I regularly fish the local river (White River in Anderson, IN area) with my
son in law (good partner). we bank fish and wade (its not a big river here).
We generally use lighter set-up (Spirex 1000's on 6' St Croix Premier UL rod
with 6 lb magnathin) when we do this. Early in the year, we had great
success with strike king bitsy tubes on size 1 or 2 "EWG" type hook on 8 lb
floro
leader with a small splitshot carolina style above a snapswivle. The fish
aren't huge but a few 'legal' fish per trip was normal and we had many good
takers that were just a bit short 10 - 12 inches.
The alternative hook we use with this is a true turn no. 2.

Lately the bite seems to be other things and I tried a 1/0 offset worm hook
(eagle claw) on a 3 or 4 inch worm; one I know was a 3" yum dinger. of the 3
or 4 fish I've caught on this - 2 swallowed the hood so deep that they bled
all over the place. dead before I could even really attempt to get the hook
out or even cut the leader. I've not had that happen with the tube rig. I
hate to kill fish. I am strictly catch and release - especially on the
river - which is still recovering from a HUGE fish kill about 5 yrs ago.

My questions is how do you determine the right size of hook to use with
different
plastics? I was thinking that part of the problems was that the worm hook
was too long
for the narrower bait; making it easier (or too easy) for the fish to
swallow too deeply,
when compared to the profile of the tube. But I how do I know when the hook
is too
small (or too short) ? wouldn't this lead to missed fish too?

Thanks for any help and/or opinions.

"Brother" Bill