Here's something to think about

If a girl is into you she has ways of making that clear. It's hard to explain, but if you don't know what that looks like, you just need to go out more until your social acuity gets better. The longer you do it the easier it gets. But let's just assume that it's totally cold, you have no idea, and you want to go up and talk to girls.

Start off non-commital when you're talking to random ass girls. What I mean by that is that you're fine to have a 10-second conversation or a 2 hour one depending on how it goes. There's no pre-established chemistry here, you're just having fun and not trying to make something "work".

There's no real reason to try to make every conversation "hook" or work. First off, because there's always a bunch more people to talk to. Second (and I never understood why people in PUA don't get this one), if you go up and talk to people on a night out and you don't come off all weird, you can speak to them more than once. Holy shit, who'd believe that.

Like you wrote out this really stretched out conversation you had above with 2 blonde girls. Don't get me wrong, you should absolutely stick around if it's a real conversation and things are going alright, but it reads like you feel the need to just hang out there even if the vibe is off. If it feels awkward, you aren't gonna force it out of being awkward through sheer willpower just by standing there. If it feels weird like that, you can just as easily go:

Me: Hey, how's your night going?
Her: Fine
Me: Cool, what are your guys names?
Her: Sophie, and Matilda
Me: Nice meeting you, I'm Alex. Anyways, I'm gonna go grab a drink, see you around yeah?

Then if you bump into them later you can just speak to them again if you want to, like "Hey we spoke before right? Sophie?" and if it's more receptive the next time (which happens a lot) you can go from there. If not, whatever.

I've never understood why most PUA people don't do that. You're way more likely to get laid going up to a few groups in a normal, fun way a few times then hanging around with one group till closing than you are doing this rapid-fire super commital "approach 15 people in a row and god I hope they like me" stuff. Learn to relax and take your time, because you've always got time. Don't be one of these awkwardly nervous types hanging around the club like they've got one stuck in the chamber who can't relax unless they're talking with a girl who's into them.

There's a bunch more I could write here because "hooking" basically seems to mean making someone reliably want to have a conversation with you after the conversation has already started. There are way too many variables. So simple rule of thumb is, approach like it's not a big deal, don't try and force it, and remember you can always go talk to them again if you don't come off awkward.