Make Your Crankbaits Bleed

We've all been around marketing hype. I can remember various television commercials advertising crazy looking lures and found myself asking, "Does that really work"? Maybe you've asked the samething about red treble hooks on crankbaits and topwater lures.

There is a degree of science behind the idea that red attracts predator fish. Blood just happens to be red, and if a predator sees bleeding prey, instinct kicks in to tell them that's an easy meal. Now you already may be asking, "Isn't red only visible so far in the water column?" You are wise to ask that because the answer is, yes. The deeper you go in the water column, the less red becomes visible. In fact, science tells us the color red becomes completely invisible at a certain point.

Therefore, using red treble hooks in lures that dive much deeper than five feet won't make much of a difference for you. However, five feet and above, a subtle flash of red can make the difference when fishing is tough. Anglers will often swap out the front treble hook for a red one and leave the back ones alone. Fish will key in on the red color, and it's often better to have them attack the front as opposed to the back; this helps landing percentages.

Some companies/brands even install red treble hooks to their crankbaits like the one pictured, so you don't have to install them yourself. So before you chalk this one up to marketing hype, give it a try. You may be surprised, like I was.