I was once humiliated (versus humiliated once 😉) on the Delayed Harvest Artificials Only section of the Wiconisco by a kid spin fishing...
I had already been skunked fly fishing so I walked back to my car to get my ever present ultralight spinning rod & lures. I then proceeded to get skunked with in-line spinners and jigs on the ultralight outfit when I saw this kid catching and releasing trout, one after one.
I couldn't stand it any more so I broke down and asked him what he was using. It was a very small Rapala called a Rap-X. I only had one very small plug in my box that I promptly tied on and I caught a trout on my first cast... 🙂
Needless to say I ordered some Rap-X's when I got home and they are now part of my ultralight/BFS kit.
That being said last year I got into the Bait or Bass Finesse System (BFS) which is using specially designed or specially tuned bait casting gear to cast lures as light as one gram. Many of the tiny lures I use are only available in Japan or through US based dealers who import BFS tackle.
Just about everyone who fishes this way and a lot of others who don't, did what I also did last year and replaces the treble hooks on their lures with single hooks made for the purpose. In most cases the result on hard baits is two single hooks but in many cases with spoons, the tiniest plugs (and I mean TINY) and in-line spinners, it is one single hook...
...just like most flies.
So we're not all fishing with grappling hooks and tearing up the mouths of trout like some folks want to think and I DON'T mean you jifigz. 🙂
I think it’s admirable that you changed out the hooks to lessen the impact on the trout.
With that said, I recall some information on this site awhile ago that was very surprising where it was discussed that more trout are mortally wounded by single hooks than double or treble hooks. Your heart is in the right place but based on certain studies the hooks used on lures may not factor into mortality as much as other factors.
I’m not suggesting you change your approach since the statement below doesn’t specifically address stick baits. Food for thought.
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Posted by Mike PFBC. Circa June 2020
Treble vs single hooks have been tested scientifically and the results published in the scientific literature. Angler lore and emotions aside, here are the results.
Single hooks on spinners cause significantly greater delayed mortality due to the deep hooking in vital areas of the mouth and esophagus. The vital areas, such as the tongue, bleed excessively, resulting in delayed mortality.
One study countered this with small, wild brook trout. I observed that the problem in that case was that the treble hooks were TOO SMALL, most likely resulting in all three hooks being engulfed by the brook trout. This occurs in the field and is easily corrected by anglers by using slightly larger hooks, which usually prevents all three hooks from being taken by the fish. Another way to correct the problem in the field if anglers do not have lures with larger treble hooks or spare hooks is to break one of the hooks off of the treble combination. There is a too small treble hook that is placed on some lures which allows all three points to barely fit into the mouth of the wild brookies of a common sublegal size. The three points hold the mouth shut when an angler tries to extract the hook and provide a real challenge to the angler, increasing holding time and jaw damage.
As for the scientific studies evaluating barbed vs barbless hooks and delayed trout mortality, the barbless hooks cause one percent less delayed mortality. This insignificant difference is so small that anglers would not be able to detect it in fish populations. Additionally, any angler worrying about this amount of additional delayed mortality should not be lifting fish from the water to unhook the fish, be using very light tippets during trico time, or be taking photos of fish held out of the water in my opinion.
