Plugs

[kevw]

Have bought a lure rod and been getting out a few nights a week for a couple of hours, managed to catch a few small pike. A couple of the pike have been hooked well down, though have all been returned safely.

Would replacing the trebles with large single hooks affect the action and hooking qualities of the lures, am using Fox slow and medium sinking plugs/jerkbaits. Am thinking that this would make them easier to unhook, it seems to be the smaller fish that get hooked the deepest.

[Stig]

Replacing the trebles with singles will just result in you missing most of your takes (i know i tried it)the best way ive found is to squash the barbs down with a pair of long nosed pliers making the hooks not completely barbless but near enough as long as you keep the line under tension you shouldn't lose any using barbless trebles for pike aint like using barbless hooks for carp the barbless hooks cause no damage to mouths as pike have hard boney mouths .