Dean Rojas tip for hooks for soft plastics

[pro reel]

I had a great opportunity to visit one on one with Dean Rojas yesterday. One of the things we discused was the hooks he uses for soft plastics. He had a few packs of EWG hooks laid out and had some baits rigged up for demonstration. I recently had talked to a jig designer about hook choice and we had discused the different hook styles and bends. This guys opinion was that the EWG hooks had a flawed design in that the hook point was in a direct line with the line tie. His thoughts were that the hook point can easily be pulled through the fish's mouth without grabbing anything . This guy only uses round bend hooks with a wide opening. That style of hook has a leverage advantage that drives the hook point into anything it touches. I asked dean about his thoughts on that and he just grinned. At first I thought he was thinking I had said something stupid. Well, I was wrong. Dean picked up a rigged bait with a 3/0 EWG hook and then told us that he agreed with that statement, but that he still preferred the EWG hook for the way it sits texposed, but only after he tweaks it. He said that he tweaks every EWG hook he owns and does it as soon as he gets them and before they go in the boat. What he does is to grab the hook point behind the barb and bend it out just a bit so that it has a slight leverage effect away from the line tie. He then uses 2 pairs of pliers to tweak the hook sideways at the throat so that the hook wont lay flat on a table. That puts the point of the hook angled up just a bit but also out just a bit and causes it to grab and drive home better on the hookset, he said he has to have every advantage he can get and he firmly believes that his tweaked EWG hook helps him land more bass. I didn't think to ask him, but i bet he does the same thing to jigs.