At the Bass Pro Spring Classic, one of the things that Steve Chaconas discussed was using a red treble hook on the middle of your plugs – particularily a top water plug. This mimics a bit of bleeding and makes the plug appear more wounded and distressed.
This last weekend, I took some time to see how hard it would be to swap them out – pretty easy. Just unscrew the old hook; being careful not to lose the tiny screws and pop the new on back on.
For attachments that do not unscrew, work the old treble off the split ring and then put the red hook on in its place. The easy way to do this is to get the old one started and then to work the new red hook on at the same time. This keeps you from breaking your fingernails as you try and get the red one started from scratch.
I’ll see how this works when I go bassin’ this weekend.
Since I was also going to fly fish for bass, I looked thru a catalog and was surprised to see that none of the flies were tied on a red hook. I wonder if this is a trick that has not percolated to the fly fishing population.
Be sure you get the right size of red treble – understand the different sizes you need. Seems like most of mine were either size 4 or 6.
Hula Popper “before” shot
Hula Popper “after” shot
This is what I mean by working both on/off at the same time. It’s a lot easier than getting the old one off and trying to start the new one.
If you get hung up in brush as you work these crankbaits, clip off the bottom hook on the treble. That way, it will be easier for it to bump across the logs.
Unless stated otherwise, this article was authored by Steve Moore