Change out trebles or sharpen

[szopster]

Now that all the ice is nearly gone it time for me to start tweaking all the cranks and stickbaits I accumulated over the winter. Some come with very sharp trebles, some do not.

While I am good at sharpening, it is nearly impossible to get that sticky sharpness that come out of the package with replacement Gamakatsu's.

For kind of an informal poll, what do you all do:

Fish the bait as is out of the box...

Sharpen the factory treble...

Replace with a high performance treble...

Comments from the pro's would be appreciated -- Thanx in advance.

[freddy]

daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

[Starfish]

Usually I start by sharpening the factory hooks, but when I get a lure that really has the right "juice" and gets hit a lot, I'll replace the hooks with premiums.

[jyggy]

Go with the Gamakatsu's they are the best. You'll boat more fish.

[Chad]

If the factory ones are sharp(some lures come with premium hooks) I touch them up when they get dull. I replace any hook when it cant be sharpened or when it gets rusty. I always replace with a premium hook. There are 4-5 good brands out there.

[GORD]

The guys are giving you good advice. My turn... Run the crank "as is" for the first little while, just to see how it performs. If it is nothing special just keep it "as is". If however, it turns out to be a "hot crank" put some triple grip hooks on it and try it again. If it's still a hot crank, put it in your tournament box. Might sound strange, but not all identical cranks are identical. Some just perform better than others. Some top pros will cull through a dozen or more identical cranks to find the "hot ones". All premium treble hooks are good. My choice is triple grip. Cranks are expensive. Keep your ears open and find out which ones work best in your area. It's a lot cheaper than buying out the whole tackle store. If you want to use premium hooks, but are on a budget, buy some snap ring pliers and change them from crank to crank as required OR... just use premium hooks on tournament day.

[Dennis Johnson]

This thread is actually really good , and not looked at seriously enough by most fishermen.
I was trolling on Erie, last year using riggers.
I've got a strike vision camera so I can watch my crank baits action.
It's inreal how an eye can inhale a bait, that's being trolled at 2.5 mph and shake it right back out of it's mouth without tripping a release. Of course the culprit is always the dull hooks.
It pays to keep em sharp, no matter whether that's by putting on new premium hooks or just by shrpening the old ones.