Handy Revelation (To Me)

[Preytorien]

I've been able to get out in a smaller shallow river near me and go after smallmouth. The night before, I thought I'd try a trick and took the front treble hook off of my squarebills I normally use. Contrary to my common frustration, I didn't get a single snag or foul up the entire trip. They weren't in a crankbait mood (liked spinnerbaits that morning), but it still has me excited that I have a way to effectively fish cranks without getting so fouled up every time I use one. Typically I have to fish one where it's deep enough the crank won't hit the bottom, which sort of takes away a major attraction method, but then I have to take it off when the water shallows up. Now it appears I don't have to. I used it all the way up to 6in of water without foul ups. I'm sure others have done this trick, but it's new to me, and I can't believe I didn't think of it before. But if you're shallow water fishing and getting fouled up with slime from the bottom or snags in rocks, it might be worth a try to take off the front trebles.

[dave]

Try the same test by only cutting off the lead hook (the one pointed down on the belly)

[MFBAB]

I usually clip off the front hook as stated above for bass fishing, I think it reduces snags drastically.

 

Also, we troll crankbaits for crappie a lot in my area, and I have been removing the front treble on those for years with no ill effects (like poor hook-up rates) The reason I remove the hook for crappie isn't snags, this is open water fishing mostly:

1 - To reduce mortality on the ones I release (12" size limit here so lots of release fish)

and

2 - To make it faster to unhook them in general, you want your hands free whenever you run through a school of them  

 

**I will admit to changing my trebles out to Triple-Grips though, I think those hooks keep them buttoned better than most of the factory hooks I've seen and this step probably mitigates some losses I would have caused by removing or clipping the front hook.