I put several hundred 31117's on Hawg Hunter plugs over the years for Brad when I was helping him. We had very few complaints about failures. Mustad also used to make open eyed trebles with an offset eye (think they were numbered 35114) and those held up too.
The problem ones aren't limited to Gibbs. If it was just Gibbs plugs that had the hooks fail regularly, new out of the wrapper, I'd write it off to pilot error at the factory. But Super Strikes also suffer the same failures new out of the package
What I'm thinking is that many tackle shops still have the older formula Mustads on the shelves. Gibbs probably rigs upwards of 50,000 plugs a year and is using a new formula Mustad. I've read that they had to reformulate for environmental reasons, that cadmium is one someone's "no-no" list.
Hab and Tattoo both use HD stainless splits. In size 5 and up these splits are extremely strong. I have so much confidence in them I've added them to the line attachment eye on almost all of my plugs to facilitate easy snap entry in the dark.
Hybrid Mode
