I just built up my summer supply of spinners for steelhead. Normally I run gami sickle hooks on all my hardware. But last summer was my first year really fishing spinners and I noticed I missed a lot of fish.

This year I'm thinking about using treble hooks on a few spinners to see how they work.

Anyone use them?

Were you using octopus hooks, or the open eye siwash, Big River Bait hooks? An octopus hook is a no-go for attaching to the bottom eye on a spinner.

I've been rollin hardware to anadromous fish for way too long, and looking at log book info from before I started using siwash hooks, compared to now... It's a fairly noticeable difference, in favor of a siwash. Just what works for me I guess, as everyone's results will vary.

When I first started really pounding the deschutes with hardware as a kid, I lost a ton of fish. Took a decent break out there, and fished hardware on the closer waterways. As I got more experience with them, my hook to land ratio has steadily increased. Over the last 5-7 years it has stabilized pretty nicely. Last season I landed or boated a hair over 75% of the fish that climbed on. Not just head shakers. I don't count those in my logbooks. It just convolutes things even further for me if I tried... But fish that were on and fightin... A little over 75%. That was using those sometimes brittle ass matzuos, and now I am stuck on the BRB for everything but summers. I feel like I get more of the slightly smaller summer fish to stick if I use a size 1 or 2 matzuo. Never broke a fish off on one, but have broken a few eyes when crimping... And the sample size is now in the thousand or so neighborhood.

When I first started tying spinners with the guidance of Bill Williamson at BCAP, he made a very good point about treble hooks... He said tht because you will usually stick two points thru, they will often work against each other, and cutting point hooks can wear a large hole during prolonged fights. I immediately tried the needle point owners, and thought they were the bees knees. Worked really well. But now I have completely abandoned them on casting spinners and spoons, all together in favor of the sickle siwash style hooks.

If you are going to try some trebles, I might start out with the owner super needle points. See how that works, and go from there. Great hooks that stay sharp for the most part.

Another observation when using siwash hooks... They don't hang up nearly as often as trebles. I always use tube to keep the hook hangin straight aft of the body, and have found that to be the most effective setup for me. If they do grab a rock, I can normally get them back quite easily if I don't absolutely reef on it from downstream.




This is a great example of a spinner that has done damage almost everywhere I've let er rip, and it is still part of the arsenal after literal years of fish, and fishing. And the pic below is of a dirty ol buck. The last steelhead I pinned in OR this year before Talkeetna. It was confused. He thought he was a3 pound summer judging by the number of time he came, full-on, out of the water. Those are tuff fish to get to hand, but I think the siwash, and tube really helps... Have fun this summer, and catch lots!



Ol faithful.





Ol bucker.






Sorry for the ridiculously lengthy reply, but I love tossin brass! So given the opportunity, my brain just pukes all this crap out, all at once.

i used to always use gami siwash hooks. lost a lot of fish on spinners and started experimenting.

any more, all my spinners get set up with a VMC siwash with a split ring. the VMC seems to hold better than the gami, and the split ring helps keep the fish from twisting the hook out. the VMCs are very easy to sharpen and hold an edge, too. as long as i keep pressure on the fish, they seem to stay hooked up, even on coho with barbless hooks.

trebles work well, but it just seems like the areas you can use them get fewer and fewer every year, and be prepared to lose a lot of gear. where you can bump a single hooked spinner on the bottom, trebles seem to hang up every time.

Really like the ol bucker' picture. Gotta love a parasite or two hanging out the gill plate...

I like to use a heavy bumper line on the end of braid 15-20 lb mono. I don't like have to have to cast/fish with big diameter line, but I still like to have a really strong connection. Then I use a smaller sized gamakatsu siwash hook, like a 1 or 2. Then I can bend the hook out, and I rarely lose spinners.

Not a fan of trebles....never have been.
I believe that they're harder on the fish and I lost more gear when I did experiment with them.

Also I can carry more ammo when they're sportin' singles.

I find siwash hooks to work better than trebles, besides being legal to use everywhere

Fish on...

Todd

spinners are my favorite way to catch summers, half-pounders, and coho. I've experimented with just about every combination you can including wide gap trebles (work pretty well but really tear fish up), siwash (work good but lose many fish within the first 5 seconds) but I do have 2 favorites. As mentioned by Neon above, Gami Big Rivers work great but an equal favorite is a Gami octopus provided it's on a barrel swivel with a split ring on each side. It's sort of an Eye Doc hang-back system but on a spinner. I prolly lose some more to the rocks than I do otherwise but not too many.

The siwash need a angle bent into them (like an octopus) to perform well IMHO.

I knew you like that E! ;-) Fish was in halfway decent shape for mid may, and as I rolled it over, for the spinner pic that gill turd came slithering out. Mmmmm. Tasty.

