hook change on lures

[THE BROW]

do u hav the same chance of hooking fish wit single hooks or trebels or is it more for safety of fish

[corbyeire]

better chance with trebles but then your right if you want to return it single hooks much better - you may also have less chance of snagging the lures and losing them

[brian perry]

defo better trebles,,better change of landing

[JimH]

Reducing a six hook lure to two hooks or a nine hook lure to three hooks will of course impact upon your hook up rate. Reducing a single treble to a single hook has little impact. The extent of that deterioration is in fact not very or indeed significant. See a post here recently by Eoghan.

If when you are fishing you normally don’t catch that many fish then leave the trebles on. If when your catch rate increases through finding fish then start to de-barb and clipping off hooks from the trebles or dropping down to singles.

If you are seeking satisfaction from a higher numbers of hook ups and want to use trebles when fishing then at least de-barb the trebles.

The post catch impact upon the fish comes when dealing with the unhooking and returning of fish. Excessive handling, beaching, reaching in through gill covers, lip ripping, gill damage, suspending fish from hooks and damage caused to eyes etc through the use of barbed trebles on lures can be significant.

The greater the time spent out of the water in trying to remove the hooks the more stressed the fish becomes and the less likely of any chance of survival upon return.

[Dave]

Jim, I'm just wondering do you find that that slightly reduced hook up rate with using single hooks is made up for by an increased chance of landing any hooked fish due to the wider gaped single hook having a better hook hold? If that makes any sense. I've only started using single hooks on some of my metal lures recently for mackerel and pollock and I can certainly see the advantages in using them, especially as you say in terms of catch and release.

[THE BROW]

nice one i,ll have to find the fish first but good for snaggy area,s anyway

[JimH]

Hi Dave

I like the logic, now throw different types of single hooks into the equation and see what happens! - All my saltwater fly and soft lure fishing is done with single hooks.