A contemporary Tlingit-style wooden halibut hook carved by Leslie Isaacs (Native name: Tsaandaay/Ts'aang Gaay), a Haida craftsman, in Craig, Prince of Wales Alaska in March 2013 and commissioned by Jonathan Malindine for educational purposes. It is an example of the kinds of hooks that were produced and used by both Tlingit and Haida peoples of Southeast Alaska. The name of the artifact in the local language is náxw (Lingít [Tlingit]), or ýagw táawaay (Xaad kil [Haida]). Such hooks were used by the people of the Northwest Coast to catch large halibut. Bait was tied at the intersection of the two wooden elements. Fished just off the ocean floor, a biting halibut will become hooked when the barb is embedded into its head. This hook has been carved from red cedar and yellow cedar and has a deer bone spike (Sitka black-tailed deer, Odocoileus hemionus sitkensis). Jonathan Malindine comments that hooks such as this one are now only rarely used for fishing. Their "function now is primarlly decorative, while production is an act of connection to cultural heritage." He notes that usually the upper element (i.e. non-barbed, wooden section) is carved with various motifs and figures. This object represents a standard, perhaps utilitarian, exammple of a traditional Northwest Coast halibut hook. The fish hook was sent to SI wrapped in a tan soft leather which is included in storage with the object, but may not have any cultural significance.

« Fishing equipment in the Speck collection includes seven fish hooks, five of which have wooden shanks and bone points. Vanstone, James W. "The Speck Collection of Montagnais Material Culture from the Lower St. Lawrence Drainage, Quebec." Fieldiana. Anthropology. New Series, No. 5 (October 29, 1982), p.6. « Two metal fish hooks are also composite in design. Large commercial steel hooks are lashed to iron spikes with heavy twine. Lighter twine binds the point of the hook to the distal end of the shank. At the proximal ends of both specimens are leaders consisting of short strips of moose hide to which are attached lengths of two-ply twine fish line (fig. 3b). » Vanstone, James W. "The Speck Collection of Montagnais Material Culture from the Lower St. Lawrence Drainage, Quebec." Fieldiana. Anthropology. New Series, No. 5 (October 29, 1982), p.6, fig 3b (p.31). « Hooks of both types were baited with minnows and used with set lines. Muskellunge, pike, and other large fish swallowed the hook which then caught in the stomach rather than in the mouth or gills. Fish hooks with wooden shanks were used by the neighboring Mistassini and are described and illustrated by Rogers (1967, p. 88, pi. XIV-A). » Ibis.

« Fishing equipment in the Speck collection includes seven fish hooks, five of which have wooden shanks and bone points. Vanstone, James W. "The Speck Collection of Montagnais Material Culture from the Lower St. Lawrence Drainage, Quebec." Fieldiana. Anthropology. New Series, No. 5 (October 29, 1982), p.6. « Two metal fish hooks are also composite in design. Large commercial steel hooks are lashed to iron spikes with heavy twine. Lighter twine binds the point of the hook to the distal end of the shank. At the proximal ends of both specimens are leaders consisting of short strips of moose hide to which are attached lengths of two-ply twine fish line (fig 3b). » Vanstone, James W. "The Speck Collection of Montagnais Material Culture from the Lower St. Lawrence Drainage, Quebec." Fieldiana. Anthropology. New Series, No. 5 (October 29, 1982), p.6, fig 3b (p.31). « Hooks of both types were baited with minnows and used with set lines. Muskellunge, pike, and other large fish swallowed the hook which then caught in the stomach rather than in the mouth or gills. Fish hooks with wooden shanks were used by the neighboring Mistassini and are described and illustrated by Rogers (1967, p. 88, pi. XIV-A). » Ibis.

« Fishing equipment in the Speck collection includes seven fish hooks, five of which have wooden shanks and bone points. The shank is split at the distal end for insertion of the point at about a 30 degree angle. Commercial two-ply twine was used to bind the split area of the shank and more twine was secured about the center of the point and then about the shank. There is a knob at the proximal end of the shank to which is fastened a short piece of caribou skin which served as a leader (fig. 3g). » Vanstone, James W. "The Speck Collection of Montagnais Material Culture from the Lower St. Lawrence Drainage, Quebec." Fieldiana. Anthropology. New Series, No. 5 (October 29, 1982), p.6, fig. 3g (p.31). « Hooks of both types were baited with minnows and used with set lines. Muskellunge, pike, and other large fish swallowed the hook which then caught in the stomach rather than in the mouth or gills. Fish hooks with wooden shanks were used by the neighboring Mistassini and are described and illustrated by Rogers (1967, p. 88, pi. XIV-A). » Ibis.

« Fishing equipment in the Speck collection includes seven fish hooks, five of which have wooden shanks and bone points. The shank is split at the distal end for insertion of the point at about a 30 degree angle. Commercial two-ply twine was used to bind the split area of the shank and more twine was secured about the center of the point and then about the shank. There is a knob at the proximal end of the shank to which is fastened a short piece of caribou skin which served as a leader (fig. 3g). » Vanstone, James W. "The Speck Collection of Montagnais Material Culture from the Lower St. Lawrence Drainage, Quebec." Fieldiana. Anthropology. New Series, No. 5 (October 29, 1982), p.6, fig. 3g (p.31). « Hooks of both types were baited with minnows and used with set lines. Muskellunge, pike, and other large fish swallowed the hook which then caught in the stomach rather than in the mouth or gills. Fish hooks with wooden shanks were used by the neighboring Mistassini and are described and illustrated by Rogers (1967, p. 88, pi. XIV-A). » Ibis.

« Fishing equipment in the Speck collection includes seven fish hooks, five of which have wooden shanks and bone points. The shank is split at the distal end for insertion of the point at about a 30 degree angle. Commercial two-ply twine was used to bind the split area of the shank and more twine was secured about the center of the point and then about the shank. There is a knob at the proximal end of the shank to which is fastened a short piece of caribou skin which served as a leader (fig. 3g). » Vanstone, James W. "The Speck Collection of Montagnais Material Culture from the Lower St. Lawrence Drainage, Quebec." Fieldiana. Anthropology. New Series, No. 5 (October 29, 1982), p.6, fig. 3g (p.31). « Hooks of both types were baited with minnows and used with set lines. Muskellunge, pike, and other large fish swallowed the hook which then caught in the stomach rather than in the mouth or gills. Fish hooks with wooden shanks were used by the neighboring Mistassini and are described and illustrated by Rogers (1967, p. 88, pi. XIV-A). » Ibis.