single hooks for pike?

has anybody else used a single size hook maybe 1/0 or 2/0 for live-baiting on rivers and still waters? A mate shown me it last year and since using it ive never had problems with wild trebles flying about while unhooking(which as you know is very painful)and not had a deep hooked pike..........

Not used them yet. Am going to order trace making bits in the near future and make some up, less for static deabaiting but more for wobbling dead baits.

ive used them alot with small live baits but prefer double trebble for bigger live baits

singles whilst they do have a few uses, ill ask you this:-

why does just about every pike angler you see use trebles?

I reckon if you could buy ready made traces with single hooks and if you could buy specifically designed pike hooks instead of people using sea hooks (afaik they dont make 'pike' singles?) with fancy branding and packaging people would be using them like there was no tomorrow!!!

ive used singles a fair bit and on the whole i cant fault them, especially for smaller baits like sprats or small lives. the only downside i did find to them is if snagged in the net and the fish is thrashing about they can put quite big tares in their mouths when compared to smaller trebbles if hooked in the softer bits of the mouth, so thats something to bear in mind when removing the fish from the water. i also wouldnt use them for fishing at range as they rip out of soft baits quite easily. one other thing i was experimenting with was a trace with a single on it to put in the tail and a trebble to put in the flank but i didnt find much use for this other than for kebab rigs, with the single in the tube and the trebble just poped into the chunks, i never caught on it but it looked good, the single sitting out nicely from the bait rather than being hidden underneath it. also the hooks i was using were size 2 esp raptors, got a nice curve on them to help hold the lives on the hook.

mumbles wrote:I reckon if you could buy ready made traces with single hooks and if you could buy specifically designed pike hooks instead of people using sea hooks (afaik they dont make 'pike' singles?) with fancy branding and packaging people would be using them like there was no tomorrow!!!

you can alan dudhill i think the chaps name is he does pikemaster traces

as for the hooks does it matter? most carp hooks come from game or sea patterns

I use singles a lot or double singles and never had a problem....yet!!!!

All my live baiting is done with singles. quite fond of a 2/0 claw hook (not quite a full circle hook). Hooks them clean in the scissors every time.
Also just to note,I will only use lives under a float,quite a long trace,which also kind of acts like an uptrace.

i dont fish with singles but have had some success with the uni rig, where you have a treble on the end of the trace and a single as your second hook. you do tend to hook up on the single tbh, i think fox do these off the shelf

nixon wrote:All my live baiting is done with singles. quite fond of a 2/0 claw hook (not quite a full circle hook). Hooks them clean in the scissors every time.
Also just to note,I will only use lives under a float,quite a long trace,which also kind of acts like an uptrace.

I do the same use a long trace but i use 1/0 cat hooks works fine for me on the river..