Merwin: A Hook That Needs No Knot

Writing about fishing for Field & Stream tends to make me a lightning rod for new and often odd fishing gadgets and gizmos. Here’s the latest: A fish hook that requires no knot for attaching to your line. Simply double your line, place the resulting loop over a tiny post on the hook shank, then wrap the doubled line around the hook shank four times. The Easy2Hook is going to revolutionize fishing–or so the maker tells me. Here’s a short video to show you how it works.

Hooks of this design are available in a variety of common sizes and styles. They are not cheap. An 20-pack of size 4 standard hooks costs roughly $8.00, or about 40 cents each. I have not yet actually fished with these things, but I have tried fastening line to some at my desk. Jiggling and pulling on the line didn’t make the hook come loose, so maybe these hooks will actually work.

Then again, maybe it’s better to learn to tie the correct knot on a regular-style hook in the first place. Even though that learning isn’t going to revolutionize fishing….