I'm not looking to pick on a plug builder or angler here. I use it just as example maybe to elicit some need for change. I'm no spin fisherman and maybe most of the hookups with double treble hooks are just perfectly placed in the corner of the fishes mouth. This is just a snapshot of one fish and not an indictment of all plug catches.
The above plug is a Donk developed and sold by Keith Thomas of Black Talon Custom Lures. I listened to a great podcast with Thomas on Joe Cermele's Cut & Retie podcast, HERE. He was one of the first I know of that has went from an online store to a "plug drop" on social media. Fly tyers like Paul Monaghan and Ben Whalley have gone on to do the same as well. Basically you have a set number of X, say plugs or flies, inform the public what time they will be listed, the time, or drop comes, and they are sold out in minutes, even seconds. It's not an auction it's first come first served.
But my post here is just reacting to a Facebook post that popped up. Here's a Donk in a striped bass' mouth. I think they are 10 inches in length and have two treble hooks. That's 6 hooks. That cannot be an easy hook out. If the goal is to quickly hook, land, unhook and photograph, and get back into the water I am sure the fish above had to undergo a substantial surgery. Maybe it even had to make it's way home for the table or it would wind up falling into the 9% catch and release recreational fishing mortality.
This fall I have seen my share of bad practices. Anglers still throwing plugs with 3 treble hooks. Anglers still throwing plugs with 2 treble hooks. Anglers fishing but really not knowing how to fish a circle hook, if they are not just plain old snag and dropping with a old school snag rig. I've seen the grippers come out along with the pliers to do that "plug rattle and shake" to free the plug from the stripers mouth. I've seen one eyed bass because the second set of trebles finds its way into the eye socket ripping the eye out as its reeled in. And the releases thrown into the air, kicked back into the drink along the sand, or dropped from heights like you are being dropped into a pool from an 8 story building.
Think single hooks, or at least just the head hooks being the only treble, make sure they are on the larger size, pinch the barbs down, and carry a set or hemostats with you so you don't have to insert your hand to your wrist to try and remove a plug, rubber shad, or fly.
When the ASFMC says we kill 9% of the fish we release, when the going is good, I believe it.