Single Hook Replacements for Whopper Plopper Lure

[B-Gee]

I have a couple of 3 inch (#75) Whopper Plopper topwater lures. I have used them a couple of times and have caught bass but the two treble hooks damage the bass and are hard to remove. I would like to replace them with single hooks but don't know what would be the best size, style and manufacturer. I would appreciate any suggestions.

[gunsinger]

Won't that result in fewer hookups?

[B-Gee]

It may, but I don't care. It is catch and release here anyway.

[Smells like fish]

I’d snip off 2 hooks points off each treble and give it a try

[BassinCNY]

I've been thinking about doing the same thing with smaller walking baits but haven't done it yet. In my next order I was planning on getting some Owner single replacement hooks in the X strength. I planned on 2/0 for a junior walking bait but for a 75 WP I think I'd go 1/0. I'll probably try some Mustads too and see which ones work best and some 1/0's for river smallies.

[galyonj]

3 hours ago, gunsinger said:

Won't that result in fewer hookups?

 

I've thought about doing exactly what @Robert C. Gates is asking about on a lipless just to see whether it affects the hookup ratio or not, but I always get distracted and forget about it until a thread like this comes around.

 

My sense is that it really won't make a huge difference in the hookup ratio, and I think the lack of aggravation (from avoiding a percentage of snags, from not having to extricate trebles from my clothes, or the carpet in the boat, or my dock lines, or the fish, etc) will make it kind of worth whatever hit I might possibly take to the percentage of fish I get to the boat.

[Dwight Hottle]

Try these.

 

https://www.tacklewarehouse.com/Owner_Single_Replacement_Hook_X_Strong/descpage-OSRH.html

[TheBasslayer]

18 hours ago, Dwight Hottle said:

Try these.

 

https://www.tacklewarehouse.com/Owner_Single_Replacement_Hook_X_Strong/descpage-OSRH.html

I may get some of these.

[dj1975232]

This is big in the SW catch and release crowd especially with the Striped Bass group.  When I first changed some plugs over I noticed less hook ups.  What I found is even though it looks funny at first, upsize the size of the replacement inline single.  For instance, if you are replacing a 1/0 treble, replace it with a 2/0 or 3/0 inline single.  The gap makes the difference in hookups. 

[Bluebasser86]

Smash the barbs down on the trebles. That's what I do on guide trips (or just replace the stock hooks with barbless hooks), to make hooks easier to remove from fish or a person in case of an accident. It really doesn't result in many lost fish and the hooks are far easier to remove. 

[SC53]

BFS has it rigged correctly too. Front hook should face down, rear hook should face up. Rapala does this on some of their saltwater baits. 

[NHBull]

Not to beat a dead horse, but this year I started crushing the barbs and do so when guest are using my gear.  Few things are worse than having a 6 years old see you digging a swallowed wacky rig out of a 12 inch bass

[Koz]

I would go with barbless treble hooks. In fact, that will be my next rainy day project.

[Bubba 460]

 

Well for at least one of the reasons you mentioned, ("hard to remove") I can go along with what you said. Other than that I see no advantage of barbless treble hooks, at least on a top water bait. The hook-set on a trebled top water bait is done almost immediately.  The hooks are rarely any deeper in the fishes mouth than the cartilage area of the front.  A hook in the eye, although rare, is the same whether barbed, barbless or single.  98% of the time the chances  of doing any serious damage is slim and bass heal like everything else where blood flow is present.

 

I do kind of like the idea of single hooks though on the whopper plopper. I use the whopper plopper in the 130 size a lot.   I can see the hookup ratio only falling off slightly due to single hooks. I may try that and see what happens. But over all I rarely see a seriously damaged bass due to hooks ~ yes it happens, so do car wrecks. But maybe 2 or 3 killed bass due to hooks out of 50 and I give them to someone who will eat them. 

 

Having a bass out of the water too long for photos, weighing, dropping, and live wells have probably done in more bass than hooks ever will. I don't even think about weighing a bass unless he's 10# or over. I really don't need to know that the bass I just caught is a mere 2 pounds 4 oz and take two minutes to do it ~ get it back in the water!

 

Here let me give a little story...

 

Okay, let's reverse the tables. Two bass are hanging out one day and decided to go "peopling".  They spot a boat and miraculously float a Snickers candy bar through the air in front of the 'fishermen". The fisherman grabs it and takes a bite. The fish sets the hook and pulls the fisherman under the water into a mysterious world where he can't breathe. He tries to swim back to the surface but the fish keep pulling him down. Exhausted, he gives up and the fish pull him in. They grab him by his mouth and yank the hook out ~ the fisherman is running out of air. "Hey,  let's get a measurement on him," one of the fish say. So they get a tape measure.  "He's 5' 6," says the other fish. "Let's get some photos," the fish says ~ the fisherman is running out of air. So they the take photos, hold him several different ways, hanging by his lip is the most painful ~ the fisherman is almost out of air. "Oh, let's weigh him!" says one fish. So they dig through their gear and finally find the scale. They stick a hook in his nose and suspend him from his nostril, they look and bounce him a couple of times and look some more ~ the fisherman is running on fumes. "He weighs 133.6 pounds," says one fish. "Yeah, kind of puny," says one bass.  They take the hook out of his nose and roughly toss him to the surface. The fisherman gulps a huge breath of air and weakly swims to his boat. He climbs in and lays there exhausted, gasping breaths of fresh air. He does not know what just happened to him... did he just have a weird nightmare? The fish give each other fin bumps and look for the next person. "That's a nice cove, there should be a people over there,"  say's the fish...

[islandbass]

On 6/16/2021 at 8:08 AM, gunsinger said:

Won't that result in fewer hookups?

You’d be surprised how such a plausible thought is not always true. In my area, some places forbid the use of trebles and as a result we're forced to go single hook. I have seen zero ill effects from going single hook by state mandate. And I actually prefer single hooks when possible. It might just be me, but I think the single lends itself to a more solid hook set. 
 

To the OP, I don’t know what size to pick, but as a best guess, I think I would try a siwash hook whose gape is at least the same as that of the treble. Siwash can come “open” eyed and this make it very easy to attach them to lures. 

[michaelb]

I replace trebles with inline singles. On my kayak i don’t want extra trebles swinging around. But you may want to start with keeping the front treble on wp and replacing just the rear one. 

[Chris at Tech]

Salt strong has a video or two on this exact subject, and how to choose correct hook size

[GetFishorDieTryin]

On 6/17/2021 at 7:36 AM, SC53 said:

BFS has it rigged correctly too. Front hook should face down, rear hook should face up. Rapala does this on some of their saltwater baits. 

It depends on the design of the eye of the hook and where you're fishing.  The VMCs eye is inline with the shank and the Owners are offset which changes the angle of the hook.  I run single belly hooks so that the point is facing rearward.  That way it doesn't catch as much grass and is less likely to catch a scale from a bunker when your working your plug through a school.  

On 6/17/2021 at 11:20 PM, islandbass said:

And I actually prefer single hooks when possible. It might just be me, but I think the single lends itself to a more solid hook set. 

I think so too.  You have a much wider gap and once there hooked they don't come unbuttoned.  The only drawback with some of the short shank singles is the beak style point.  They work as they were designed, but if you roll a point they're harder to sharpen then a standard point.