Top 2 Weedless Weighted Hooks For Inshore Fishing
- By: Justin Ritchey
- on
Do you fish with weedless weighted hooks the majority of the time?
Do you prefer Owner Twistlock Weighted Hooks or Mustad Weighted Grip Pin Hooks?
In this video, we will discuss both types of hooks in-depth and which one might suit you best!
Check this out!!
Weedless Weighted Hooks
Whether you’ve been fishing with weedless hooks for years or you’re brand new to these rigging strategies, just know that weedless weighted hooks are vital to include in your tackle bag.
In this video, we are discussing two main brands of weedless weighted hooks.
Owner Weighted Twistlock Hooks and Mustad Weighted Grip Pin Hooks.
There are various pros and cons to both hook styles as well better pairings with soft plastics depending on the respective hook.
Whether you are fishing with a paddletail, jerk bait, or shrimp imitation, these hooks are the way to go.
The main question is: When should you turn to one style of hook over the other?
In short, it depends on what material the lures you’re using are and where you are fishing.
Owner Weighted Twistlock Hooks
Owner has a patent on the metal piece that fastens your soft plastic lure to the hook called the “centering pin”.
The centering pin helps when rigging lures on these hooks as well as secures the lure to the hook.
Owner Weighted Twistlock Hooks are excellent options to pair with 3-5 inch paddletails, jerk baits, and shrimp lures.
If you are struggling to determine which size hook will pair best with a soft plastic lure, the hook size will let you know.
For example, 3/0 hooks are best for 3-inch soft plastics, 4/0 hooks are best for 4-inch soft plastics, and so on.
Although this is an oversimplification, it works in helping you choose the best lure and hook pairing.
These hooks come in a weight range from 1/16 oz. to 1/4 oz.
Hook weight will vary depending on the desired depth you want to fish, but a general rule of thumb is always to have 1/16 oz. and 1/8 oz. hooks for fishing shallow flats.
If you are fishing in deeper water of more than 3 feet or so, a 3/16 oz. or 1/4 oz. weighted hook is ideal.
Just make sure you are appropriately matching up your soft plastic lures and hooks depending on the length and size of the lure.
Material Of Different Soft Plastics
Moreover, you should also pay attention to the material of each soft plastic lure.
Z-Man soft plastics will not stay secured as well to Owner Weighted Twistlock Hooks as other lures made of plastisol.
Our proprietary soft plastics made for the Salt Strong tackle shop are all plastisol soft plastics.
Z-Man uses TPE or thermoplastic elastomer to form their soft plastic lures.
TPE is an extremely durable material that will last a long time.
Although they tend to have a longer life than traditional soft plastics, you tend to get fewer lures in a pack of TPE-made lures and they are much more challenging to hooks with a centering pin.
TPE is “bouncy” and elusive compared to plastisol making it difficult for the centering pin to latch onto the lure.
The best combination for Owner Weighted Twistlock Hooks are plastic lures made of plastisol that will latch onto and hold longer than TPE-style lures.
Mustad Weighted Grip Pin
If you are going to go ahead and fish with Z-Man soft plastic lures, Weighted Grip Pin style hooks are the way to go.
These hooks will save you time and hassle.
You rig soft plastic lures onto these hooks similar to how you would a Texas Rig and a soft plastic worm.
The Mustad Weighted Grip Pin has a non-intrusive weight attached to the hook shank along with a chin piece designed to hold the lure in place.
When threading lures on and over the weight, it can be a good idea to apply saliva to help ease the lure into place.
The chin piece just beneath the eye of the hook behaves as a stopper to prevent your lure from slipping down the hook.
This is what makes TPE-made lures the perfect match to these hooks.
This type of setup is perfect for fishing in areas with lots of pesky baitfish eating away at your soft plastics or you want to sift through schools of trout for the big fish hiding underneath.
Just as the case was with Owner weighted hooks, 3/0 sized hooks will pair up with 3-inch lures and so on.
Additionally, the Power Prawn ‘Brazilian Shrimp’ lures are made of TPE material and come in both large and small sizes.
This combination is deadly along the flats and in creek systems.
The 3/0 size hooks are perfect for the Power Prawn Jr. and 4/0 size hooks are ideal for the standard Power Prawn.