I do agree with the VMC hooks tho. Easy to sharpen, and hold fish very well. Not so easy to find them real close to where I live in the winter right now tho. And I've been happy with a couple other siwash hooks, so the time spent not driving is valuable. I guess. I will have to experiment with a split ring tho. Situk silvers liked to play ball, but fewer than 60% ever made it to the boat. I bet I could find some really stretchy tube, or tiny split rings that wod still allow the use of said tube. I truly believe it helps to stick the fish once they commit and grab hold.

I didn't think trebles would be a popular solution to the spinner game.

Right now I run 2/0 gami big river hooks with split rings on my size 3 spinners. They hold fish the best ONCE HOOKED imo. I can't think of any fish coming unhooked last summer.
But I was having issues hooking fish, could be caused by the hook angle? With the octopus style eyelet making the point angle out and away from the spinner body?

I'm gonna have to pick up some of those vmc siwash's and try them. I'm not a fan of gami siwash hooks with those pathetic barbs, and definitely hate them in barbless fisheries.

2/0 is pretty big for a #3 spinner in my opinion. But the octopus eyelet could definitely be a contributing factor, since that type of hook is designed to have its pull point comin off of the shank, and not the eye itself.

I use stock trebles on Blue Fox # 4's and 5's. I don't think there's a spinner and hook combo I've used (and that's many) that has a better bite-bank ratio (steelhead) for me than the #4 Blue Fox with the standard treble. It's in the 80% range. That said, when using trebs, I use moderate action rods in the 4-8 or 6-10 range and let the fish go bonkers for a minute before I put the screws to them. However, I only like those spinners under certain conditions. When I throw torpedo styles size 4 and 5 or larger spoons, I usually use siwash and usually Gami's in #1 or 1/0. Bigger hooks hold big fish better. I like the VMC point, but have straightened too many. I've missed too many or quickly lost them with sickles. With smaller spinners, like #2-#3, I usually use Gami trebs and currently like the short shank, as it's stronger than most. Trebs definitely have a better hookup ratio. One thing that helps reduce snags with a treble is forming the lure with pliers so that there is an eye for the leader that's off center. When attaching the hook, have the welded point on the same side as the leader eye. That will keep the welded point straight up and keep the other points from pointing straight down. (You can do something similar with siwash). IMHO, the treble-rigged spinner will track straighter and spin a little slower than a siwash equivalent.

Regarding trebs being hard on the fish, I've had mixed experiences. The trebs are more likely to cause bleeding for sure, but the siwash often exit the corner of a steelhead's mouth through the eye socket, especially on smaller fish. I've seen this with every brand, including the sickles and down to #1. I'm not sure what the right answer is, but my response recently has been fishing smaller lures with smaller hooks regardless of hook style. I've landed many steelhead in recent years on the #8 trebles stock on some smaller spoons. It's all in the rod action/power and following the fish to leverage them sideways IMHO.

I was mistaken. I just looked a the pack and they are 1/0. But they look really big compared to a 1/0 gami siwash.

I build my spinners fairly compact/short. And the hook is 2/3 the length of the spinner itself. So the fish gets a good mouthful of hook. I don't think that would be much of an issue as the fish went crazy for them last summer.

For sure. As long as your rod has enough bone to drive the hook home, in a timely manner, there should be no issue with the size until you get really wild with giant hooks.

Use a standard Siwash and off-set the hook just a bit and your hook ups will be just as good as treble.
Been doing that for 30 years including Dick Nite hooks and spinners/spoons and the hooks work just fine with very few coming un-buttoned!

Another excellent hardware/plug siwash hook option are the Mustad Ultra Point Siwash 10848, 4-6/0. An offset octopus style siwash.

GG

That's one of the reasons for using the gami big river sickle hook. They have an offset point, along with the sickle bend.

I haven't even considered offsetting the point of a sickle siwash hook. It would be difficult without snapping the hooks

These are the hooks that we provide with our spinners and spoons now, as a matter of fact...and I've been really happy with them.

Fish on...

Todd

Nice looking hook.
It has the elememts I look for in a fine single.
I would call it a Japanese-style hook inspired by the live bait designs.

Medium-heavy gauge wire
Ringed eye (open is nice)
Medium length shank
Modified O'Shaunessey bend
Point shifted inboard towards shank

A simple round bend Siwash hook is vastly inferior to the above type hook.

The octopus hooks do have an offset leading tine, while the open eye siwash BRB do not. It is something you have to do at home. I have never ever broken a tine off if one doing that. The offset for me is about 5-10 degrees. Again, never had a problem with them weakening, let alone breaking. Try it, you'll like it!

Right on. I'll give a few the tweak.

I'm hesitant because of bad experiences with closing eyelets and them breaking.