replacing the rear treble hook on lures questions.

[tdwv]

I want to replace the rear treble hook on some of my lures with a single hook. should I use the same size or smaller?

I am looking for single hooks with hair around the base to replace the trebles. where can I find these or what are they called?

I want to try to simulate a smaller fish near a bigger fish and eliminate the chance of the treble getting hooked in the eye or gill as much as I can.

any advice is appreciated!

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Can't believe no one responded. look under bucktails or trebles. Any of the larger on-line sites and probably this one will come up with selections. Sometimes referred to as "dressed" hooks.
Don't worry too much about size but try to approximate the weight...that's more important, especially on lighter plugs. You don't want to kill the action.

[Art Vrola]

I agree with replacing the rear treble hook to a single, dressed hook, for two reasons: Most hook sets with bass are on the middle/front treble hook, since bass normally hit plugs near the head; and I hate seeing the rear treble hook stuck in the bass' eye or gill.

On most plugs such as the SP minnow the rear dressed single hook gives it a longer profile and in my opinion makes it swim better. I never looked at replacing a rear hook to make it act like a smaller fish following.

I attempt to use the least amount of hardware to attach hooks to lures, however, keep in mind, the less movement of the hook, like too small of a hook that cannot swing freely from the plug or no swivel on the hook, gives the fish the advantage to get the hook out of its mouth.

good luck

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I have quite a few DSPM's. Don't ask. I rig them with a standard VMC siwash, naked. In most cases I have them on a split ring. A few without the ring are simply first efforts which I have not gotten to yet.
I had used stainless but I'm finding it too brittle and unhooking any blues 10# and up seems to end with a snapped hook.
I use dressed bucktail hooks on many of my smaller darters and quite a few poppers including pencil poppers. Also on about 75% of my needle fish where I think the extra action they impart really helps when the fish have lockjaw. Just about every belly hook I have on anything I use get a split ring. I think the extra help against fish gaining plug leverage is more insurance than I give up with the extra hardware potential to fail. I've had plenty of dropped fish without splits and only 1 ring failure and that was on an original DSPM belly hook which we all agree is not up the the task.