Decoys for me! They are the strongest and sharpest hooks available

Depending on what your chancing as to how you rig your lures, for queenies ect rig only one hook on a single, for GT's ect you can rig a back to back on the belly and a larger single on the back if you like.

Decoys make great hooks, but i've just had too many fish not hookup when using the jigging singles on my lures. I'm not sure i've even hooked a fish on them while trolling (i've had a good half dozen or more decent strikes that would have hooked on trebles). Similarly, i've tried them on casting lures to about the same sucess. Think i've landed one or two. I just dont think their shape works that well, so have preferred trebles or more open hooks. I have caught a fair few fish on the more open normal style hooks though. Pincer setup, or just single. You can also use an assist which some say gives better hookup too.

i run decoys on most if not all my lures

had no troubles hooking into 10kg bluefin on the minnows down in portland a month or two back

love em for salmon especially

cant comment on the GTs as never caught one

I ran decoys on my stickbaits up in exxy and had no trouble hooking up, also ran assists from the tow point on my big stick baits which accounted for quite a few hook ups!

Agree with Hlokk, in my limited experience of both maccie trolling and popping/stickbaits, was a lot more strikes and no hookups with singles, as soon as I went back to trebles, probelm sorted. In Fiji I ran barbless trebles to minimise damage to fish and possibly angler, and only had one pull in 5 days.

For Salmon, singles are better as they seem to spit the trebles easily with the head shaking in the air, so singles for me on these.......

I intend giving singles a go again in Chirstmas Island though, so interested on best hook type......

which way should the hook face? hook pointing up or pointing down....

 Pointing up so you don't snag as easily.

problem solved. better hookup rate, more fish in boat, everyone happy!!!

thanks Matt. that's how I did them thought it made the most sense.

Sqaushing barbs isn't going to solve the bending trebles problem....

 Lets all keep an open mind about hook point up or down on the tail.

I had a crazy hot bite on tailor to about 50cm this morning and had a good chance to see how the singles work in the hook-up position at the tail of a Halco Roosta 135.  

Horrible hook-up rate.  Missed most of them.  I then changed to a popper (CID needle-nose) rigged with a split ring, swivel, split ring, hook arrangement.  Same size, roughly same diameter, bit heavier in the tail.  did not miss a single strike.

Changed back to the Roosta with a hook point up at the back and coulden't hook a thing.  Again. 

My theory is that the hook point gets pushed away when there is a strike to teh lure, and in the hook-up position the fish need to be coming down on the lure to hook up.  Which is not what happens - they strike from below and to the side.  Hook down (as the swivel would ensure) and the hook up is sure and every time.   

Use decoys on my lures (usually Rapala's) for Bluefin and kingies with no issues (Belly hook down and tail hook pointing up). I know at least one was hooked by the upward pointing tail hook others I can't recall taking notice,

have also used an assist single on salmon lures with good results mainly due to them having no leverage to throw the lure on jumps.

lbg15k - could the fact one was mounted further back on the swivel have played a part (if I read correctly) in getting more hook-ups...?? also agreed with poppers more likely to be striking from below and generally no issue with snags so hook down may be better in that scenario.