Make Your Own STINGER HOOKS - CHEAP!!

HELLO people of the internet! Welcome to another "how to" video. In this week's video I break down how I tie up my own stinger hooks for hair jigs. They are such a simple insurance policy, and have saved many of my guide trips (and tournament days) over the years. With a few minutes, some basic materials, and this video (or any of the myriad of others that exist), you can save yourself some money and make a fully customized hook that fits your hair jigs PERFECTLY.

Here's what you need:

-20lb mono (or copolymer line - not straight fluorocarbon - it's too stiff to lock down on the jig)
**you CAN go lighter - I go heavy because I fish these around rocks and zebra mussels**

-Size 10 treble hooks - I like the VMC 9650

-Small PLASTIC beads - inside hole diameter should be barely enough to get your line of choice doubled up

-A jig, made of a scrap piece of wood and a couple of brad nails - space the brads to your desired stinger hook length

-A bodkin (fancy fly tying term for a needle on a stick) or a pen, whatever you have

-A lighter *OPTIONAL (cheap insurance that your knot won't slip apart)

Memory - Mehul Choudhary

/ mehulchoudhary
Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported — CC BY 3.0

[dukemunger]

I have a tip for you when you powder paint your jigs so you have clean hook eyes. I buy sample packs of 2 m/m shrink tube off ebay. I cut 1/4" lengths with a scissors. I'll cut as many as I have jigs to paint. Then I slip the shrink tube over the eye of the jig, heat the lead head with a heat gun, dip the head in the fluid bed and hang that jig to cool. When I get the next one painted I grab the shrink tube of the previously panted jig between my thumb and fore finger and gently pull the shrink tube of exposing the clean hook eye. Of course afterward I bake the painted heads in a cheap convection oven to cure the paint completely. Pulling the paint covered shrink tube off while still warm but not hot enough to burn our fingers is ideal. After they cool completely and the paint hardens you need to scrape the shrink tube off with a pen knife blade and sometimes the paint chips around the eye.

[CrappieJunction]

Nice one! Great way to add a pop of color too!

[keithalbrecht]

Great idea & so simple!!! Great use of old line, going to have to try some of those!!

[jeffsaxby]

I think this is the best style of sringer hook. I use a #1 leader sleeve instead of a bead. I don't really think the results are any different than using a bead. Just the way I learned to do it.

[fishlovme]

Have you ever tried single hooks vs treble hooks? I used to buy super tiny mosquito hooks and they worked well for a stinger. Reason I liked them is when I'd get snags (wolf river has tons of snags) the hook didn't snag as easily and when it did it was easy to just pull until the tiny hook straightened out. Far as fish on them, I didn't have any issues with the hook not staying in their mouth. I don't bother with stingers anymore though. If I can't hook them with the jig I'm using then I just miss the fish, which I've found I don't miss that many.

[daleley]

Great idea! Would a rubber slip bobber stop work instead of the bead?

[ScottinEC]

I must have gotten bad beads that were too sharp and they were breaking off too easy. Went back to crimps and plastidip for mine. 20# Berkeley big game works well for line too.

[outdoorrn]

Nice, but l just clinch knot to jig hook, then tie on stinger to that line, adjust to length you want. I also prefer single hook stinger.

[Bullbluegill]

Of course it doesn't fail....dude, it's #20 test. That's too stiff IMO.