Why the need to change hooks on a hard bait?

[Ravox]

This is interesting was talking to a friend that works at BPS the other day, about the real necessity of changing hooks on hard baits,  on his point of view he says is totally unnecessary, we both never lost a fish because the hooks that comes with the baits are bad, he said this is just a way for hook manufacture companies make more profit and push the need to change hooks, initially this was just in case a hook got rusted or broken, but nowadays with youtubers pushing that all the time he said that BPS is selling a lot of treble hooks for people to change them on brand new baits.

 

No sure about you guys but never ever lost a fish due to a hook that comes with the bait out of the package and this includes cotton cordells, rattle l traps etc..

[Choporoz]

I don't do it automatically,  but I promise that when I do, the hooks on the bait are better.  I think I can tell pretty well when the trebles on a new bait are not as good as I'd like.  I have never done it because there's a utuber somewhere talking about it....never even seen such a thing

[ajschn06]

Lost a fish?  No but I’ve had some swipes that may have resulted in hookups if my hooks were better.  Not enough to motivate me to change them, but if I was fishing tourneys I’d probably be doing it on select baits.

[PressuredFishing]

25 minutes ago, Ravox said:

This is interesting was talking to a friend that works at BPS the other day, about the real necessity of changing hooks on hard baits,  on his point of view he says is totally unnecessary, we both never lost a fish because the hooks that comes with the baits are bad, he said this is just a way for hook manufacture companies make more profit and push the need to change hooks, initially this was just in case a hook got rusted or broken, but nowadays with youtubers pushing that all the time he said that BPS is selling a lot of treble hooks for people to change them on brand new baits.

 

No sure about you guys but never ever lost a fish due to a hook that comes with the bait out of the package and this includes cotton cordells, rattle l traps etc..

Yes I change them especially if I have found a lure in tact but rusted hooks or if the lure I'm fishing has taken a beating and the hooks are no longer sharp ill change, but let's be honest I usually loose my bait by the time that happens. Also I change them for big swimbaits because if it gets a bite it's a fish I probably think is worth investing an extra 10 bucks on as fish insurance. Finally specialty hooks like flashy hooks with the little blades

[J Francho]

The baits I buy usually have very good hooks. When the hooks dull and can't be sharpened, I replace them with either Owner ST-36 or VMC Vanadium Inlines. 

[Bankbeater]

I only replace hooks if they get bent out of shape or when I can't sharpen them any longer.

[TnRiver46]

Some people change them to bigger/heavier hooks to make lures run deeper or smaller/lighter hooks to make them run shallower 

[A-Jay]

I just like the fancy shmancy colors ~ 

A-Jay

[Fishingmickey]

For me it depends on the bait. If it is a cheaper bait equipped with the "old" school bronze hooks and I am fishing a tournament and planning on throwing that bait a lot. It is getting the high quality hooks. Gammy's or Owner's.

FM

[T-Billy]

49 minutes ago, A-Jay said:

I just like the fancy shmancy colors ~ 

A-Jay

All hooks should be red. Red disappears underwater so fish can't see them. I read that on the interweb, so it has to be true. ?

[Fishing_Rod]

Just a casual recreational angler so I’ve got to be compelled with a significant reason to change things. So no I don’t just change out hooks cause they are not the right ‘brand’. I’ve not found a commercial bait yet that didn’t have hooks sharp enough to draw blood if you weren’t careful. So as long as they are sharp enough I’m good with them.

 

Others have their reasons for changing out hooks and when budget and time permit, I hope it provides gratification. I’d much rather spend my time taunting fish using what I’ve got as it has demonstrated to be suitable for the task at hand.

 

I have recently been experimenting. I’ve converted some of my lures to single hooks, away from trebble hooks. My intent is to minimize hook trauma while improving ease of hook removal for successful release. So far I’ve had good success with the few I’ve changed out. I realize there are some lures that don’t track well, or have the similar action with a single hook so it is not an absolute comprehensive conversion effort.

