Don't have a whole lot of experience yet with larger sickles, but i would say you are right, it is all in what fish you are chasing. In my experience, the softer mouth fish (crappie/gills/perch) are more suited for sickles but don't have an exact reason why, maybe just dumb luck so far. :-/ The river smallmouth and lake largemouth that i have hooked up on seem more likely to 'throw' a sickle jig than a regular bend. :huh: I can say for the river smallies i fish for - which do not average in larger sizes - the lighter reg. bend hooks get by. I do like the fact that i can bend the hook (not break it) with pressure if i get hung up. Come springtime, a friend & i are hoping to go after some walleye in a local river with the jigs i got from you - hopefully give some feedback one way or the other. Walleye are toothy/boney mouthed critters for sure!
In larger sizes - 1/0 & 2/0 - EWG hooks all the way... love them so far! LMB do NOT spit the hook on me with them as often. Like the wide gap as well.
Actually surprised by the #8 & #6 trout favorites.... what species of trout have you gotten feedback on? I admit i have very little experience with trout, but would place them in the boney mouth catergory in my mind. As a general notion, would rather a stiffer hook, harder hookset.
Sorry, i am mostly above the #2 hook target you were looking for. I use #2 regular aberdeens for crappie (both bait and jigs) but that is mostly because it is what is widely available for me locally. They work for me, but maybe that is just because i don't know anything different! Haha! - Russ