Aberdeen style hooks on spinners?

[trollneyes]

I would like to start making my own spinners, but am not very good at tying a snell knot with smaller live bait style hooks. Do any of you use Aberdeen style hooks when tying spinners? What would be the down side to using this style of hook? It seems to me it would be easier to thread a crawler with a straight light wire hook.

[Deitz Dittrich]

The reason I use snell hooks is becuase the knot is so much stronger. You can deffinatly use an aberdeen style hook. As a matter of fact I believe some store bought spinners use aberdeen. So have at it! And yes, you may have an advantage threading on crawlers.

[Chris Haley]

The con to both is that when snelling an octopus hook, you can nick the line where the eyelet comes around. The con to using aberdeen hooks with spinners is the beads crashing down on top of your knot. Both are minor and would not deter me from using either.

[trollneyes]

Thanks for the quick feedback guys, I appreciate it. Do you guys have any tricks to make tying a snell knot easier for those of us that are all thumbs?

[gunflint]

I use an Aberdeen for Leeches and minnows with a spinner rig. And use a double hook octopus set up for crawlers. I bend the eyes on the Aberdeens to tie snell knots. I'm trying to find some Aberdeens with bent eyes but so far no luck.

The best way to tie a snell is to be fortunate enough to spend some time with BD110 and have him show you.

[Walleye Guy]

They do make Aberdeen's with bent hooks. I found them in a Gander Moutain catalog about 4 years ago. They came in a hundred pack.

I use the Aberdeen hook for minnow harness as I hook my minnows through the mouth, out the gill and behind the head. The minnow stays alive, spins less (if you hook them correctly) and they don't get pulled off the hook as easily and it puts the hook slightly further back in the minnow for short strikers.

For leeches and cralwers I like Octopus hooks. Two for crawlers.

[deeky]

I also prefer a snell knot for spinner rigs and such. The easiest way I have found to tie them actually comes from my fly tying. I simply run the thread through the eye, and then do a whip finish with the tag end. Took just a little practice to figure out how to hold things, but now it's a matter of seconds. If you don't know the whip finish, do a quick search on line and you will get illustrated instructions on some good fly tying site. It's also the same if you have ever whip-finished the end of a rope.

[trollneyes]

I have done some searching and found this knot, it is called the uni-knot. I have tied a few snells and it is a fairly easy knot to tie. It works good for single hooks but when finished, the tag end does not follow the hook shank straight down so I don't know how well it would work to tie a double or triple hook harness, they may spin if not straight. Here is the link for this knot.

http://www.in-fisherman.com/magazine/guides/cg2003Sp_Uniknot/