The trouble with trebles

[FishFinger]

Let's have some fun and debate a contentious topic.... The treble hook.

Love 'em... Hate 'em... Ban 'em... How do you feel about trebles?

Sure, I've heard them called "you make 'em bite hooks" mostly by folks who retrieve their fish tail first... But I digress, that's foul hooking, helping to give them a bad name. (It's not gun that's bad, it's the one pulling the trigger).

I use trebs where applicable and adventagous. I achieve a better balanced/tuned spinner when I twist up one with treble hook. If forced to by regulation I'll twist up a siwash, but I'm lacking the confidence the presentation is on par with the balance of the treble.

Although I C&R as a rule some times I will fish for meat and a #18 gold treble is enough to entice a nibbler to commit...

On crank baits... I'm still on the fence but lean towards the trebs.

So... I'm pro trebles as long as they are barbless.

A barbless treble is much easier to remove from your face, or your friends face than the barbed variety.

 

[troutmasta]

Love em.

I put a link in a thread this summer that showed no significance in the mortality of released fish treble vs single. Also I personally dont lose fish a lot due to spit hooks so the advantage of a deeper hook set is not something I have really noticed. Finally I only fish treble on hardware, but when a 20 pound Ho slams my spinner with a size 1 treble hook, its gettin hooked.

 

[eugene1]

If it's legal I will run trebles on my kwiks. If it's single barbless I change them out.

 

[eat, sleep, fish]

I've changed most of my steelhead plugs over to the Gami 510's. So far they've performed incredibly well. With the short shank you don't have to worry about hooking a fish too deep as you do with most siwash's.

I haven't changed over any of my larger salmon plugs though. Far too good of a take down to land ratio with the stock trebles when back bouncing them.

 

[Irishrover]

I like my spinners with a treble. I might try and make a few with siwash but I prefer the treble. When you get a hook up with all three in the mouth both upper and lower parts, it locks that mouth shut and makes it harder for the fish to spit the lure. On the Columbia it was a barbless fishery for salmon this year, that included treble hooks. All of my salmon spinners had trebles on them so I pulled out the dremmel and removed the barbs. It made landing fish a bit more interesting. With a good head shake they could spit those trebles right out. On spoons I do like the siwash.

 

[SmallStreams]

No opinion. Cutthroat can spit either out all too frequently if they get airborne or rush towards you. Haven't lost any steelhead yet; did lose my first chinook with a too-small treble, but I only have a few years experience with steelhead/salmon compared to 45 years of trout. Trebles are a little more likely to snag (usually on me!) when moving through the brush. With a siwash, I'm more prone to sticking myself while handling the lure.

 

[JeannaJigs]

Trebles really suck when stuck in your hand. They don't want to come out and it sucks to perform surgery with a dirty fillet knife in the boat to prevent uneccessary water time lost by going to the ER. That said...I love them so. It's a glorious thing when a fish's mouth is hooked shut.

 

[newspin]

For what its worth Ive seen trebles out perform same size single in bait presentation time and again for trout.
Simple math im guessing more hook more bait.

Just a newbs $.02 though.

 

[DirectDrive]

Lifelong hater.....right down to the way the will not stack in my shirt pocket size Plano.
And then there's a ton of other reasons.
Lotta treble lovers in this thread so far.