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Try this orange test for sticking fish hooks

Today’s fishing hooks mostly leave the factory sharp enough to pass Schoonveld’s “thumbnail” standard. But to double-check before you go fishing, try a simple experiment with an orange to determine hook-setting sharpness. (Photo by Mike Schoonveld)

What seemed to be half my “off-season” free time used to focus on sharpening my fishing hooks.
I sharpened all my old hooks and as I stocked up with new lures for the next season. Each of the hook points on each of the fresh-from-the-factory hooks got a few strokes on my whetstone to get their points finely tuned and ready for spring. The technology used to manufacture fishing hooks that were “sharper than a tack” didn’t exist, at least for the stock hooks many lure makers used to finish their products.

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