I know the theory is that the red hook imitates blood and wounded bait fish. But i'm not sure how that fish really perceive it. What I do know is that red hooks can and will trigger more strikes. Is it all the time? I can't say for sure. But I have two anecdotal instances that have made me a believer in red hooks. The first was probably 15 years ago fishing the crappie dock at my local lake. I didn't have a boat at the time so was limited to fishing these types of docks. There were probably 20 other fishermen fishing all over the dock. I was getting bites and catching fish probably 5 to 1 over anyone else in the dock. Several people wanted to know what I was doing different. The only difference in my presentation and theirs was that I was using red hooks. As an experiment I traded places with several anglers and always caught fish in the spots where they were getting few if any bites. The second was about 5 years ago fishing with a late friend of mine in his boat. We were both fishing minnows from the front deck. I caught 13 fish to his 4. Again, the only difference was the red hook. Again, this is just anecdotal information so take it for what its' worth. But now I fish red hooks with either jigs or minnows unless I just can't get them in the jig head I want to use.