Buyer's Guide
Top 5 Fishing Pliers
Pliers never catch a fish, and they decide the outcome of a surprising number of them.
A hook out fast is a fish back in the water in seconds instead of a minute, which is most of what release survival comes down to. Long jaws keep your fingers away from pike teeth, bluefish teeth and treble hooks under tension. Side cutters that will actually go through braid and through hook wire are what let you deal with a deeply hooked fish, or a hook in a hand, without making it worse.
The thing that kills pliers is salt, and it kills cheap ones within a season. So the buying decision is mostly about what they are made from and whether they were designed to be rinsed and forgotten.
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At a glance
| # | Pliers | Best for | Type |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bubba Fishing Pliers | Best overall | Aluminium, coated jaws |
| 2 | Van Staal Titanium Pliers | Best for hard saltwater use | Titanium |
| 3 | KastKing Cutthroat Fishing Pliers | Best value | Aluminium |
| 4 | Rapala Fisherman's Pliers | Best for freshwater | Long nose |
| 5 | Split Ring Pliers | Best for changing hooks | Specialist |
Bubba Fishing Pliers
- Jaws:
- Titanium-nitride bonded
- Cutters:
- Braid capable
- Best for:
- Salt and heavy use
Bubba's pliers are the ones that keep getting handed down rather than replaced, and the reason is the two features that decide whether pliers survive: a corrosion-resistant body and hardened, bonded jaw surfaces that do not round off. The titanium-nitride bonding on the jaws is what keeps the cutters cutting after they have been through a few hundred lengths of braid and a few hook shanks, and braid is genuinely hard on cutters because it is engineered not to be cut. The grips are large enough to use with wet or cold hands, which sounds trivial until you are trying to back a treble out of a bluefish in a chop. They are not cheap, and they are the pliers most likely to still be in the bag in five years.
- Hardened bonded jaws hold their cutting edge against braid
- Corrosion-resistant construction built for salt
- Grips that work with wet and cold hands
- Long enough jaws to keep fingers clear of teeth
- Expensive compared with basic pliers
- Heavier than a minimal pair
- Still needs rinsing, like everything else in salt
Van Staal Titanium Pliers
- Material:
- Titanium
- Cutters:
- Replaceable
- Best for:
- Surf and jetty
Titanium is the honest answer to saltwater corrosion, because it does not rust rather than merely resisting rust, and that is why these turn up on the belts of surf anglers who fish through winter and cannot be bothered with maintenance. Van Staal builds them heavy, with replaceable cutters, which is the right design decision: cutters are the part that wears out, and a pair of pliers you can re-edge rather than replace is a genuinely long-term purchase. This is a serious amount of money for a hand tool and it makes sense only if you fish salt hard and often. If you do, they are the last pair you buy.
- Titanium does not corrode, which ends the maintenance question
- Replaceable cutters extend the life indefinitely
- Built for surf, jetty and boat abuse
- Holds its function for years rather than seasons
- Very expensive
- Heavy on a belt over a long session
- Far more tool than a freshwater angler needs
KastKing Cutthroat Fishing Pliers
- Body:
- Aluminium
- Cutters:
- Replaceable side cutters
- Best for:
- General fresh and salt
These are the pliers to buy if you want most of what the premium pairs do without the premium price, and the specification that makes them worth naming is replaceable side cutters at this end of the market. Cutters are the first thing to fail on any pliers used with braid, and a pair you can refresh rather than throw away is a different proposition from a sealed unit. The aluminium body keeps the weight down and handles salt reasonably if rinsed. The jaws are long enough for most inshore work, and the spring return is the small thing that makes one-handed use possible when the other hand is holding a fish.
- Replaceable cutters at a mid-range price
- Light aluminium body
- Spring return allows genuine one-handed use
- Good jaw length for inshore and freshwater work
- Aluminium needs rinsing or it will pit in salt
- Not as durable as titanium or bonded-jaw pliers
- Sheaths at this price are the weak point
Rapala Fisherman's Pliers
- Jaws:
- Long nose
- Use:
- Hook removal, split rings
- Best for:
- Pike, walleye, bass
For freshwater the calculation is different, because corrosion is a slow problem rather than an urgent one, and what you actually want is long jaws and a low enough price that owning two pairs is not painful. Rapala's long-nose pliers are the standard freshwater answer: enough reach to get a treble out of a pike or a walleye without putting fingers inside the mouth, side cutters adequate for mono and light braid, and a shape that works for opening split rings when you are changing hooks on a crankbait. They will corrode if left wet in salt and they are not pretending otherwise. In a boat bag on a lake they are exactly enough tool.
