The Halco Sorcerer 90 was fully engulfed by this big maw. The single hooks made it easy to remove.
Single Hooks for toothy fish
by Christopher S.G. Tan
Last year I did some fishing for small pelagics with lures fitted with fine wire hooks and found that when strong hooks were not required, quality fine wire treble hooks did well, as they were able to penetrate well and securely.
I then decided to take a re-look at single hooks for pelagics. In the past I had formed a perception that single hooks do not do well for toothy fish like tenggiri. I do not know how that I formed this perception as my single hook lures had hardly ever or probably never got a hit from a tenggiri. Somehow I convinced myself that to catch tenggiri I needed a lure with treble hooks to hook them up.
I decided that I should re-examine my perception as single hooks have performed equally well for me with many other species. My perception did not have any sound basis considering I could not recall having had a positive bite on any of my single hook lures from tenggiri!
I replaced the treble hooks on some Halco Hamma 105s, Sorcerer S90 skinny deeps and Twistys with the new Mustad Kaiju Inline Single (10121NPDT) hooks. These hooks are strong and sharp and my experience with them in freshwater had been very positive.
Justin is happy with his tenggiri caught on a Mustad single hook equipped Halco Hamma 85
We caught an assortment of fish with these single hooks and frankly, I should say that I did not notice I was using a single and not a treble. I would say we were hooking up the long toms too effectively although the longtom has an extremely tough and bony mouth/beak.
This was rather surprising as I had thought that to catch longtoms it would be more effective to use trebles as the exposure to three times more hook points would give a better chance of connecting the hard mouth. One hook up that I unfortunately did not get a picture of was where the single hook had hooked up the longtom on top of the upper jaw, a very hard bone! Obviously it pays to use a sharp quality hook with a well designed shape that allows a good set.
With the tenggiri, surprisingly we got positive hook ups with each strike. Even with the pressed down barbs on the single hooks we stayed connected and landed the tenggiri. The success of hooking up the tenggiri on the single hooks showed that my perception was wrong. It is funny how we come up with preconceived notions due to circumstances not based on hard data but rather just on a few poor trips without really examining the situation thoroughly.
This tenggiri is hooked up on a Halco Hamma 105 that has the front "barbless" Mustad Kaiju Inline Single Hook embedded near the corner of the toothy mouth.
Justin had one catch, a monster queenfish that is worth a mention. Though not a member of the toothy gang, it took the lure and ran and ran. We just watched the spool release the line as it steadily ran against the drag. When the spool had half emptied it was time to start the engine and chase the fish down. At that time we had no idea what Justin had hooked. 
He fought it for several minutes and finally we could see that it was obviously a very big queenfish! When it had been netted it, the concerns we had about the fish dropping the lure were unnecessary as the queenfish had engulfed the Halco Sorcerer 90 completely! The single hooks on the lure made unhooking the lure a simple and safe task.
Regarding the new Mustad Kaiju Inline Single hooks, I find them suitable for saltwater and their sharpness and slight turn in of the points give them a good hook set and holding power as I found during this fishing trip. The sharp point also penetrates through hard material well.
There are some benefits of using single hooks over treble hooks. For hooks of similar strength the single will be of course lighter; this lightness in turn allows to the lure to have more vigorous action or vibration.
A single hook point is able penetrate fully more easily, whereas a treble hook might have two hook points engaged, therefore the penetrating force is distributed over two points. Another possibility is that one of the point's penetrating angle may actually be interfering with the penetration of the other point. One fully penetrated hook point has better holding power than two partially penetrated hook points.
From the safety aspect, the single is without par because it is so much easier and safer to remove than a treble. I also press down the barbs, which helps a lot in pulling out the hooks from the fish, and ahem, human flesh. After twenty years of fishing with pressed-down barbs, in most cases, if one has good fishing technique and skills, a pressed down barb does not lose fish.
Conservation
We need to protect and conserve our resources by practising catch and release of our sportfish and protecting the habitat of our fishes.
