I'm changing hooks out on my poppers and stickbaits. There isn't clear saltwater anywhere nearby for me to test these new hooksets. Can I use a freshwater pool, or is the buoyancy difference significant enough to impact how the lures sit and swim?
Only time that testing in salt or freshwater is critical .............is for suspending lures....... or near suspending lures. The effect of the specific Gravity ( SG) difference between fresh & saltwater on lure action for strongly floating or strongly sinking lures is quite small.
The object of testing new hooksets is comparison to your original setup. Whatever medium you are testing in you just sit them side by side & compare original to new in average flotation height & attitude ( angle at rest).
Hooks contribute to the total ballast of the lure & affect the righting moments of the lure relatively strongly from their attachment position outside the body.............this is their influence on lure action. If the ballast weight of the hook changes is the same then the buoyancy , attitude & action will be typically the same. Any difference in water resistance in the hook changes has very small effect on lure action as the differences are very small.
Eyeballing lure buoyancy is OK but a more accurate comparison is simply weighing hook options on a small electronic scale.
A small group of lures are very susceptible to hook changes ...........these are symmetrical ( lathe turned) lures with no or negligible internal ballast & only tail weights to control casting & attitude at rest.............belly hooks provide essentially the only central ballast weight & provide the only( or vast majority of) righting moments to the lure in its action............ with those lures very small differences in hook changes can have significant effects on action.... eg. Gamma style stickbaits.
This is a very interesting subject. I don't live near saltwater either and usually test my poppers and sinking poppers in a nearby lake. On only few occasions I have replaced hooks but I will save the detail information provided by DenisB, very interesting. Thank you.
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