Single hooks or trebles for pike?
For the fish's sake and yours, fewer points is the direction of progress. Trebles on casting lures hook well but do their damage during release, when a thrashing pike buries spare points in its face, your net, or your hand; many serious pike anglers swap trebles for single hooks — hookup rates drop only marginally, unhooking time collapses. For dead-bait fishing the standard is a quick-strike rig with small trebles or singles set to hook on an immediate strike, precisely so the bait is never swallowed deep. Whatever you run, flatten barbs where legal and practical: on a bony pike jaw, barbless holds fine and unhooks in seconds.
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This answer is one piece of a longer lesson — setups, diagrams and the reasoning behind it.
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