How To Restore Rusty Fishing Hooks

Between inflation and getting older, I’m turning into a skinflint. A friend of mine calls these routines and ways “old man’s disease.” For example, I wake well before the sun comes up, typically starting the day with a cup of yesterday’s coffee. I eat leftovers several days in a row; buy groceries in bulk and freeze; shop for penny savings in gas; water down my dishwashing detergent; the list goes on. We’ll skip the ammunition hoarding.

Same when it comes to fishing. I used to throw out rusty hooks, jigheads, and crankbait treble hooks, but over the past few years I’ve sought out ways to restore them to fishability. Along the way, I’ve discovered numerous methods to remove fishhook rust through web searches and YouTube, but I think I’ve come up with something better—a combination of that research and a Eureka! moment of my own.

Why do fish hooks rust? If you’re an idiot like me and fish in pouring rain, keeping the insides of any tackle storage boxes waterproof can be difficult. Between opening up tackle boxes in the rain, and boat hatches that inevitably let water in during squalls, especially when letting water-penetrated boxes sit in boat compartments for days between fishing outings, most hooks are prone to rust.

Fishing late-winter and early-spring rains on the river this year, I discovered that a bunch of my tackle got wet, sat in my boat compartments for days, and rusted. Luckily, that was limited to a couple trays filled with walleye and Ned rig jig heads—and not a bunch of costly crankbaits.

While I could have thrown out the entire shooting match of jigs, I scoffed at the idea of losing hundreds of dollars of tackle to the rust fairy.

So, I began to research the best way to remove rust from fish hooks. What I discovered were a couple of common methods on the internet—one utilizing baking soda and the other WD-40—the latter believed to possess some kind of fish-attracting quality due to the shark oil in its ingredients.

Yes, before Dr. Juice, Fish Formula, and the myriad scents available today, anglers were spraying their baits with standard, garage-grade WD-40—many reporting positive, fish-catching results. Reality or farce? Not sure, we’re all suckers for a better way when it comes to catching fish. Trying it certainly can’t hurt.

Jim’s Simple Sea Foam Rust Treatment

Sitting at the garage workbench, dozens of rusty jigheads in front of me, I started playing around with baking soda dissolved in water to form a paste, and an unscented stainless steel scour pad and a stiff toothbrush. I discovered that while this will take some rust off, it’s a painstaking task. Same for the same procedure with WD-40.

Looking for a way out of countless hours scrubbing the tarnished metal, I saw a can of Sea Foam on my garage shelf—a fuel additive I’ve used religiously to in various outboard motors over the years. In a nutshell, Sea Foam not only helps treat your gas, it cleans your intake, carb, fuel injector, etc. I also use the High Mileage version of Sea Foam in my old Ford pickup, which has 220,000 miles on it and is still running strong, largely due to the Coyote V8 design, buying good gas, and treating every half dozen tanks or so with a can of the aforementioned Sea Foam High Mileage additive. I thought: Why not soak the rusty hooks in Sea Foam and see what happens?

So, I filled a mason jar with Marine Sea Foam and dropped the rusty jigs in the motorhead tincture. After something like 5 to 7 days, I noticed the rust dissipating and coloring the water, cleaning the hooks like it would the build-up inside an outboard and truck engine.

Following that, I drained off the Sea Foam, dumped the jig heads in a tray, then poured over a paste of baking soda/water, mixing it around and scrubbing with a firm-bristled toothbrush; then adding various scents to the slurry. I scrubbed some jig heads more than others, then wiped them off; good to go! The Sea Foam did most of the work for me—much better than using baking soda, WD40, or various metal polishes on their own.

By the way, if the hooks are super old and rusty, you can substitute powdered Barkeepers’ Friend in place of baking soda, which has more scouring power. You can also let the rusted hooks soak in the Sea Foam for longer than a week to do more of the work for you.

The final step is crucial: Use a file to sharpen the hooks, making sure they’ll stick fish, like new jigs right out of the package.

That’s it—looking for a project to return rusty hooks to starter squad status? Give this DIY project a shot.

Good fishing!

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