Make Your Own Sponge Hooks

I started in some dip bait and sponge bait topics and talking about sponge hooks and dip worms recently and one of the biggest drawbacks I have outlined about fishing with dip baits is them being messy, and the added expense of having to buy dip worms, sponge hooks or other “catfish lures” to keep the dip or sponge bait on the hooks for catfishing.

I covered the basics of all the different “catfish lures” the other day and outlined most, if not all of the different options. Like many other things I write about, I have a more effective solution that you can make yourself, and can do so at a fraction of the cost of most commercially available products.

These homemade sponge hooks are hands down the absolute best I have ever used, I am have used just about everything out there (or that I have seen), plus they are very simple to make and very effective for catfishing. The best part of it all is that it costs pennies to make these. This is a huge savings in your catfishing tackle, especially when compared to the average cost of $.80 per hook for most other products (that are less effective).

I have seen homemade hooks over the years and have seen them made from just about every different type of material. The secret weapon to mine is a felt hat cleaning sponge.

Felt hat cleaners are available at most western wear stores and I would assume probably a number of other retailers as well, and they are also readily available on the internet as well. Typically these cost between $1.25 and $1.75 depending on where you buy them.

The reason felt hat cleaners work so well for making hooks for catfish is the material is very durable but the even bigger reason is the consistency. Felt hat cleaners are much less dense than typical sponges (like a kitchen cleaning version) so they have much larger holes in them, which allows them to soak up and retain much more of the baits.

I have also used them (very effectively) for fishing with punch bait on many occasions when  I had punch bait that got too thin. Rather than thickening the catfish punch bait by cooling it or adding cattails to thicken it, I just left it alone and fished with these sponge hooks.

Items Needed:

Felt Hat Cleaning Sponge (one sponge will make a LOT of hooks)

Scissors (make sure they are good sharp scissors)

Eagle Claw Treble Hooks (size is personal preference, as a general rule I use #6 and #8 for channel catfish)

Making these hooks is a very simple process. Just take your felt hat cleaning sponges and cut them into small squares, tailored to fit your treble hook size You want the sponge to barely push up against the inside walls of the treble hook, and the top of it to sit level with or just below the top of the barbs of the treble hooks. This is a relatively small piece of material even for a #4 treble hook, allowing you to make a LOT of hooks from just one package of the hat cleaners.

Once you have cut a square of the sponge tailored to your hook size you just need to place the sponge on the hook. It is easiest to do this by taking an ice pick and sticking it through the material and then inserting the shaft of the hook through the hole. Using the ice pick is not necessary however and you can certainly add the sponge to the hook by simply pushing the shaft of the hook through the material (just be careful not to jam a hook prong in your finger, I won’t tell you how I know that).

It really is such a simple process you can just cut the hat cleaners into squares and put them in a ziplock bag, and make the hooks “on the fly” while you are catfishing!

Again, these literally cost pennies and are only a small fraction of the cost when compared to purchasing “store bought” models.

Here’s a step by step video to walk you through the process of making your own hooks:

Do you or have you every made your own hooks for catfishing? If so tell me more about what you use!