chunk" hook than a lighter wire series like a 2004/5. This doesn’t mean that the lighter hooks won't work; there is just a greater chance of failure with a lighter shank hook on a bigger fish. A "J" style hook will be easier to pin a chunk on and will always give you a better chance of a hook set than a circle hook, However using a "J" hook will give you a greater possible of being chewed off (some anglers offset this by using fluorocarbon line). I would always opt to a "J" style hook like a Owner Offshore before using a circle hook (and I use Circle hooks 99.9% of the time for everything else) mostly because a chunk on a circle hook needs to be pulled off the hook as it is coming up the fishes throat to be able to set on the latch of the fishes mouth. If you are using a "J" hook, just make sure that the point is sticking out a little from the chunk and you will have a good hook set. A Kirbed hook will aid in that also (an Offshore hook is Kirbed, a gorilla isn't). The decision to use a swivel in the case of chunking (Fly lining bait is another reason) is to just help take the line twist out of your line when reeling your chunk back in. A ball bearing swivel is the best option for that and if the swivel is attached to the hook you will be able to hide the swivel in the chunk while it is dropping in the chunk line, when you reel the chunk back in (which is when the greatest amount of line twist occurs) the swivel "pops" out of the chunk and will start it's anti-twist function. Swiveled hooks cost more than a regular hook and give you more fishing time because you are not having to straighten the twist out of your line (sure enough that’s when the big fish comes through), However you can go through a bunch of hooks when the sharks show up!

What are some of the advantages of swiveled hooks?

Swiveled hooks have been around for many years can give an angler the extra edge when fishing. Fishing becomes more competitive all the time and anglers are finding new applications to beat their competitors. One key component to fishing is stealth; the latest breakthrough is using Swiveled hooks. We at RingedHooks.com have been customizing all the big manufacturers’ hooks for the last couple of years, and have the largest selection of custom hooks in the world. Some of the customizing we can publicly discuss others we don’t due to the privacy required by our tournament clients.
Chunking- We have found that chunks spin a little as they drop and a lot you reel them up. Most anglers use a leader with a swivel, which adds more connections (greater possibility for failure) and more hardware in the water for the fish to see. It makes little sense to spend all the money for a fluorocarbon leader when you have Swivels, crimps and other hardware for the fish to see. The key aspect of chunking is to keep your chunk in the “Chunk Line”, to do this right it is necessary to “weigh down” your chunk to make up for the drag and buoyancy of Monofilament line. It is important to have the negative weight of the hook offset the positive effects of other gear. The big problem was the very small selection of swiveled hooks available; we have solved that by offering hundreds of swiveled hooks available which will work with your specific application. If you wanted a #4 Mutu light or a 7691 13/0, it is available. So basically you set the whole swiveled hook in the chunk, which gives you the greatest amount of stealth (but little anti-twist), When you reel in your chunk the top of the Ball Bearing swivel pops out when the chunk is under drag in the water and gives you the required anti-twist function.
Deep water fishing- Most deep water fishing requires some type of anti-twist hardware, this goes back to the same leader-swivel, greater potential of failure, No stealth application. If you are Sword fishing 400’ down there is quite of “spinning “ of your bait on the way down and back up. If the swivel is attached to the hook it will provide the greatest amount of anti-twist of your main line and a greater amount of stealth than any other leader application.
Live bait trolling- Same benefits, takes away all the leader drawbacks and gives all the stealth benefits.
Live bait fishing- Swiveled hooks give a greater level of mobility than Ringed hooks because of the more pivoting points available with a swivel.
We have found that SPRO Ball Bearing Stainless Steel swivels are the best for these applications, that doesn’t mean that other will not work as well. SPRO Ball Bearing swivels have a Stainless Steel housing which gives a greater strength in a smaller profile.

Some anglers are concerned about the swivel not working as an anti-twist mechanism if it is buried in a chunk. 

The whole idea behind chunking is to get bit while your chunk is "falling/Drifting" in the chunk line which by itself gives you very little drag on your bait. After you have exceeded the "bite Zone" you reel your bait against the current or water column and by the nature of the greater amount of drag in the water your swivel/hook will start to "Pull" slightly out of the bait. This is where your swivel action will give you the needed Anti-twist function. Reeling your chunk in slowly will still give you the necessary drag on your bait for this to occur you just need to calculate the amount of force needed for the swivel top to pull out on the ride back. It is important to also mention that Ball Bearing swivels are far superior to standard barrel swivels because of the loading characteristics of the swivel function. Barrel swivels work fine under "No-load" conditions, However when loaded the increased friction inside the swivel decreases it's effectiveness. That's why we recommend Ball bearing Swivels (although we can custom make anything the angler wants). Over here on the west coast anglers go so far as to tie black rod wrapping thread around the base of the swivel on the bottom ring so they can have a fixed and measured amount of the swivel top sticking out of the bait at all times. This will ever slightly make the swivel more visible, However it gives you a known amount of swivel profile against your bait. If this is the method you prefer, then the "cutting edge" anglers spray paint the swivel to color match the bait. Usually a tan or gray color. You can get small cans of spray paint from a local auto parts store.
Deep drop fishing (swording or otherwise) the swivel works on the way down and back up just because of the drag of the water column forces the swivel out of the bait slightly while going down. if anglers are dropping down over 100' it is usually at a much higher rate of speed than a normal chunk line drop. You will not have as much Stealth because the swivel will be slightly exposed, However having all the hardware very near the bait makes it much less visible than it "standing out from the crowd" on a leader setup. Hope this helps.

There are three problems with what I see. First, it has a Split ring that is weak (compared to a welded/Brazed ring) and will cut into your line if you straight tie to it. Second, It will take a much bigger swivel to get the load rating needed than one with welded rings and Third, your hook will have twice as big of a profile for a fish to see because of the basic design of the swivel. However, If you believe in that system try it out and let us all know how it works out for you.

What are the Top-Shot Lengths I recommend?
I try to fish the shortest Top-Shot Without having the serving come through the guides when casting. So my #30 are about 150’, #40 – 140’, #50 – 110’, #60 – 90’, #70 – 70’, #80 – 60’, #90 – 40’, #100 - #300 are 25’. Then my Jig Sticks, #40 – 450’, #50 – 250’. All my Fluorocarbon are about 25’ to 33’ long. My leaders are Pre-made before my trips and are loaded on the leader wheels we sell off of our site. Then in Quantity I bring (12) #40, (12) #50, (12) #60, (12) #70, (12) #80, (12) #90, (8) #100 - #300. Hope this helps.