I use all sorts of hooks, mainly because I haven't really caught enough fish to say one works better than another. However, more recently I have been using Korum hooks with a welded eye. They are curved shank. I bought 2 packets of 30 plus camo hooks from ebay about a year ago. They are small sizes, possibly (I dont know for sure because I threw the packet away) size 8 and 6, if they are 6 and 8's they are small ones! I landed the 41lb fish on one of the smaller ones whilst in france. There were no signs of bending on the hook I uses either, so I am now very confident in them
I bought som Korda size 4's to take to France, I just thought big fish big hook, the balif said he wouldnt use hooks that big, so I never used them. The biggest hook I caught on was a 6 I think, but a small 6 (sizes seem to vary massively!).
I also just used barbless, the 28lb common I caught felt like it had fallen off (I was fishing probably 200 yards out) the line went slack and even when I wound in as fast as I could the line was still slack, it must have swum 100 yards towards me, even then the hook never fell out, so I was either very lucky or barbless arent that bad at staying in.
I have some other cheap hooks I bought off ebay a couple of years back, they look nice (wide gape) but I have had one of them bend with an Alderfen 10lber on it so I wont use them any more.
Andy used some hooks that he sells, very cheap but worked fine even with the high 30's he caught.
One other point (excuse the punn) the balif in France gave me 2 of his riggs to try, the hooks felt a little bit dull to me but i used them anyhow, I had 2 takes and lost both fish. I am convinced it was the hooks that let me down. Every other take I had (and they were very delicate takes) I landed. I think the hooks have to be sharp when you have fussy fish.
