# HOOK HELP



## Shoeless (May 21, 2001)

I want to replace the trebles on my rattle trap with single hooks. Last night was an exercise in frustration at times digging hooks out of the fish and myself (thanks wetsuit guy). Should the hook be point up or point down or does it matter? Also, if I were to leave a hook off a rattle trap or plug, would it be the center or tail? Thanks.


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## Sandcrab (Mar 20, 2002)

I would dump the center hook and just go with a tail hook. I would think about putting a single hook that has a bucktail teaser attached to it.


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## Joey (May 27, 2001)

Shoeless,

Whenever I replace trebles with singles, the hook point is on the downside. 

As to which hook to remove, it would depend on what you are targetting. From my experience with larger plugs, Stripers tend to hit toward the front of the lure while blues strike the rear (in most cases). 

Be sure to test the lure with the mods. A simple thing as changing trebles to singles, removing hooks or using split rings can possibly affect the action. So usually a lure out of the box is designed to perform best that way.

With all that said... Bill Lewis (maker of Rat-L-Trap) offers this version with the rear hook replaced with a blade.










IMHO, leave the Rat-L-Trap the way it is but smash the barbs down. It will help you remove the hooks quicker and often a less hassle.


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## Shoeless (May 21, 2001)

Thanks for the help guys. I am targeting striper right now so I will try a single middle hook. That is also good point about lure action and I will check this as well.


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## jay b (Dec 1, 2002)

Shoeless, Joey's right-on about the barbs on the trebles. I fish the Lesner a lot for the linesiders and it's the best change I've seen for quick release when you're fishing C&R and the action gets fast. I use mostly mirrolures and I'll take the front hook off but that's only to make it easier to pick the fish up and not hook yourself. I have noticed a lot of what I thought was good hook-ups that wound-up getting off, and Joey's right again, it's because stripers swallow their food head-first rather than chasing it and eating by the tail like a trout, blue or puppy drum. One thing I've done to eliminate this is quicken the rate of reeling in your lure which works well with a mirrolure, but I'm not sure how good it would work with a rattletrap. Another thing I've tried with sucess is to switch lures to something that already has a single hook on it like a hopkins,castmaster, crippled herring, stingsilver or even a jig head with a short tail.Oh by the way, if you're out there tonight you may have some company.


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## Joey (May 27, 2001)

here's something else to try if you don't want to completely get rid of your treble hooks. cut off one point from your trebles so you are left with two points instead of three. this will probably help increase your hook up rate while decreasing the chances of hooking yourself.


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## Shoeless (May 21, 2001)

Thanks again. I do mash the barbs, which also helps remove hooks from clothing. I will definitely be there, probably showing up around 3 or so. I want as much time on that bar as I can get. I also will be using some wild eye shads for a change of pace.


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## Tom Powers (Aug 2, 2001)

And if you do replace the hooks buy yourself a good set of split ring pliers. They work great.

Tom


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