I've been amazed by how observant you guys are! That's the third time I have been asked that question now.
The Nomad guys swear by single hooks. They believe, based on their experience over the past few years that the hookup rate is almost as good but that they lose far fewer fish. That is, they have far fewer fish throw the hook in comparison to trebles. They are also of the view that the singles do less damage to the mouth of the fish.
I posted a thread on this a while ago. I firmly believe that you get more hookups with trebles but that singles hold better once the fish is hooked. Trebles also get deformed far more than singles if they end up in the wrong spot in the fish's mouth.
One interesting observation which both George and I made and interestingly enough, Damon also has the same view is that often, the fish grab the lure in their mouths and swim off. The reason why they swim off so quickly is not because they feel the hook but because they are trying to get away from the rest of the fish in the school so they can find the time to wallow the fish head first. We noticed this on a few occasions but none more vividly for me than the last GT I encountered on the trip. the fish took the popper right next to the boat and you could see it firmly clamped in the mouth. the first thing one of the other fish did after it grabbed the popper was try to snatch the popper from its mouth. It then charged off with the whole school in hot pursuit.
When they realise it is not something to eat, they will let go and I think that often, the fish is never really hooked at all - only firmly clamped in the mouth. Check out any lure which has caught a couple of fish and look at the damage around the head and how deep the teeth marks are. I persdonally think that many of the drop-offs in the first few seconds are never actually hooked at all.
All of that said, I run my poppers with a treble off the middle and a single or a blade off the back. Trebles have worked well for me and I like them but the single off the back is very effective too. I haven't been converted to the single system yet but i think George is closer to conversion than me!
We did come up with a new hook arrangement system during the week and that is to run two singles off the same split ring. If I have to give someone credit for this, it is Tim Baker, a long term guide with Nomad. We were sitting around getting our gear ready one evening when he saw me putting a single on the back. He said he had been thinking about running two singles on the split ring so we rigged a couple up like that with SJ-41s. The next day, Damon had one of these running off the tail on his stickbait and a jobu up front when he said he didn't like the way the Jobu pointed upwards. I suggested he go with another double on the middle of the lure. It is amazing - in the water, the singles spread out on each side and the lure is much better balanced as a result. On testing, it's an absolute winner with as a tremendous a hookup rate. The only problem we found (and I admit it is a small sample to try to draw any empirical evidence from) is that the gold hooks like the SJ-41s are a magnet for spanish mackeral and long toms. Damon got snipped more times than anyone running this rig. On the other hand, long toms are notoriously difficult to hook (who wants to?!) but Damon hooked up on them continuously with the two single on a split ring system.
For my next trip, I wil rig all my stickbaits this way before going.
Pencil poppers - bloody hell, I worked them pretty hard for barely a follow. They've worked for me in the past but I couldn't get a strike with one from a GT. The only thing that was attacking them were queenies that were hitting anything in the water. Would anyone else like to comment on how effective pencil poppers have been for them?
