Mike F - I think I understand what your doing w/ the replacing of swimmers front treble w/ a larger one and tail treble w/ a single bucktail..
I have been pulling all two or three trebles and replacing the head and tail one w/ a single bucktail, leaving the middle one empty. To be honest I'm dissatisfied w/ the way the lures act since I've done the swaps. The bucktails drag back parallel w/ the lure rather than hanging down and adding resistance the way a treble does. I get the lead shot; makes perfect sense and should help my existing double bucktail'd swimmers.
But why the bigger triple treble? Personally I'm terrified from experience in the school of hard knocks with mid sized stripers and big trebles. The schoolies will be fine on a big treble, only hook themselves on one hook, but the mid sized fish, the 24-30" fish can get two hooks embedded, make it tough to unhook, and add to the risk of finding yourself w/ one hook of a treble in a fish and one hook in you.
I can see how the big treble helps for big fish, but a 24-30" fish is big enough, powerful enough and heavy enough to be lots of trouble on a treble. 2 of my three self hookups have been by fish that size on big Rebel lures w/ a head treble.
L.