Building off yesterday’s discussion, if you look at the images you’ll notice how perfectly formed the eyes on the Ring Eye hooks are compared to the Needle Eye. The Ring Eye is rounded, very smooth, and large enough to accept multiple leader materials and sizes with or without chafe material.
The eye on Needle Eye on the other hand is much smaller and nowhere near as smooth (this is due to the stamping process). In most cases the eye will actually have sharp edges, and is not large enough to have any chafe material added to the leader.
What this all boils down to is you can rig a ring eye hook with any type of leader material: mono, wire or cable. But, needle eye hooks should never be rigged with anything except single strand wire or cable – never mono, ever. Even single strand wire is preferred over the cable. The edges left on a needle eye hook will very quickly cut any mono, and you’ll lose your fish because of it.
Ring Eye hooks can and in most cases should have chafe gear added when using mono, but is not necessary with single strand wire or cable.
Needle Eye hooks should never be rigged with mono.
Now that you know how to select the right leader material, Monday we’ll talk about choosing the right hook for what you’re fishing for.