 

I’ve found using soft split ring alternatives to be more of an improvement to hook up ratios than using a particular hook (type or brand). A soft split ring is a bit of braided line used to connect the hook to the bait rather than a metal split ring.

 

Testing continues as it is a new year with a new fishing license. Bonne Chance! Cheers!

[813basstard]

The guys that fish for a living I get. 100k rig, travel the country, put marriages in limbo with various nights at bars and questionable decisions that follow, makes complete sense to drop an extra $5 bucks. 

The guy that fishes once a month (maybe) at the same lake while pile-driving a 12 pack of slightly cold beer and cuts his line with the lit heater he has going when it’s time to re-tie and stumbles on an occasional 7+ pounder...why

[Ravox]

38 minutes ago, Fishing_Rod said:

Just a casual recreational angler so I’ve got to be compelled with a significant reason to change things. So no I don’t just change out hooks cause they are not the right ‘brand’. I’ve not found a commercial bait yet that didn’t have hooks sharp enough to draw blood if you weren’t careful. So as long as they are sharp enough I’m good with them.

 

Others have their reasons for changing out hooks and when budget and time permit, I hope it provides gratification. I’d much rather spend my time taunting fish using what I’ve got as it has demonstrated to be suitable for the task at hand.

 

I have recently been experimenting. I’ve converted some of my lures to single hooks, away from trebble hooks. My intent is to minimize hook trauma while improving ease of hook removal for successful release. So far I’ve had good success with the few I’ve changed out. I realize there are some lures that don’t track well, or have the similar action with a single hook so it is not an absolute comprehensive conversion effort.

 

I’ve found using soft split ring alternatives to be more of an improvement to hook up ratios than using a particular hook (type or brand). A soft split ring is a bit of braided line used to connect the hook to the bait rather than a metal split ring.

 

Testing continues as it is a new year with a new fishing license. Bonne Chance! Cheers!

Do you have pictures of one of your baits with single hooks… this is interesting .., i try as much as i can to minimize fish trauma too, remove the barbs and all that but i know treble hooks can cause more damage but not so sure if a single hook will affect a lipless crank work

[Deleted account]

44 minutes ago, 813basstard said:

put marriages in limbo with various nights at bars and questionable decisions that follow

Said the guy from the strip bar capital....

[BlakeMolone]

All I know is that when I hooked my PB and had to pull it through a flooded forest I was really wishing I had better hooks on the bait. If I was in open water and could play the fish it wouldn’t have been a big deal but by the time I got her in three of the hook points were bent to crap, I could have easily lost that fish due to bent hooks and that wouldn’t have been a problem if I put better hooks on the bait. Prepare for the big one so that when she bites you have the best chance of getting her in, I would still be crying over that fish if it would have gotten off.

With that said a lot of baits these days come with hooks that are just fine to me, it’s just those crazy thin jerkbait hooks that I’ve started changing out consistently.

[gim]

Rapala is notorious for putting crap trebles on their hard baits. I regularly change them out for something that is more stout. I feel like the ones they come with are weak. They’re usually very sharp out of the package, just not very strong.

 

A lot of other species willingly bite hard baits here that have an iron jaw loaded with teeth. I need something that can stand up to it.

[A-Jay]

  I’ve mentioned a few times that I prefer to replace most stock trebles with aftermarket offerings. 

Additionally, I’m a fan of EWG’s vs the Round Bend model in just about every scenario. 

Not saying that one is considerably more effective than the other, it’s just how I do it and where my confidence lies on the matter.  

However, there’s a bit of method to my madness.....

YMMV

A-Jay

[txchaser]

Same reason I check my line for nicks. It takes so much work to get on big fish and there's so little margin for error when it happens, I'll take every little bit of advantage I can get. With that said, more and more of the baits I buy have great hooks out of the package anyway. Examples - Jackall, 6th Sense, and the one LC squarebill I have all use nice hooks. Strike king squarebill hooks?  Eww. Fine on a couple pound bass, but man you live in Florida, you have a real legit shot at a DD on any given Tuesday. Don't let it be a story about the one that got away. 

