Dressed Treble Vs. Normal Treble

Hi Guys

I would like your thoughts on the following: Is it better to use dressed trebles or normal trebles on lures. I noticed that alot of topwater/semi topwater lures have dressed trebles whereas some dont? Whats your preference? I can understand that dressed treble can add some flash and make baits more attractive. If this is the case should all trebles be changed to dressed trebles.

This is a tricky one for me to understand as most of us are enticed when we undress :merm

:f1shy

Hi Fishy......

Dunno if you remember or have used the spinner in the pic. They came in white, black, orange, yellow. The one in the pic is a modern version but the earlier version had a matching color feathers attached to the trebble and they worked well. I will be in Pretoria from the 7th of January 2015 and am certainly gonna see if I can find some of the ones with feathers tied.

On the other hand I would not be totally sure if a feather attached to the trebble/s makes a huge diff. Most crankbaits I know do not have feathers. Spinners such as the mepps black fury range dont have any feathers and Bass as well as Blue Kurper love them.

It might be worth experimenting though.

I always use a dressed treble on my yellowtail spinners that I troll, either a flatback, a keel or a snake. I test trolled two spinners far back, one with and one without. The dressed one got bit twice as often.
Nothing fancy though, I use red heat shrink twice as long as the hook, cut the tail in three strips , place over the hook shank and heat up.

Interesting Fin S

I was just thinking back as well with regards to poppers, the crankbait type that also had feathets on the treble. Fish loved them very early morning, late afternoon.

Hi Cobia777 & Fin-S

I have a few Meps Spinners similar to the one in your picture. Previously these spinners used to be sold with with a dressed treble, however nowdays i find it difficult to find such spinners. I have personally found that dressed trebles have more success that normal hooks especially when the fish are reluctant to attack the lure. See article below from Bernie Schultz

http://www.bassmaster.com/blog/dress-success#

:f1shy

Get a cheap fly tying vise and DIY?

Absolutely! Diy make your own. There are alot of videos on Youtube that show how to do it. Seems easy enough and you can let your creative juices flow.

:f1shy

Dressed trebles or singles are very easy to tie. I have been using white bucktail or any white/mother of pearl synthetics that I can find in flyfishing shops. But I had a chat yesterday to a very knowledgeable saltwater spinning guy in Struisbaai and he prefers black as alot of juvenile species have a blackish tail. Makes sense and good for low light conditions.

You can get away with using some old braid lying about and a vice grip. Or even a pair of pliers and some elastic bands on the handle to lock it! Superglue for head cement. Or just borrow someone's vice for a weekend. You can knock one up in 2 minutes so can quickly make a whole batch.

Hi Guys

Found an excellent seamless way to dress treble hooks. Wow

http://wired2fish.scout.com/story/1465858-how-to-dress-up-your-fishing-hooks

Lets dress for success!!!

:f1shy

Dressing the hooks is an easy and effective way to increase the size of a lure's profile without adding weight and / or bulk. I personally don't believe much in flash and all kinds of colours, but the size of a lure makes a difference in my experience.