BKK Spear 21 Trebles

[Fat Ika]

Hi All. Looking for any alternative to Gammy Nanos for suspending vision 110s. Anyone have experience with the weight on these hooks vs Gammy Nano G-Finesse or MB's Katsuage trebles? Any experiences appreciated. Thanks. 

[GetFishorDieTryin]

No experience with BKKs light trebles, but the diablo and ball head jigs are sticky sharp and well made.  Duo Nanos are great and IMO equal the finesse nano on every level although they may be a tiny bit heavier, but perfect for JBs.  If you want to stay with a light wire hook Ichikawa RC light wires are a solid option, I use them on 110 Jrs.

[Fat Ika]

2 hours ago, GetFishorDieTryin said:

No experience with BKKs light trebles, but the diablo and ball head jigs are sticky sharp and well made.  Duo Nanos are great and IMO equal the finesse nano on every level although they may be a tiny bit heavier, but perfect for JBs.  If you want to stay with a light wire hook Ichikawa RC light wires are a solid option, I use them on 110 Jrs.

Thanks for the recommendation on the Ichikawa for 110 Jrs. I'll definitely try them out. I love the duos, just as you said, a tiny bit heavier. I use them on some 110s in warmer water. There's a specific ultra clear/cold water situation for finicky northern, where they turn away if it's not suspending or sinking ultra ultra slow. Gammy nano's, 2 # 5s and 1 #6 on the back does the trick. I'll try playing around with the BKKs and revisit the Duo's too. Thanks Man. 

[Shadow1]

I use Owner ST 36 for replacements on my Vision 110 Jrs.  They are sticky sharp and I haven't straightened any out.  Size 8 I believe.  Got very lucky last year and landed a 40" Northern Pike with them.  

[Fat Ika]

If anyone is interested in BKK Spears for Vision 110s. 3 #6 BBK Spears make a noticable slow sinking 110 in ice-out water. They are as sticky as it gets. Similar gauge to an st-36, with a slightly longer shank than an st-36. Sharper that stx-38s and gammy nanos. Definitely won't be using 3-#6s for cold water suspending 110s, but they're impressively sharp. We'll see about the strength, but the gauge and coating don't appear to be brittle. Overall, seems impressive for a standard gauge/round bend hook. 

[scmlfty]

I have two pks of #6, the hooks are bigger than normal #6, but the height are the same, it's basically a #5 Japanese hook with short shank.

 

These are nice hooks. Very sharp and not very thin/fragile wire like the stock oneten hooks.

 

BUT! The quality control of the hooks is NOT as good as the famous Japanese brands, I have found 4 hooks from my 2 packs of #8 and 3 hooks from my 2 packs of #6 having slightly bent tips.

 

I have many hobbies and I am a big knife collector, I know how to sharpen knives very well, so I have many ways to test the sharpness of the hooks.

 

All the Japanese brands treble hooks I have owned: Gamakatsu, Owner, Ryugi, Duo, and Ichikawa. I have tested every hook's sharpness when I received them, NONE of them have slightly bent tip.

[Fat Ika]

On 4/3/2024 at 1:26 AM, scmlfty said:

I have two pks of #6, the hooks are bigger than normal #6, but the height are the same, it's basically a #5 Japanese hook with short shank.

 

These are nice hooks. Very sharp and not very thin/fragile wire like the stock oneten hooks.

 

BUT! The quality control of the hooks is NOT as good as the famous Japanese brands, I have found 4 hooks from my 2 packs of #8 and 3 hooks from my 2 packs of #6 having slightly bent tips.

 

I have many hobbies and I am a big knife collector, I know how to sharpen knives very well, so I have many ways to test the sharpness of the hooks.

 

All the Japanese brands treble hooks I have owned: Gamakatsu, Owner, Ryugi, Duo, and Ichikawa. I have tested every hook's sharpness when I received them, NONE of them have slightly bent tip.

Interesting. All I know is, If I hand grab any bait with the Spears on it, I get stuck. Doesn't happen every time I pick a bait with Gammy or Duo nanos, or any Owner hook regardless of the model. No experience with Ichikawa and Ryugi trebles yet. Really enjoying the Spears on a lot of different hardbaits. Wish they made number 3s. Big gap between a size 4 and 2.

[scmlfty]

1 minute ago, Fat Ika said:

Interesting. All I know is, If I hand grab any bait with the Spears on it, I get stuck. Doesn't happen every time I pick a bait with Gammy or Duo nanos, or any Owner hook regardless of the model. No experience with Ichikawa and Ryugi trebles yet. Really enjoying the Spears on a lot of different hardbaits. Wish they made number 3s. Big gap between a size 4 and 2.

Not to bashing BKK, but it's a Chinese company and it started as an OEM company in 2004 for the Japanese brands. I don't think BKK can really compete with Japanese brands.

 

The other post I started few days ago, I mentioned bass fishing industry has a lot of snake oil due to a lot of people with very little knowledge of basic physics and engineering.

 

If we are really talking about sharpness, you need a stress test machine that apply the same amount of force and then a sensor to see the stress profile either in PSI or Pa during the process of penetration.

 

If you are just talking about sharpness of the BKK 21 with out any serious stress test, I would say the tip is probably as sharp as other Japanese brands, and the profile of the hook is as good, but the lack of QC shows it is still a Chinese company that is not as serious about consistency and details compared to Japanese companies.

 

Again, I have kitchen knives from $200-2000 and I can sharp my knives with Hair-whittling edge, I have a Bowie knife worth more than a brand new Camry from the best Master Bladesmith in the world in American Bladesmith Society (ABS). I know what sharpness is in theory and in practice.

[scmlfty]

I want to be very specific that my 4 packs of ST 21, 2 packs of #8 were bought from a famous tackle/gun shop in US last winter and my 2 packs of #6 were bought from Jeff Benzos few weeks ago. Out of 32 hooks, 7 of them have QC issues. My hooks is more than enough to be Random Sample in statistics, and this is a strong proof that their QC is just not there yet. Maybe they can improve as time goes by, but I don't really know. One more thing, in Chinese fishing community, no one would think BKK is on par with Owner or Gmakatsu, and the price of BKK in China is way cheaper in US (about 40% less at least)

[Big Swimbait]

As I have swapped out hooks on my swimbaits, I have exclusively used BKK after the recommendation from the Tacticle Bassin' guys. I have had zero issues and they are a pain to unhook (which is a good thing). That being said, these are  bigger/stronger hooks than the ones referenced by the OP.