Treble to Single - suggestions?

[mbhw]

Voss365 posted a thread about showing your tackle recently, and it made me start to get organized. After organizing around 85% of my tackle, it dawned on me that I have piles of crankbaits I've never even used, as I bought them at garage sales or pulled them out of trees. I also noticed they were in good shape except for the treble hooks & rings, which I promptly pulled off.

Since I'm moving to North Carolina and need to start bass fishing like the pros, I guess the crankbaits will be handy.

Now - who here changes from trebles to singles? I've done this on large saltwater lures, but never smaller freshwater baits.

I don't want to change the action too much, so I marked the weight of the hooks I pulled off on a gram scale to match up.

My main question: What style of single hook has worked well for you? I have a few thoughts, but I'd like to hear yours.

Thanks for reading.

PS - I know my hookup ratio will decrease by eliminating trebles, but I'd rather have it easier on me and the fish.

 

[Rockbass6]

On crankbaits I would stick with the trebels, I normally carry both with me where ever I am depending on what fish I am fishing for. Creek fishing if I am intending on keeping my catch I use trebel, but if I let them go I use singel. I tend to lose more fish using single hooks, but the fish I do catch don't seem to be hooked as bad. if that helps. Anything with a plug stick bait what ever I always use trebel, if I am fishing with a wormharnes of any kind I use single hooks it all depends.

 

[JD7.62]

Ive never seen single hooks on crank baits. I suppose the back hook will be ok single but the hook up front would be totally useless as a single as it will most likely lay flat to the bait as it is retrieved. If it were me Id keep a good pair of needle nose pliers handy and stick with trebles.

Your fish will be fine, people worry about them too much. I once caught a bass that had perfect puncture wounds from a some sort of raptor that tried to catch it and dropped it. The wounds were still fresh and the bass was still eating. Your trebles wont damage the fish bad and needle nose plier makes hook removal easy enough.

 

[spotfin]

You could also break one hook off of the treble, leaving 2 hooks. A bit easier to get a fish off.

 

[mbhw]

I'm not too worried about the fish getting hurt. I'm more worried about me. I have a partial left hand handicap and don't need the aggrivation of extra hooks.

The trebles will definitely come off, I'll probably combine a few ideas here and do a double hook up front, and a single in the rear.

I use big plugs in saltwater with just a single rear hook and don't miss too many fish.

JD7.62 - I live lined a bait fish this past weekend over a reef and caught a 7 lb bluefish that was so sluggish until I realized it had a huge loop of mono wrapped around its mid section so tightly it was becoming embedded in the fish. He still was eating. I'll be the poor ba*tard was happy when I snipped it off and released him.