Aside from that, we also now have the Power Prawn U.S.A. and our own Hoss Helix Hooks with a wider hook gap available in our online tackle store.
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Weedless Weighted Hooks [VIDEO]
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FEATURED EQUIPMENT:
- Owner Weighted Twistlock Hooks
- Mustad Weighted Grip Pin Hooks
- Power Prawn U.S.A.
- Gold Digger Paddletail
- Slam Shady 2.0 Paddletail
- F.R.E.D. Paddletail
- Z-Man Slam Shady MinnowZ Paddletail
- Z-Man Slam Shady PaddlerZ Paddletail
- Alabama Leprechaun
- Slam Shady Jerk Shad
- Gold Digger BOMBER
- Power Prawn ‘Brazilian Shrimp’
Conclusion
Weedless weighted hooks are an absolute must-have for inshore saltwater fishing whether that be on the flats, up against mangroves or docks, or even working backwater creeks.
Be mindful of the material of soft plastics and which hook is the best to use.
Weedless weighted hooks can be the difference between hooking into the fish of a lifetime or getting snagged and losing gear!
Do you have any more questions on weedless weighted hooks for soft plastic lures?
Let me know down in the comments!
And if you know someone who wants to learn more about weedless weighted hooks, please TAG or SHARE this with them!
P.S. – Want to know how to retrieve all the different types of inshore fishing lures in a variety of ways? Check out our Artificial Lure Retrieval Methods Mini-Course.
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When we get a couple days of foul weather here in SWFL it’s pretty common for the bait shops not to have any live shrimp. I’ve always wanted to start using artificials more and this post was extremely helpful. It didn’t take long to get the hang of it, and I was landing speckled trout with almost every cast earlier this week. I was using the Hoss Helix 3/0 – 1/8oz. paired with 3.5″ Slam Shady Paddle Tails and having a blast! It’s great to get back out on the water after those storms pass and there’s no live shrimp to be had, but still catch a ton of fish – I’m really enjoying the SaltStrong Experience, keep these great tutorials coming…
Great work on your transition from live bait to lures!
going to give the Mustad weighted grip pin hooks a try. I spend to much time trying to get the twistlock hookes on the tpe type lures. Thanks for the discussion
Great video Justin! I was not a fan of TPE plastics until I found the Grip Pin. Total game changer!
Do you use the Power Prawn weedless hooks? In what scenario would you use the Power Prawn weedless hooks over the Mustad hooks or Owner hooks and vice versa?
I do! It’s been very tough to get Inventory on those, but I used them today on some nice Redfish out on the flats!
I like the weight placement of the PP Weedless Hooks, but I’m not a fan of that pin connector that used to hold the Prawn in place. So unless I’m fishing deeper water, I use the Mustad Grip Pins for shallow water (most of the time).
Great review Justin!
Luke do you use the Dr Juice on Fred???
I have used both and the Owner with twist lock are the best in my humble opinion.
I’ve always heard with the plastisol lures and the mustads that you use the hook point to make a pilot hole at the head and out the bottom. Then from the bottom push the eye of the hook out the front to keep from tearing it up.
That’s the way to do it.
Great video! Very informative. Explains why I have a hard time using owner twist lock with the the ZMan paddle tail. Thank you for this lesson.
Glad you found it helpful, Alan!
Thanks for the up date on choices of these hooks , all great information. Question would you leave your lure on the hook over night or longer ?
Thanks David! I personally pre-rig soft plastics to my dedicated hooks before I go fishing, but that’s just me. We actually recommend unrigging your soft plastic lure from your hook before placing the combo back into your tackle box. This will help make sure no residual salt water is trapped at that weedless entry point, potentially causing rust/oxidization on your hooks in your tackle tray.
Thanx for the tips Justin and clearing this up. Very helpful. Question, do you allow any weight changes for the buoyancy in Zman lures ?
Thanks Keith! Good point, the Z-Man lures do tend to be more buoyant than traditional soft plastic lures. I tend to go ~1/8oz heavier in my options using a Z-Man material to achieve the same rate of fall as a traditional Plastisol based soft plastic. So if I use 1/16oz on traditional soft plastics, I’ll go with a 1/8oz on a Z-Man, and so on…