Siwash hooks on spoons ??

[Mike M]

Thinking of replacing treble hooks to Siwash on a bunch of my favorite trolling spoons. Have lots of regular,stingray and magnum size spoons. What size and brand hook would you guys recommend ?? Want to have more success with catch & release.

[13owhunter]

While I'm not sure I want to switch over completely to singles on spoons, this would be a great solution if you start running into skippies.  They seem to get stuck with all three hooks even on a mag spoon 90% of the time and its a shame not to release them as nicely as possible.  I did switch to double singles on flys and I don't think i have had any come unbuttoned.  Interested to see what others experience is with singles on spoons....

[orangediablo]

Switched all my non-mag spoons to single siwash.  IME, they stay buttoned a bit better, especially when the steelies are flying outta the water.  Also easier and faster to remove with less damage to the feesh.  

 

Side note, tend to switch out the split rings on DW spoons.  When swapping hooks, the ring tends to have a gap and somehow lose a little tension, possibly allowing spoon/hook to slide through split ring and 'unwind'.  I've brought a few fish in with spoon or hook halfway around the split ring (wish I had a pic).

[LongLine]

Switched the majority of my trebles to siwash a long time ago. I use 2/0 & 3/0 on NK28 sized spoons.  Put the point facing the cup of the spoon. 

[nickihoyboy]

I answered this question a while back on another thread. I was curious to see if switching from trebles to a single siwash would decrease my hookup rate, so last summer I switched from a treble to a 5/0 Gamakatsu on a mag Carbon 14, a mag UV Green Jeans and a mag Wonderbread to see what might happen. First release on the Carbon-no hookup, so I was already thinking the siwash might be a bad idea. To my mild surprise, I think that’s the only hookup I missed on the siwash hooks for the next two or three weeks. So, pun intended, I’m hooked, for so many reasons. The single siwash does far less damage to the fish, allowing fish to be released unharmed. Much easier and quicker to remove the hook, far fewer tangles in the net and that big hook really gets a solid set behind the fish’s jaw. Also, much less chance of getting a hook into you when a fish starts struggling while removing the hook. As a bonus, no struggles separating lures that you might have just thrown in a plastic container earlier. Only downside I’ve found is mag spoons with the 5/0 siwash drag on the bottom in my maxi-mate because they’re so long. I have since switched to 4/0 hooks on the mag spoons and 3/0 hooks on the standard size spoons.

I do agree with Orangediablo about the split ring situation. Replace any split rings that don’t close all the way. I too have had a hook start to work it’s way back off of a ring that didn’t close tight. Many siwash hooks are open eye that are easily closed with a good pair of pliers. And I highly recommend the Texas Tackle green handle (large) split ring pliers for  removing and installing closed eye hooks.