Snake and Rob

you will likely be as surprized as most anglers and study participants were that single siwash hooks on lures do more damage to salmon and steelhead survival rates than treble hooks do.

Several studies were done on various hooking and releasing methods for their effect on survival rates prior to the National Marine Fisheries Service decisions were made on allowing spring chinook and other anadromous specie seasons on the Columbia River. The studies were done to determine what the Fed ESA fish were able to withstand. The ODFW was one of the main study groups, under supervision by the NMFS (who's main job is to protect endangered stocks of wild salmon and steelhead).

Studies surprisingly revealed that siwash hooks were more often taken deeper and into the gills than trebles hooks were. The trebles were found to more often have one of the 3 tines stick somewhere in the outer mouth area before it went deeper toward the gills. And being of a much larger profile than siwash's made them less prone to deeper penetration. The study did reveal a bit more damage of mouth tissue from the removal of trebles than removal of single siwash hooks, but that was most often in less mortal effecting tissue. The gills, which get hooked more often by the siwash's, are much more survival affecting tissue.

That was surprising for me to hear and read about. But these studies are apparently available thru the Oregon Dept. of Fish and Wildlife.

Your posted statement above that "singles hold better anyway" seems to go hand in hand with their findings, and gives it more credibility.