Reply #4: Your're very welcome.

[sofa king]

Filing never worked for me, and pinching is theoretically reversible, though I've never tried it.

But there is a small risk that crimping will break the hook. That happens a couple of times each year to me, especially with brass hooks, and especially after I've accidentally used an un-pinched hook and then decide to pinch it in the field--I guess because I'm standing up and in a hurry.

Even if that happens to your expensive Rapalla, all is not lost. You can crimp the other two hooks and further clip the broken one on the treble, or you can back the hook off entirely from the post in the same way that you remove a key from a keyring. And if you don't like it, you can put more and different hooks on in the same way.

You may also be interested in removing the front treble from that Rap and just leaving a clipped and pinched two-prong tail hook. They snag much less often and are a lot easier to remove from trees. I know I've caught just as many trees as I have fish, so it's something to keep in mind!