- Long jaws keep hands away from pike and walleye teeth
- Inexpensive enough to own more than one pair
- Useful shape for split rings and hook changes
- The right amount of tool for freshwater
- Not built for regular saltwater use
- Cutters struggle with heavy braid
- Not replaceable-cutter construction
Split Ring Pliers
- Feature:
- Split ring tip
- Use:
- Hook and ring changes
- Best for:
- Lure anglers
This is the specialist that most anglers put off buying and then use constantly. A split ring is a tiny spring steel coil, and opening one with fingernails or the edge of a general-purpose plier is how thumbs get cut and how rings get sprung out of shape. If you replace factory trebles with better hooks, or swap trebles for single hooks, you will be opening a lot of them. A dedicated split ring plier has a small hooked tip that lifts one coil cleanly and holds it while you feed the new hook in. It costs very little, it does one job, and the moment you own one you stop putting off upgrading the hooks on lures that deserve it.
- Opens split rings cleanly without deforming them
- Makes swapping trebles for singles quick
- Very inexpensive for what it saves you
- Small enough to live permanently in a tackle tray
- Does only one job
- Cheap versions have soft tips that bend
- Not a substitute for a proper pair of pliers
How to choose fishing pliers
- Cutters are the part that fails: braid is engineered not to be cut, and it rounds off soft cutting edges quickly. Hardened or replaceable cutters are the single feature most worth paying for.
- Jaw length is a safety feature: long jaws keep your hand away from pike and bluefish teeth and away from a treble hook still under tension in a thrashing fish.
- Material decides salt survival: titanium does not corrode, anodised aluminium resists it if rinsed, and plain steel will not last a season in salt. Match the material to where you fish rather than to the price.
- A lanyard and a sheath are not optional on a boat: pliers go over the side. A coiled lanyard costs almost nothing and prevents the most common way of losing them.
- Carry a dehooker as well if you fish bait: on a deeply hooked fish a dehooker gets the hook out faster than pliers can, and speed is most of what release survival depends on.
- Rinse them with the rest of the gear: pliers are the tool most often left in the bag still wet with salt, and they are the tool that suffers most for it.
Frequently asked questions
- What should I look for in fishing pliers?
- Three things, in order: cutters that will go through braid and keep doing it, jaws long enough to keep your fingers away from teeth and hooks, and a material that survives where you fish. Everything else, including the finish and the sheath, is secondary.
- Why do fishing pliers rust so quickly?
- Because they are usually the last thing rinsed and the first thing put away wet, and because salt gets into the pivot where nothing dries. Anodised aluminium and titanium bodies resist it, plain steel does not, and a freshwater rinse at the end of the trip does more than any coating.
- Can fishing pliers cut braided line?
- Good ones can, and cheap ones stop being able to after a while. Braid is engineered to resist cutting, so it rounds off soft edges. Pliers with hardened or tungsten-carbide cutters, or with replaceable cutters, are what to look for if you fish braid, and many anglers carry small braid scissors as well.
- Do I need split ring pliers?
- If you change hooks on lures, yes. A split ring is a small spring steel coil, and opening it with fingernails or general pliers deforms it and cuts fingers. A dedicated split ring tip lifts one coil cleanly, which makes swapping factory trebles for better hooks or for single hooks a quick job.
- Are pliers or a dehooker better for removing hooks?
- Both, for different situations. Pliers are right for a hook in the jaw or a treble you can see and grip. A dehooker is faster and safer for a hook taken deeper, because it works down the line and turns the hook out without you reaching in. If you fish bait, carry both.
- How long should the jaws be?
- Long enough to reach past the teeth of whatever you catch. For panfish and trout, short pliers are fine. For pike, muskie, bluefish and anything with a mouth you would not put a hand in, longer jaws are a genuine safety feature rather than a convenience.
The bottom line
Bubba's pliers are the sensible buy for most people who fish salt at all, because the hardened jaws are what stops braid ruining the cutters. Van Staal's titanium pair is the buy-once answer if you fish surf hard and want to stop thinking about corrosion, and the KastKing Cutthroat gets you replaceable cutters for much less. For a freshwater boat bag the Rapala long-nose is enough, and everyone who fishes lures should own a split ring plier regardless.
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