Removing paint from line hole

[Zippo Guy]

I apologize if my terminology is incorrect, I'm new to this forum.  I'm also new to Bass fishing and having a ball.  Yesterday I caught a dozen smallmouth using a ned rig.  You have to watch the line,  it tells you the story of what is happening underwater. I wanted to hook up a few more ticklerz this morning as I'm taking my granddaughter and grandson with me tomorrow. I bought some 1/16 and 3/32 size ned hooks but found most of them had the line hole filled in with black paint.  Is this a typical problem? I tried a hook to clean out the hole which didn't work, finally settled on safety pin which did work. What a pain.  Am I better off just using the plain lead mushroom heads? Can't imagine cleaning out the holes on a moving boat.  Thanks in advance for any advice. 

[Mobasser]

You can buy a small tool that looks like a tweezer, but has a small punch to open the eyes on painted jigs. You could clean out several before your trip, and not worry about it while your on the water.

[Fishes in trees]

The point of any hook can open the painted eye of a jig and if it can't, then that is a clue that it is a bad hook.  I'm curious why did hook didn't work for you.  If a safety pin did work, then great - problem solved.   Be sure to run a safety pin through your shirt prior to leaving the house and you're good.

[WRB]

Use jig or worm hook to poke out the paint.

Tom

[FishTank]

This guy.....

 

[Deleted account]

spinnerbait or other larger hook.

[Kenny Yi]

any other hook will work. 

 

if I'm feeling extra dangerous and tacticool, I'll use my OTF knife

[CountryboyinDC]

I buy some really cheap jigheads rigged with grubs as my go-to bait for shad.  Those have the line tie so caked with powder coat, you can't use another hook to dig through it (you probably could with something like a Trokar 5/0 flipping hook or something).  I find it's just easier to use small drill bit (a little larger than the line tie hole) and drill from either side.  One thing I believe is that the line tie being painted over is a sign of poor quality control.  Considering that these pre-rigged grubs are $3 for 7, I'm okay.  They serve their purpose and are fine for shad.  If I found that with a "Ned" jig head, I would switch jig heads - Owner Blockheads, Berkley Halfheads, and some I get when I go to the Richmond Fishing Expo work well.