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[Ron Fogelson]

Believe in them or not, but over the past summer I have found that my hook ups on crank baits went way up after I started changing out the front hook and putting on a larger red hook.  With the added red when they strike now 90% of my fish have both hooks stuck in it's face and mouth where as before about 80% of the strikes only had the back hook.

I all so started changing both hooks to red with my top water baits such as chugbugs and pop-R's.

Do a little tinkering and make that off the self bait custom for you and have fun.

Fogy

[GotstaFish]

Watch out for them red hooks!!! They are made from a differant type of metal to hold the anodizing and they bend real easy. No swinging the fish in the boat. I learned the hard way from a few straightened hooks on some good fish. 

[Sharon]

I dont know what it is about red hooks either, but they're all I'll use, seems I catch more. Have to agree though, had a few bent hooks now and then, but I still wont trade them. 

[Andrew]

I use em quite alot but mostly the treble ones. I like to change em on my cranks and top waters also. I dont use em for pitching or flipping as i've found that red single hooks are not that strong for a good hookset and tend to either bend or just plain break into.

I do however find that the red treble hooks are decent strength and i've never had one bend or break with a fish on but on hangups i've broken/bent lots of em and on non red ones such as the gammies i use for pitching/flipping i always break the line before the hook breaks or bends so they are of lesser quality than non red ones. They do seem lot cheaper as in quality and the straight ones to me almost seem too brittle.

[WES]

i really like the red trailer hooks for spinnerbaits and buzz baits. i haven't been keeping count but i feel like i have done better with them as opposed to the regular trailer hooks.

[bass1cpr]

   I remember the Red Hook Theory debates when I first joined Ultimate Bass.
 
   Fogy glad to hear that someone has seen the light of the Red Hook.

   I've never been a fan of the Red Worm Hooks,  but bring on them red Trebles. 

   Red trebles are just gold hooks painted red.

   I still believe in only putting the red hook on the front of a crankbait and my top waters, Only give them one target to hone in on. Just my theory.

   Go big Red Hook.   

[tx_basscat26]

    I started using the red worm hooks last year, since then I have had way more strikes than before. I use Tru-Turn and Mustad Razr Sharp, though I have to say I haven't had any bent or broken hooks, however, I am dealing with the red paint coming off the hooks after a while. I am thinking of taking the hooks and some glossy red paint and dipping my hooks in the paint to re-coat them. If y'all have any thoughts on that let me know, and I will let y'all know how it worked out, but of course I am not the only to think of doing this by no means.

[b1jeremy]

I only wonder what some form of paint will do scent wise? Not a big deal I am sure, just a thought. I have had the same issue, after a few fish the red tends to wear off. I like them though for sure.

[Jason]

let me tell ya boys, if the paint is chipping, keep on flippin. i have this happen all the time and i just sit back and laugh. the reason i'm lauging is cause i'm catching fish i love using red hooks on every soft plastic i'm throwing. i have not had a problem with them straightening out or nothing like that. who knows, the red paint starts chipping showing what color? gold my boys. gold means money. this is just me talking, but i actually like some of the red chipped off, i think it adds a little more flash to a dull soft plastic. what do ya think?

[bigjim5589]

The red thing is not new, fly tyers have added red to streamer flies for many, many years, with the idea that red looks like gills, or blood. When bass lures started being produced, red gills, mouths & fronts were commonly painted on them. I think the red was more for the folks buying them than is was the fish.

I like a little red on some lures, it's just a personal preferance and I also use the red treble hooks on some crankbaits & topwaters. I'm not comvinced that it's that important, but feel that like all the other little things we do to improve our success, there may be times when it helps. Sometimes, it's the little things that make a difference, although it may only be to us, the fish may not really care either way. Only the fish know for sure. I've learned it's best to just keep an open mind about it.

I also haven't experienced any problems with red hooks, but if you have problems, it's easy to fix. Buy nickel plated, tin plated (saltwater) or gold hooks & either paint them or, use a permanent red marker on them. The red comes off anyway. You can paint bronze hooks, but it don't show up as well.

