I have just recently purchased a stick bait set up (thanks Kane at Decoro) and had my first play out of Tairua on Saturday.  Half a dozen casts in had three good size kings chasing my stick bait and then five minutes later had a 20kg fish monster my stick bait. Unfortunately the hooks didnt set.  I was running a treble at the back and a single at the front.  I dont really like trebles due to the damage they do to fish and also potential dangers with hands etc.  I would much prefer to run two singles so just wondering how best I should set them up and what hooks, rings, assist cord etc to use.  Off to the 3 Kings next week so any advice would be much appreciated.  Think I could get addicted to this!! 

I've just started as well and have been told to leave the hook setups alone.... the baits have been designed toswim with what the manufacturer puts on then. I have noticed that there are a few brands (black magic etc) that do singles.

thanks fullas, will buy a few bits and pieces and have a play. cheers

ReelAppealLures wrote: If you are worried about damage to fish run a single hook on the tail, the tail hook does 80% of the damage when a fished is hooked on the belly hook. What lures are you casting Cheeko? This will help with recommending hook choice... I'm yet to come to a decision on the whole single v treble debate, both can kill fish and damage both fish and angler... Guess that is what happens when your casting sharp needle points around. I have yet to find a consensus amongst the charter guides around the world too...

trebles sorry

Im yet to see a stick bait that swims all that effectively with singles or a bakers rig. I've
swum a heap of stickbaits and even the ones that claim to swim singles well dont. unfortunately I'm convinced trebles are a necessary evil. They do so much to swim the bait well. They're just frigggen deadly and dangerous. Expect damage to ballistic rats. If you want more of a chance to catch kingies use trebles. If you are a full time sports fisherman who is constantly fishing mad mad frenzied kingies then use singles. but in those situations almost anything can work. Id be keen to opt on to them when that's happening. get your self a few different sized owner st66 and owner splits and play around with them until you have the right balance for each lure. Good stick baits are highly sensitive to the right rigging. It's all about the right swim action in order to catch them in the first place.

lack of friction and lost drag when using singles in place of trebles? If you  add a small bib like attachement to the split ring to mitigate the lost friction?

I messed around with the oceas and starwalkers ages ago.................They suggest 3/0 owners on the oceas but i found they swam better with 7/0 in line shoguns and 9mm owner split rings......I tried the starwalker with both 3/0 and 4/0 owner trebles(as suggested)....I found the 4/0 were too heavy for the surface lure and the lure took to long to come back to the surface after the sweep.....I even found the 3/0 did to some degree too......I found the 7/0 shogun in line and 9mm splits got the best action and return to surface ready for the next sweep.....I also found short stabs produced a walk the dog action too......take some trebs/8 or 9mm splits and some inline 7/0 (they are a good size for those lures/tried the 8/0 but prefer the 7/0)..split ring pliers......you can test for yourself and then tell us what you think...I like the oceas coz they have rattles...Good luck.