Couldn't have been more wrong!

[saltydog]

G'Day I read the other day, on one of the links provided, an article by (I presume) a respected bream fisherman.
In the course of the article he stated that bream only attack Hb lures from behind and that removal of front trebels ensures less snags and strongley recommended it as a standard practice.
Always trying out something new I went straight to the tackle box and removed all front trebels.
I was down the river fishing a new spot a couple of hours later and had had 5 hits (two were BIG hitz!) with only one short hook up.
I was in the process of shaking my fists at skys above when I noticed some damage to the rear of the lure(tilsan minnow), the wood was slightly splintered and the rear treble mount was allmost at right angles. i then inspected the rest of the lure and found that the majority of damage to the lure was around the front half of the lure, where of course there was no hooks cause I removed them:mad: .
This explained the constant hits with no hook up problem I was having.
Needless to say all front trebels went straight back on.

[Craig_S]

Saltydog, leaving em on or taking em off is a contentious issue for sure.

I learnt my lesson at the Murray River with Geoff Paulic one weekend - he asked me if I was changing my front lure to a new chem sharp treble and I said I wasnt because nothing ever hooked up there except snags. I think the next 7 or 8 fish that were caught were on the front treble. That was enough for me.

Even from this weekend; fishing a 52 scorp over sand flats I noticed a fair proprtion of damage was to the head area of the lure.

[MATTY]

g'day saltydog,
got to say that by removing the front treble on my lures i do miss a fair few strikes.i removed mine due to the fact i would rather lose fish than a 10-12 dollar lure.i depends where i fish to,over areas i know fairly well i will put treble back on & cross the fingers,over areas i dont know i take them off until i,m sure of the area.i've also switched to fireline which is very sensitive and i "feel" my way over snags now.the majority of my bream are on back hooks but a lot have come on the fronts.i guess its personal preference.

[bluefin]

I have a feeling that it depends on the lure! I mainly fish flats with Crawfish lures, and ALL the scratches on my lures are on the rear half from Bream and Bass attacking from behind. I also mainly retrive them slowly along the bottom, making sure the bib stirs up pleanty of sand and mud. This retrive may also account for rear attacks!!!! Stalling a lure or lure design may encourage mid lure attacks? When a fish attacks the rear of a Crawfish lure it is attacking the Head and Claws!

Food for thought!

[Bear]

It's always going to have a lot of guys goin for one or another. I'm yet to get a Bream through the mouth on the front treble.

One thing I will agree is that it can help with the hook swinging around and imbedding in the fish as well.

I've got a good collection of photos of Bream with lures in the mouth, not one in the front.

Still, that's what this place is all about.

Hope things go better for you next time Salty.

[MATTY]

hey saltydog,
jut had a thought with the lure damage.a tilsan is a fairly large lure if there was damage to the front as well as the back end could it have been something more substantial than a bream.mully or shark maybe? or the famous GODZILLA!

[Craig H]

I too remove the front treble from my lures. I lost 3 sneaky's in one session to submerged snags :mad:

However, I mainly remove the front trebles for the pure fact that I'm a student with no income and can't afford to be replacing $30 worth of lures every couple of weeks. I've got a heap of hits and tooth marks on the belly of my sneaky's... I just take these missed oppotunities with a grain of salt.

I feel much more confident casting right into a snag and feeling my way through or out of it with just the one treble. As mentioned previously, it's just personal preference and comes down to what you're comfortable with when fishing. What works for one person isn't necessarily going to work for the next person, and vice versa.

[saltydog]

Matty, definately a blackie, came out from under a half submerged trunk in fairly shallow water right next to the bank. It was the one short hook up that was responsible for the rear damage. He hit HARD and then ran me up against a submerged stone wall causing the lure to come loose. I still had a wicked adrenilne rush almost 10 mins later just thinking of how big he might have been. Wicked!!:D

Back to the subject I reckon I will definatley have one or two lures with front trebels removed for those days when exploring new snags or getting re-aquainted with old gnarly ones, cause as we all know losing lures fu©#ing sucks.

[MATTY]

g'day saltydog,
must have been a biggie! those tilsan have a very narrow back end with not much wood around the eye.i had a look at mine last night and have noticed a few small cracks/splinters as well.only caught smallish bream and flatties on them so hopefully it won,t explode when a biggish one latches on.they dive pretty deep 2-3 metres i think.what rock wall were you around for depth?

hey guys. With the tilsans, you don't need worry bout loosing a fish if the lure cracks, as it is a straight through wire construction. Although, the lure is useless after that, but you did catch a fish!:D
If removing the front treble gives the angler more confidence, then like any sport, you will catch more fish as your confidence is higher. Take Brett Lee as an example.
When confident (almost always), he decimates the tail end of a cricket team. His confidence may come from something as simple as choosing his prefered end to bowl from.
Confidence is everything folks, so do what makes you feel comfortable and confident!!!:D

[Lizardboy]

Bluefin, I was using a rebel crawfish today and hooked a bream on the front treble hook. It was a shallow diving crawfish fished with the current in a foot of water. In this case the bream was probably facing upstream to hold its position, whilst the crawfish was worked down stream towards it (this could explain why it was hooked on the the front treble)

The crawfish was later repossessed by a flattie but thats another story!(warren I'll be needing a replacement, expect an order soon!)

Lizardboy

[Kris]

Hey Lizard,
what colour were you using?
the goon?:)
love that place for teeny craws............devil red used to work REALLY well on whiting about 15 years ago (when I lived Sydney way)
later

[Ol' slab sides]

Hi guys,
I've caught plenty of bream on the front treble but I haven't had to deal with the snag problem as 99% of my fishing is on the flats so my lure attrition is nearly 0. Have seen bream side plant my lures from close range in clear water.

[geoff_abrams]

lately i have been using the small smilin jacks raw prawn (because i left my other bream hard bodies tackleboxes at my brother) and go a nice 35cm one the other day and it was on the front treble , it wrecked the trebles so bad i had to change them. i got three others before that on that arvo half were on the front treble so i would keep the front treble on for sure

[saltydog]

Matty, It was Reg Bond Reserve/Park (I think) up in midland. On one of the bends there is some kind of fashioned stone (all pretty square and uniform) wall that is totally submerged at high tide. The fish was on the rise at the time so he was only about 2 foot from surface at a guess.