Nishine DS Hook: The Drop Shot Hook That Stands Straight

This article introduces the DS Hook from Nishine Lure Works. It is based on the original article by Nishine.

Product name: NISHINE DS Hook

Type: hook for the drop shot rig

Sizes: #2, #5, #7 (made by Ichikawa Fishing)

Quantity: 6 per pack (#2, #5), 7 per pack (#7)

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This hook is designed specifically for the drop shot rig.

Its shape is like no other hook.

Here's what it looks like rigged as a drop shot.

It's designed to be tied with the sotogake knot, a knot traditionally used in Japan to tie bait-fishing hooks.

The biggest advantage of this knot: the hook always stands straight without tipping over.

Here's the view from the front.

The hook stands straight up, like this.

Why did we make this hook? Because with a conventional trout hook and the usual knots, the Dropshot Minnow often tilted and swam crooked, and we weren't happy with that.

With a soft bait that's round in cross-section, a slight tilt doesn't matter. But with a flat body like the Dropshot Minnow, it bothers a lot of anglers.

I first tried to fix the problem with the knot. But after testing every knot I could think of, including one I came up with myself, none of them satisfied me. (I spent two years on this.)

The best method I found was to tie a Palomar knot, pass the leader through the top and bottom of the eye, and then lock it in place with super glue.

The Palomar is strong enough, and passing the leader from top to bottom stands the hook up to some extent. But if the knot slides to either side of the eye, the hook eventually tilts, so it had to be fixed with glue.

And using glue was a real pain.

Not to mention that for an old guy with tired eyes, the Palomar, which means threading the line through that tiny eye twice, is a nightmare.

So I finally decided it would be quicker to change the hook than the knot.

After all that trial and error, this hook was born.

The other big feature of the Nishine DS Hook is its long shank.

A long-shank hook easily reaches the back of the mouth, and the DS Hook is sized to fit the mouth of a 5-pound smallmouth bass.

The gap between the eye and the point is about the thickness of a 5-pound smallmouth's lip, so the hook sets not in the hard teeth but in the soft spot just behind them.

In the photo below, a smallmouth bass of exactly 5 pounds.

And here, a brown trout of about 60cm.

It doesn't happen every time, but often the point sets in the soft tissue at the back of the mouth while the eye stays outside.

When it hooks like this, it locks in so firmly that it can be hard to remove, and you land more fish.

Another advantage of the long shank: your soft baits last longer.

After a fish is hooked, the soft bait slides up the shank and often survives there (as in the photo below).

With a short shank, the bait has nowhere to go and easily flies off and gets lost after the hook-set.

Here's a Dropshot Minnow 3.4" rigged on a DS Hook.

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This is the rig I use most to get a natural action.

With this rig, the bait hardly spins even when it falls fast, so I recommend it for fishing deep with a heavy weight.

I believe KVD and the late Aaron Martens, a true drop shot master, also used this method.

This rig hides the hook point as much as possible. The action loses a little smoothness, though, because the hook passes through the bait.

Try it when the fish are biting short, for example: it's easier to get the point inside the mouth.

As a bonus, here's another rig I recommend, made possible by the long shank. ↓

(The bait is a 3-inch Keitech Easy Shiner.)

On the Great Lakes, there are times in summer when smallmouth bass suspend and feed on small baitfish. These fish are tough and very hard to catch.

The best hard bait for them is a small sinking prop bait like the Baby Abino 70S.

For soft baits, swimming a small 2.5–3 inch swimbait on a drop shot rig with a long leader is a well-known pattern for suspended summer bass.

In this kind of fishing, the biggest advantage of the Nishine DS Hook is that it always stands straight.

If the hook tilts, the swimbait swims tilted too… and you know what happens next.

Here's the packaging.

Launching a hook lineup with just one size (#2) was unusual, partly because it was made to match the Dropshot Minnow. But I think it solves a lot of what has been bothering many anglers.

We asked Ichikawa Fishing to make this hook, and they delivered a product of excellent quality.

The Nishine DS Hook was born from a strong desire to bring out the full potential of the Dropshot Minnow.

The Nishine DS Hook is available now at SAMURAI FISHING MARCHE in sizes #2, #5 and #7.

Shop the NISHINE DS Hook

NISHINE DS HOOK

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