top water is the bomb!

[scott taylor]

hey fellow anglers,
I had a nice morning (saturday) on Eastern Bay in flat calm conditions. Picked up some feisty rock to 21" which was okay for an August trip in warm water... I was catching on a 1/2oz bucktail and also a minnow swimming plug that was running at about a 6'-10' depth.

On my way in I cast a small stillwater smackit along the shoreline and had multiple blowups without a hookup. The blowups were both long distance and within a rod length of the kayak, i.e. a heart stopper!
This raises a question? The same plug hooked fish maybe 10 days ago.....

I have removed the double trebles from the smackit and replaced with in-line single hooks...will never go back to the trebles for obvious reasons.....even if it costs me hookups.....

Would anyone offer the hook size and style that they use in the conversion and comment on whether it seems to impact on hookup success? Also, any recommended pliers for turning the ring-dings? I have broker (2) pair.

Looking forward to fall topwater!

Scott

[Mark]

Scott,

As I've commented here before, I use Owner in-line hooks and for topwater hard plastics I remove the middle hook(s) and replace only the rear hook.

Popper After.jpg

My reasons for using only one hook on the rear of the bait are two:

1. I've caught a bunch of fish on flyrod poppers with only a single hook positioned on the back of the fly. I have ample confidence in a single hook.
2. If you remove the middle hooks on hard plastic topwater lures, you can use the lure body as a handle to lift the fish into your yak. You cannot do that if the middle hook is there.

Here's a chart that will guide your hook size choices:

Capture Hook.jpg

The chart is helpful but you can also eyeball the replacement. I use a single in-line hook with a gap that is as wide as the treble hook I removed.

Regarding hookups, I find that stripers hit poppers different than LM and SM bass and even pickerels. LM and SM and pickerels rarely miss a topwater. Usually they nail it on their first strike. Occasionally they'll miss and come back on it. The key is to keep it moving so that it appears to be a fleeing bait. For stripers, I find that they often miss on their first strike and come back to take it. The key again is to keep the popper moving.

I've read that stripers will first try to stun a top water bait and then they'll come back to it. Perhaps that is the reason for their initial miss. I do know that I experienced the same behavior (they missed it often on the first hit) when I used treble hooks on topwater baits and I experience it now with fly rod poppers, which of course do not use treble hooks. The good news is that they're persistent and will eventually hookup.

So, I do not think a single hook deters hookups. Fish chasing topwater baits are so darned aggressive they are not going to miss a single hook.

[J.A. Veil]

I heard Shawn Kimbro speak one time about how he removes both trebles from his plugs and adds a single J-hook in the belly position (leaving the tail position empty). I don't know if that works better or not, nor do I know if he fishes all his plugs that way. I do not spend much time throwing hard plastic plugs and claim little experience or skill at fishing them.

When I do throw hard plastics I usually remove both trebles and add a J-hook trimmed with bucktail to the tail. I visually match the hook size to the lure size, but am not as scientific about it as the chart that Mark showed. I recently caught several channel cats on a Rapala lure shaped like a Rat-L-Trap. On that lure, I cut off one of the three prongs on each treble and bent the barbs down on the remaining prongs. I was fishing in very murky water 12"-18" deep. The vibration and noise given off by that lure must have attracted those cats.