You want a fairly substantial needle nose, once you get the hang of it it's not hard. You only want a very slight bend if fishing in heavy cover, otherwise it defeats the purpose of fishing a frog. The needle nose vise grips is a good idea, but a bit of overkill. With large salt water hooks, I put them in a vise and use regular vise grips, if that doesn't work, Gold's Gyms has a $10 a month plan...