It's everyone's choice if they want to change hooks and rings.
For 30 bucks you would think there should not be a need to :( That is the point most here are making I think.
As far as from a boat with light tackle, the small stick shad has junk hooks I wouldn't trust for a largemouth, I had one small schoolie trash the hooks from a boat with 7' rod and light line, it had nothing to do with canal current.

Yep, the work very well as designed.
Sometimes the bass like a subsurface lure and that stick shad fits the bill. they cast damn good too.

Nice thing about that sinking stick shad (5 1/4 oz) when you crank it in fast it flips on its side and comes up .. Nice not worrying about hanging up on the shoulder of the canal ..

just finished watching on the water and they had patrick from sebile on. couldn't tell if the hooks had been changed but they caught one monster blue no problem. I changed all mine out for the record

I have no problem changing out the hardware...with the amount of $$ I spend on fishing...whats another few bucks......I change most of the hardware on every plug I use....

I didnt listen, an didnt change out the split rings. I had a split ring let go in the canal on a NICE fish. The hooks held up fine.

Hardware and price are why I did not buy any,,,,

If your going to make a premium bait and charge a premium price it should be ready to go out of the box....

Hmmm
 

You sound like the guy who is waiting for NB to lengthen the line tie on the BD to adjust it's depth before he will buck up...

Why miss out on something great b/c it isn't absolutely perfect??
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That is a nice feature. The Megabaits used to do that too.

If you bought a new Mercedes would you be OK with it if it came with crap tires and you had to go to get new tires put on it before you used it. I think not. If I bought a Gremlin I may be OK with the fact that it may need new tires, but not a Mercedes.

At $33 a pop...Sebile is billing itself as the Mercedes...it should be good to go right out of the package.

At $8 bucks a pop the Mambo minnow is the gremlin....But I know it needs new "Tires" right out of the package.

and both catch fish effectively....just like both cars will get you from point A to point B effectively.........

Hooks shmooks .. Beachmaster never came with hooks .. If fishing is becoming a spectator sport because everyone is bailing fish on Sebile's your going to buy one .. Numby you have to suc it up and buy a magic swimmer just to watch it swim . (maybe knock it off).. Amazing how that lipless thing moves ..

yeah Sebiles are damn cool looking lures, but c'mon put some better hooks on it!

Did any of your catch the OTW TV show with Patrick Sebile fishing with the guys? They were at Cuttyhunk, cool show, but no big fish except for a huge blue! He signed a plug for the club, Luds probably stole it and fished it though :D

For one of the big magic swimmers I have it came with an insert about rigging it for "large fish" including tuna. Said remove the rear hook and add a swivel to the front hook loop and add a larger treble (like the bottom white lure from RoyL). Thing is that the magic swimmer is not through-wired even to the front hook so I don't know if I trust the figure 8 attachments on that glued body to hold up to a tuna.

Interested to see the RoyL photo, though, of the swivel with the single hook right off the nose, that could be a good solution. Do wonder about fouling on the cast, though.