Xstrata Engineering has designed the Tuna & dolphin fishing hooks with different sizes and shapes for a Mozambican fishing company called EMATUM
The hook: Fishing’s most important piece of terminal tackle.
Peek inside the tackle box of a serious angler, and you’ll find a wide variety of hooks in all shapes and sizes. Circle hooks, J hooks, treble hooks, live bait hooks, assist hooks, hooks for soft plastics — the list goes on and on. But have you ever wondered what goes into making these little pieces of metal? Have you ever ­considered a hook’s composition and construction?
Over the years, manufacturers have honed the art of hook making into a real science. And that’s a good thing, because the hook is arguably fishing’s most important piece of terminal tackle.

Stainless-Steel Fishing Hooks: Rust Resistant
All manufacturers develop and protect their own special “recipes” when it comes to hook construction, but there are really only two types of metal wire used these days: stainless steel and high‑carbon steel.

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Stainless-steel hooks have been around forever. While not as strong as carbon steel, stainless holds a key advantage for saltwater anglers — it’s much more corrosion resistant.

Enter carbon-steel hooks. The wire bodies on this type of hook contain carbon — and while these hooks will rust, the higher the carbon content, the harder the metal alloy becomes. “If you have two hooks of the same diameter,” explains Pierce, “the carbon-steel hook will be stronger than the stainless-steel hook. It’s more likely to bend under heavy strain, while a stainless-steel hook might break.”

Because carbon steel is a stronger base material than stainless, the wire is proportionally thinner — and that can be a real plus when it comes to hooking fish.

Tempering (or heat-treating) carbon‑steel hooks is the most important step in their construction, as it greatly strengthens the wire.