Physical and mechanical properties of fishing hooks

Very few studies have been conducted to analyse physical and mechanical properties of fishing hooks. The present work is an account of a study carried out on five major brands of number seven round bent fishing hooks available in India, which are used to harvest tuna and medium sized fish resources. We have selected three imported and two indigenous brands of fishing hooks. The dimensional characteristics and unbending force as tensile load for deformation of the hook bend equal to its bite length were investigated. The mechanical strengths of the fishing hooks studied were highly varied and brand IB-1 recorded the highest unbending force of 275.9 N. It was found that the unbending test method employed to analyse the mechanical strength of fishing hook in this study is in agreement with the actual performance by the fishing hooks in the field and this test could be effectively used to evaluate mechanical strength of fishing hooks.