Matzuo sickle hook quality

K
Kelkay
I read that the Matzuo sickle hook quality has gone downhill. Rvrfshr still has the old nice quality hook, but the newer ones are poor quality. Rvrshr is going to be using another hook in the future. Has anyone else heard this? They hope to come out with new hooks by the beginning of the year I read on another site. I had thought to try a single hook on some of my spinners, to see what I thought about them. Any thoughts on this?
 
K
Kelkay
I guess nobody has a comment on the newer Matzuo hooks. I had planned to try them, and I heard they were good. The older ones are good quality, but like I read by rvrfshr, the newer hooks aren't up to par. Just wondering about finding a small box to try out, from either another company...or getting the older made hooks somewhere.
 
J
Jacks Tackle
I sell tons of the Matzuo Sickle SiWash hooks, have lots of very happy customers that keep coming back to buy more as well. Funny thing in all of this, is I believe that Matzuo is gonna be making the new hooks for rvrfshr as well, not 100% sure on that but that is what I believe I was told.

RB
 
K
Kelkay
Good, so you have no problem with their quality then? I just don't want any hooks failing on me. That would really upset me. I have been lucky so far on the hooks I use. But if I got a bad batch, I would be mad. There is a certain brand of hook I won't use anymore because of hook failure. (not a major brand, just a company brand)
 
F
fish_4_all
Here is my take on Matzuo. The quality itslef is high, the hooks they make are excellent hooks for almost any fishing situation. The problem is quality control. If a batch of hooks is run with say a small snag or chip in the blade that makes the barb it isn't caught and the hooks still make it to market. If there was a heating problem and 1M hooks were tempered wrong they don't care and would rather get the hooks back from those that will send them back instead of keeping them from hitting the market. Quality control lacks because they are pushing out millions of hooks and selling them as fast as they can. Now this is not limited to Matzuo, I have VMC hooks that are supposedly being made now in China or some other country and the quality control is HORRID. I have some rock solid hooks that are the reason I went to VMC a few years ago but I alos have newer VMC's that the hook snaps under the lightest pressure trying to remove the barb.

You take the good with the bad, if you get a bad batch of Matzuo, take them back and find a good batch. Same with any other hook company anymore. Same with VMC, OEM, Mustad, Eagle claw (I have not confirmed this yet but have heard many of their hooks are now made over seas), Gamakatsu, Owner and any other company.

Want a prime example, I just bought a brand new Abu Garcia level wind baitcaster reel. Best reels I have ever used in my price range. Never had a problem with them. Have one I used for 20 years. This one, 7 trips and it is failing and not working right at all. Bad batch, bad components, or just bad luck with a defective reel, who knows but a reliable company has a problem and I plan to help them fix it for me.
 
K
Kelkay
I went back and looked at the thread I previously saw on this. Rvrfshr is going to an OEM hook. I do not want to use an OEM hook. For one thing I never heard of them. Another thing, I don't want to go to a Chinese hook. Yes, I know many have sent China their business for making their hooks. This troubles me. I think when they know quality control will lack, thus ruining their reputation....they WILL lose business. From what I gather, when the Matzuo is up to par (no easy breakers) it is a high quality hook, which is hard to beat. When they knowingly let hooks get through, and ship them anyway...that to me is not someone I want to deal with. According to what I have read, this is the case. They will take the easy breakers, and resell them to unknowing people. (according the what Rvrfshr said) I still have not checked on if Eagle Claw now has gone overseas. I love their jig hooks, and have a ton of them. I know Abu Garcia went and started letting China make their stuff. I was a big Abu Garcia fan until then. I hate getting a crappy product. I have an Abu Garcia bait caster. To me they were absolutely a great reel. Now, they are not up to snuff. Now I have liked Daiwa, and I had a reel I bought from them, and it was defective. The customer service stunk. I took it back to the store and got my money back. I now really like Shimano, and have had good luck with them. I have a quality spinning reel that casts like a dream. Whether they now are made in China, I don't know. To me if it is made in China, 9 times out of 10 the quality goes DOWN. When I lay down a chunk of money on a reel, or want to depend on a quality hook....I don't want to guess whether the hook is in a easy breaker category. I have thought this over, and I don't believe I will go to Matzuo, and only because their newer hooks have some problems. It may be a great hook when you get a good batch. But I don't want to get a bad batch and deal with it. I have never had a bad batch of hooks from any company but one. I had three packages from them or so...but when I started having hooks break just tying a fly...that did it. I will not buy another hook from them. Their reputation is on the line in my opinion. So they need strict quality control. Remember when Japan made the crap stuff? Now if it is made in Japan, chances are it is a good product. China is the old Japan in manufacturing, in my opinion. I did not know Mustads were made in China. Guess I will be buying more Daiichi. So far for me Daiichi and Gamakatsu have quality hooks. I have bought cheaper hooks with good success. But burn me once shame on you, burn me twice, shame on me.
 
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F
fish_4_all
According to Eagle Claw they stuill make ALL of their hooks in the good ole USA. Other things are not and they send their hooks to be put on other things in other countries but they make their hooks still, for now.
 
K
Kelkay
Thank you for that update. I meant to look for that, and forgot about it. I have been busy with truck problems, computer problems...just stuff. :-( Anyway, I like EC, and have used them since I started fishing. If they went overseas, I would be deeply disappointed. I mostly buy jig hooks from them though.
 
H
halibuthitman
I use owner and mustad hooks, gave up on the E.C hooks two years ago.. they started breaking too much.
 
F
fish_4_all
EC can have their QC problems too. Had a batch of baitholders that had funky thin curled shank barbs on them a few years back. EC took them back and replaced them like most other companies will. Also had a batch that there were eye closure issues and bent eye problems. I would buy EC more but they simply do not have the hooks I need for a lot of my fishing and tying.
 
C
ChezJfrey
What about Vision?

I just got some and see that they are made in Korea. While I haven't tried them yet, they appear solid and sharp.

Guess I'll find out, eh?
 
K
Kelkay
Never heard of it, but if it works for ya, let us know.
 
J
Jig'n
Recently I requested and received some samples of the Matzuo 3x Sickle jig hooks. I put them through a few comparison tests against the new Owner 2x jig hooks that I currently use for my jigs. The Matzuo 3x are definitely a good strong hook, but the Owner’s are still the better performer in my opinion.

Fish_4_all made a really good point about quality control; out of the 100 sample hooks from Matzuo I found 1 deformed hook. Out of the last 6 thousand Owner hooks I've purchased I've only came across 3 bad hooks. With Mustad I usually find about 2-3 bad hooks per thousand.

We’ve decided to add Matzuo to our web site and they will be available very soon.

Jig’n
 
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F
First Bite
Kelkay said:
I read that the Matzuo sickle hook quality has gone downhill. Rvrfshr still has the old nice quality hook, but the newer ones are poor quality. Rvrshr is going to be using another hook in the future. Has anyone else heard this? They hope to come out with new hooks by the beginning of the year I read on another site. I had thought to try a single hook on some of my spinners, to see what I thought about them. Any thoughts on this?

I've been using Matzuo Sickle heavy wire jig hooks for years. They are tough as nails and not one customer has complained about their quality. I only use the 60 degree heavy wire hooks on my steelhead jigs.

I heard the rumor about Matzuo switching over their production to China. This is not true. I called Matzuo directly and found out the hooks are still being maunfactured in Korea but the packaging is done in China because its so much cheaper to do so.

Mark
 

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