There are two general schools of thought among swimbait fishermen regarding hooks.  One school of thought is to buy premium hooks like Gamakatsu or Owner and if they get the slightest bit dull, replace them immediately.  The other school of thought is to buy heavy duty bronze hooks like Mustad or VMC and sharpen them using a hook file.  Rather than sit here and tell you one way is better, I'll detail the reasoning behind each school of thought so that you can decide for yourself what you think is best.

The thinking on using premium hooks is that a premium hook is as sharp or sharper than a hook could ever be sharpened by hand.  So why not buy a premium hook that can be fished out of the box?  The other rationale is that premium hooks like Gamakatsu and Owner are typically a thinner guage wire which can be less visible to the fish when compared to a heavy duty Mustad or VMC.  The Gamakatsu bronze hooks in particular are favored because they have a dull finish to them that looks very neutral against a lot of lure colors.

The thinking behind using heavy duty Mustad or VMC hooks is that these hooks are stronger than the premium hooks and less likely to be bent out by a big fish.  Proponents of these type of hooks also argue that chemically sharpened hooks exude an odor that is repulsive to bass, so they are a better choice from the standpoint of getting bass to commit to the bait at the last minute.  Lastly, these type of hooks are about 1/5th the price of a premium hook, so losing or dulling them is much less of an issue from a cost standpoint. 

I myself am a premium hook guy except on baits where a 3/0 Owner is too small (and that is not many).  I fish Gamakatsu when subtelty is important and when I feel like there is a low risk of having the hook bend out.  It is quite possible to bend out a 2/0 Gamakatsu treble hook on 25lb line so if you use those hooks, be aware of that.  Fish are more likely to bend out your hooks when water temperatures are high and fish are jumping and twisting a lot.  In the winter when water temps are colder, fish tend to fight less and there is correspondingly less risk of bending out your hooks.  When I am concerned with bending out my hooks or in situations where I don't feel like the fish will see the hooks well (ie night fishing) I will always use Owners.  Owners are arguably sharper than Gamakatsu and they are definitely less prone to bending out.  The only thing I don't like about Owners is the shiny black finish.  This finish is put on the hooks to make you say ooooh those are so pretty when you see them at the tackle store, it is not there for fish catching reasons. 

Another popular hook topic is painting or masking hooks.  Some guys paint their hooks white to match the belly of the lure, or they cover the tips of the hooks with a piece of soft plastic to hide the shape of the hook and/or match the hook color to the lure color.  I myself will paint my hooks if I believe it will help the hooks blend in with the lure better, especially those shiny black Owner Stingers.  To determine if its worthwhile to paint the hooks, I simply look at the lure from the bottom up and I guage how much the hooks stand out.  On some lures, a white hook blends in really well and on other lures a white hook stands out like a billboard that says, "don't eat me."  I don't mask my hooks with soft plastic because I haven't found a soft plastic setup that doesn't risk bunching up and imparing the hookset and I feel like there should never be any more emphasis on the hooks than needs be when looking at a lure.  When you consider whether to paint or mask your hooks, take a minute to stare up at the bottom of the bait and think logically if it makes the lure look more or less natural. 

When I do paint my hooks white, I use cheap white nail polish and I never paint past the barb of the hook because I don't want to put anything on the tip of the hook that might make it less sharp.  Nail polish is an easy method with no clean up.  The paint chips off after a while but typically I'll replace a hook before the paint chips off.  There are other paint options but nail polish works for me.

A final consideration with hooks is hook weight.  It is amazing how much the weight of the hooks can affect some lures, especially surface baits.  Using heavy hooks can kill half of your action on a bouyant trout plug and they can change the rate at which sinking swimbaits fall.  If you are having problems getting action out of your swimbaits that have bills, try going to a lighter hook like a Gamakatsu round bend bronze treble, the results may suprise you. 

The bottom line with hooks is that they should be as sharp as possible, as light as possible, as subtle as possible, and they should never bend out under strain from a large bass.  The perfect hook does not exist in my mind, but there are enough hook styles on the market to get the job done.