Though I have a trailer hook that I like, I saw something different in the True Bass True Lock Trailer Hook that piqued my interest—this one being skirted with deer hair and coming pre-packaged with a rubberized keeper around the eye of the hook. I’m a big fan of trailer hooks. I use a trailer hook on the back of almost every buzzbait and spinnerbait I throw, even adding one to the back of a ChatterBait at times. Most of the time, I’m using a salt-water circle hook, that a buddy of mine put me on over a decade ago. But I thought this newer trailer hook was worth my time.
I’ve been testing this hook out for a few months now, and here are my findings.
DESIGN OF THE TRU LOCK TRAILER HOOK
I really like the design idea behind this product, combining a trailer and a trailer hook all into one. In addition to using a trailer hook quite often, I’ll also add a soft plastic trailer, to beef up the profile of a spinnerbait or buzzbait and mask the trailer hook a bit. True Bass did that for me with this hook, by adding the deer hair.
You also have to secure a trailer hook once you slide the eye of the hook over the main hook of the bait, with some sort of trailer keeper. There are lots of products out there to do this with, but True Bass again added to the value of this hook by sending it pre-rigged with a rubberized keeper already cover the eye of the trailer hook.
RIGGING THE TRU LOCK TRAILER HOOK
To add this hook to a bait, simply push your bait’s hook point through the back of the eye of the hook, having the point of the trailer hook oriented in the same direction as the hook point of your main hook.
You’ll need to be careful if you go to rig this trailer hook up. You have to put a good bit of force into pushing the hook point of your bait through the keeper and eye of the trailer hook. It’s easy here to bury a hook point into your finger, either when the hook point pops through or if your hand slips while trying to apply the pressure.
PERSONAL EXPERIENCE
I used this trailer hook sparingly until a recent multi-day tournament on Lake Eufaula. While practicing for and during the competition, I had this trailer hook rigged up on a 3/4-ounce spinnerbait that I primarily planned to use in deep, open water.
The hook performed flawlessly in regards to aiding in the capture of a few key fish. I don’t have any great pictures, because I was focused on the competition. But I did have the presence of mind to snap a quick pic of one of the fish that had choked the trailer hook. I had a couple more get the hook on the outside of their mouths, fish that might not have made it to the boat without the trailer hook.
The hook didn’t bend, and the point stayed sharp. The deer hair also helped me beef up the profile of my spinnerbait a bit, without adding resistance like a soft-plastic trailer would have. This helped me keep the bait down better. And I was surprised at how weedless this bait was on the rare occurrence I threw it around cover. As long as I was able to keep the bait upright, it snuck through laydowns well.
The only somewhat negative thing I’d mention, is that I wasn’t super confident in the keeper. The main hook wore the rubber down over time and I was skeptical that the hook might slide off during a fight, given an absolute perfectly poor lining up of things. I simply added my regular trailer keeper though and was able to remove all doubts of any issue that might arise.
FINAL THOUGHTS ON THE TRUE LOCK TRAILER HOOK
This hook is very sharp, strong and has a good round bend to create lots of opportunity for hooking up with a fish that simply slaps at the bait. Coming in 3/0, this is a good size hook for most buzzbaits bigger than 1/4 ounce as well as spinnerbaits between 3/8- and 3/4- ounces.
Coming three to a pack for $6.49, each of these hooks will last for several trips and can be transferred (carefully) from one bait to another. All this to say, I like this product a lot, a surprising amount really. I especially like it for open-water and deeper presentations with a spinnerbait.
If you’re fishing a spinnerbait around dense cover, I do think you would experience an increase in hangups using this hook, in the instance the bait collides with cover and rolls to one side or the other. But, you also will inevitably catch some fish using it that you’d miss without a trailer hook. So, you can pick your poison here. But I’d go with a trailer hook personally.
All-in-all, this is a quality product at a good price that standouts a bit from most other trailer hooks for sure.