 

I had a pretty big girl on a blade bait this last weekend, and when I got her in the boat, one part of the hook was bent all the way out, one halfway, and one wee little hook was still in the fish. Just a tiny little bit more pressure and it would have been gone. I hadn't yet replaced the hooks as I rarely mess with blade baits in Texas. And I was being careful as I had lighter line.

[the reel ess]

3 hours ago, Fishingmickey said:

For me it depends on the bait. If it is a cheaper bait equipped with the "old" school bronze hooks and I am fishing a tournament and planning on throwing that bait a lot. It is getting the high quality hooks. Gammy's or Owner's.

FM

I have an el cheapo Academy store brand lipless crank that gets more bites than the Rat L Trap. But the hooks were marginal. I swapped them with the EWG hooks from a Trap. Also sharpened them.

[padon]

around here quality bites are hard to get. if the hook doesnt feel sharp or stout enough to do the job i replace it. i work to hard for too few hours on the water to risk losing my biggest fish of the year on a dull or weak hook.

[Columbia Craw]

I just picked up a Fritzside 5 crankbait. It had a thin wire round bend size 6. A Berkley Fusion ??  I dunno but not a super sharp hook.  I was able to put KVD short shanks in size 4 without risking hooks tangling, reducing bending that hook and getting a markedly sharper point. I don’t have to do this often but this bait seemed to benefit from the change.

[suzuki2903]

Duel, yo zuri , megabass etc higher end lures the hooks are good!  Strike king, no so good! I’ve had them bend out before and since then I change out every hook before even using them.  It’s disappointing to have to do this  but i suppose the average joe won’t notice or care either. 

[Phelptwan]

There are certain brands that don't seem to come with very sharp hooks (I'm looking at you Booyah, Strike King, and R2Sea) in my experience.  Generally I'll sharpen those out of the box.  On the other hand, I've been replacing hooks on R2Sea stuff as I use it because I keep breaking off the tips of them.

[Trox]

I once heard, "The hooks that come on the rattletrap, are the best hooks for the rattletrap"... And that has actually proven to be true imo, even with other baits. Manufacturers know that MOST fishermen won't buy more of a lure that has noticeably cheap components, so they will typically put the best hardware they can find/create on their baits. Of course, there are always exceptions to the rule...

And I capitalize "MOST" when talking about fishermen because I know guys who literally change every hook, on every bait that they buy, no matter what. Could be a turd for hooks and they would still buy it. But that's not me, or the majority of the guys and gals I know out there... In short, I believe that most stock hooks are pretty alright, but I will change them out in regards to switching from EWG to roundbend (or vice versa), or lighter to heavier, depending... but not always, and not because one wasn't a good hook...

 

Now, It's also important to consider the percentage of fishermen that will ever even consider changing out hooks, at any point. As in, no one who is not serious about the sport is going to spend time tassling with split ring pliers and such... so this leaves a rather small percentage... maybe under 25% of the fishing community regularly change out their hooks. 

 

But this 25% is serious, man! And don't let them catch you talking about using stock hooks on your... Crud! they've spotted me, gotta run!

 

 

[volzfan59]

I pretty much always change the hooks on older Rat-L-Traps and Super Spots because I have lost fish on them. Newer Traps have better hooks than the older ones. I've never had a bass throw a Red Eye Shad, Rattling Vibe or whatever Megabass and Spro call their lipless.

 

Here's what I learned working at BPS. If you but BPS branded crankbaits, automatically change the hooks on ALL XTS crankbaits! They are straight up junk. The XPS baits have better hooks and I've done ok on new XPS jerkbaits with stock hooks. I did change them because they dulled fairly quickly.