On my topwater lures, like Pop-R's, I like to add feathered rear trebles, and will sometimes use red feathers instead of a red hook. I primarily just use white feathers, and will sometimes match the lure color, but all red works sometimes too.

b1jeremy, the subject of what fish smell has come up on fly fishing sites I frequent, mostly concerning the cements used in fly tying, but it's still the same deal. Consider this, every lure we use has some sort of scent to it, plastics, paints, glues, metal platings, and even our human scent on what we touch. Does it affect the fish? Only the fish know for sure, but it's reasonable to conclude that it doesn't affect them adversely, or we wouldn't catch them on all that smelly stuff we use. Could we improve our success by removing some of the scent? Perhaps, but I doubt if such scents could be completely removed. I would think that on lures that move quickly, like crankbaits, spinnerbaits or buzzbaits scents would have the least affect on fish, and on slower type lures, like plastic baits, scents might have the greater affect, if it has any at all.

[Bony Tony]

i don't know if they catch more fish, but I like 'em so that's what I use

[hesjustbassin]

I'll use them on topwaters due to the fact that red is still visible to a fish on the surface, but any thing deep gets the standard black. At depths of a few feet, red will disappear. Remover red is the first color to disappear in the color spectrum.
This is just my thoughts on the matter though. Use what you are comfortable with.

[bass1cpr]

   IF your going to try and paint the red hooks yourself Use a translucent red paint. You want to get an anodized type of affect.

   The other option is to get Color Rite dip for metal.

   The translucent red paint can be found in the automotive dept at Wal-Mart and most auto parts stores.

[bassfishing5]

And the red sure set treble hooks are doing wonders with my rattle trap. Most of the hook sets were on the front one, so I stopped putting them on the rear and put the old black ones on again. I do use a plain red treble on the rear of more flashy reflective lures though. I still don't know if the red color actually makes a difference. A fish in the boat is a fish in the boat.

[Swede]

Red trailer on spinnerbaits helps with the flash as well and I have gone to it in that application.

[jstrozier]

did you know spike it has a new product that dyes hooks and spinner blades? Good stuff

[J10B]

Just so you know, if you take ANY red flake bait and put it in the water. It looks completely Red.  I think the Red worm hook does this to any bait you throw.   The watermelon/Red flake is a big hit here, I used a red hook on worms and it works fairly well.

[bassfishing5]

I will have to look into the spike it red for hooks. The red sure set hook on my rattle trap is taking a beating. The hook is still good and sharp, but the paint doesn't hold up as good as whatever Gamakatsu is using on their red trebles.

(update)
The BPS here doesn't have any red. I may have to do some asking around. It's only $3.88 for black or white at BPS, but over $6 on the spike it site.

[kicktothehead]

I know this post is old but I just watched something on Red Hooks last week.
Dave Mercer on the Facts of Fishing show ran a test.
He put a red treble hook ONLY on the back of a crank bait and left the front hook alone.
Something like 95% of his catches were on the back hook.
Then he swapped them...put the red hook on the front...
Then again...95% of the catches went to the front hook...

He did admit that Red is the first color to dissapear under water at a particular depth (not sure what it was) but he says he lives by Red hooks.

[Camden]

I believe it as well. yesterday i was throwing some spinners and pulled one of my booyahs by a rock overhang and nothing picked up the other rod with a strike king spinner in the same color but has the red hook and a 2.5 lber came out and nailed it. same retreival same path same blades on the spinner and everything. only real difference was the red hook.

[Ske1etor]

I hate to fuel the "Red hook kool-aid drinking party" but I have to admit.... I think the red hooks have merit to them.  I was fishing yesterday (Not normally a bass spot but if you would like to read it all... I did a write up in the dock talk section) with a gold spoon.  The first one I tied on was just a normal, factory gold wobble-rite spoon.  I drug it through the water a few times and nothing.  I switched lures a couple times and ended up with another gold spoon with a red eagle claw treble hook (It was the only trebles in that particular size that day in the tackle shop) after a few casts I hauled in a bass.  I tossed the fish back and got to thinking that maybe the red hood had something to do with it.  I switched back to the gold spoon with the silver treble... no strikes.  I switched back to the spoon with the red hook and viola!  A bass.

I don't know if it's the fish or if its me... but I'm the one casting and reeling so what I say goes... and red hooks have proven useful to me. 

[hpdi200]

Just a thought,not saying anything negative,but ,if the red hooks ,the fish see them right,then why do they say the red colored fishing line disapears under the water,but fish bite red colored baits right,makes you think, hum !!1

[Bassdyno]

Old post yes but Red does seam to work and people talk about the red disappearing at depth?  Isn't that a good thing?  You well painted crank bait looks more life like with out hooks flopping around...  That is why fishing deep crank baits with red line makes so much sense!  IT ISN'T THERE to them..  the just see a fish looking bait.. and that my friends matches the hatch!   Just my thought on the matter...