I use long shank panfish hooks when fishing live baits for bluegill and other sunfish. In the stained waters of my home lake the fish don’t seem to be deterred by the hook’s length all that much.
What a long shank bream hook provides is convenience for you, and less gut hooking for the fish. The long hook gives you something to grab hold of, which makes hook removal a breeze. The long shank is also less likely to be swallowed by an aggressive bluegill or other such sunfish. The thin wire construction of this design also helps to keep your bait alive on the hook for a longer period of time. Lively bait is of course a more effective bait.
Long Shank Bream Hooks Are Actually “Carlisle” Hooks
Although most anglers in my area call them “long shank bream hooks”, they are actually Carlisle hooks. Some folks also refer to this style of hook as a “cricket hook”. Regardless of what you call them, a long shank Carlisle hook is a light wire round bend hook that has a longer than normal shank and an offset point.
This style of hook is typically used for natural bait presentations, such as with worms, crickets or grasshoppers. As mentioned above, the thin wire construction helps keep your bait alive by not stressing it as much, and the long shank helps prevent gut hooking fish.
These long shank Carlisle hooks often have a “kirbed” hook point. Kirbed means that the point of the hook bends slightly to the left of the shank, whereas “reversed” hook points bend in the other direction. Perhaps I have that backwards, but it doesn’t matter as both are considered “offset” and pretty much accomplish the same thing. This offset point is supposed to give you better hook up ratios as compared to in-line straight hooks.
Advantages Of Long Shank Bream Hooks
Long shanked hooks tend to get swallowed far less often than short ones do. Longer hooks are also much easier to remove from the small mouths of sunfish such as bluegill and redear. Having the longer wire to grab hold of oftentimes allows you to use your fingers to remove a hook, even when it’s deeply embedded. In contrast, with short shank hooks you’ll mostly be using pliers or some other de-hooking device to reach into the fish’s mouth. I suppose another positive of a long shank panfish hook could be that you can fit a larger worm or other such bait on the hook. Although sunfish are typically small, this isn’t always the case. Some lakes can produce rather large sunfish that might call for a larger profile bait.
Best Size Long Shank Hooks For Bluegill
The best sizes of long shank hooks are #6, #8, #10 or #12, with the smaller number actually being the larger of the hooks. Most often I use #6 or #8 hooks for bluegill. I find that these 2 sizes work well for using crickets, which is usually my bait of choice for gills. Really, I think 6 and 8’s are an ideal size for average and large sized panfish. If you feel like your hook is spooking fish, or you are using really small baits, you can move down to a 10 or 12.
Long Shank Panfish Hooks Are Good With Crickets
You can use long shank panfish hooks with pretty much any natural bait, but I personally use them most often when fishing with crickets for bluegill. The long shank holds a cricket quite nicely and allows me to safely remove the hook from most throwback fish.
Do Long Shank Hooks Spook Bluegill?
In short, yes, I think larger longer shank hooks can spook wary bluegills. However, I don’t think it matters much in the stained waters that I typically fish, even though the fish are highly pressured. If I fished in clearer waters I’d likely opt to use short shanked hooks instead, and even try to hide the entirety of the hook with the bait.
Conclusion
I’m personally a big fan of long shanked bream hooks and use them annually when fishing the bluegill spawn. Mostly I use them when fishing with crickets, but have been known to stick a worm on there at times as well. With that said, my home lake is typically very stained and thus allows me to get away with using the extra metal.
It’s probably best to stick with a short shanked hooks when fishing clear water. Otherwise, you can expect larger more mature sunfish to sometimes avoid your bait.
If you haven’t tried long shanked panfish hooks and you have some stained water, give them a try. Life is much easier for both you and the fish when using these Carlisle hooks. This is especially true when you’re catching fish in large numbers such as during the bluegill spawn.
Tight Lines!
Augustus Clay
If you found this article helpful, you might also like some of my other panfish articles linked below.
Best Baits For Bluegill
How To Catch Redear Sunfish
How To Catch Bluegill
