Swapping out trebles and looking for advice

[EMSer]

I am going to swap out the majority of my treble hooks for inline versions over the winter. Has anyone had particularly good (or bad) luck with any specific brands / styles?

[whenican]

I just cut 2 of the 3 hooks on the treble hook off w/ a strong pair of pliers, then sharpen the remaining hook & de- barb it.

[Backdoc]

Yep, clip two off and you don't need to buy new hooks or replace them. A friend of mine is a guide and this is what he does.

[Egriger]

I just started clipping my treble hooks this weekend. Years ago, i replaced most of the hooks on my surface plugs with circle hooks(with teasers). It didnt seem to bother them, it actually helped with tangles(on the front hook).

I interested in further responses as well!

[reel-em-in]

Checkout this thread... http://www.snaggedline.com/showthrea...s-on-Hardbaits

[Mark]

Bruce,

I did the swap with all my crank baits and poppers early this year. I used Owner 4101 series replacement hooks in size 2/0 and 1/0 for my hard baits, most of which are 1/2 oz. or close to it.

Here's a photo of an X-Rap after the swap:

B.jpg

I also put the Owner hooks on Rat-L-Traps but I have no immediate photos of them.

The good news is that I noticed no difference in the actions of the lures loaded with single hook(s). Frankly, I noticed no difference in hook up rates. If the fish struck them they got stuck.

However, throughout the spring trolling season and even now as troll for fall stripers, jigs with paddle tails and other soft plastic trailers catch far more fish than hard baits. I usually troll two rods simultaneously and during no trip have my hard baits caught more fish than jigs. I cannot explain the difference.

The exception to that has been poppers. When thrown into breaking fish my single hooked poppers always got hit and did their job by catching fish. But I think a gum wrapper would work for breaking fish. Note: I put only the back hook on my poppers, omitting the middle hook altogether. They work fine that way and no hook in the middle allows me to use the lure as a handle when lifting the fish from the water.

So, Owner make hooks that are fine replacements for the trebles. And it's definitely easier to release a fish caught on single hooks than trebles. For that reason alone I'm glad I did it.

Good luck,

[ronaultmtd]

I have had three fish- hook me with barbed trebles...most serious one in my upper inner thigh when I dropped a frisky 29 inch striper inside the yak- that was "fun"...word used in the worst case of fun- I had to push the hook all the way through and cut the barb off with side cutters- after this insult to injury, I filed the barbs off my hard bait hooks after this- and as long as I maintain pressure on the fish, I have not had any issue landing fish with barbless trebles...and I replaced the factory hooks with Owner trebles...they are sharp as a razor and stronger to prevent bending...and I remove the belly hook on my poppers-