Embarrassing Problem
- This topic has 14 replies, 12 voices, and was last updated Apr 28, 2007 at 9:11 am by
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After a day of trout fishing last week with a much more patient and skilled friend, I discovered a rather embarrassing problem that I have–I’m having some serious problems setting the hook. This also happened the previous week when I was steelhead fishing with a professional guide. I am a relative newcomer to fishing and these were two of my first serious outings.
While I’m unsure of what I’m doing wrong, both times my companions thought I wasn’t setting it hard enough. I think it may be a psychological thing, but I think it feels to me like I’m going to pull it right out of the fish’s mouth. I also read somewhere else that you should let the fish run with the fly a little before setting it. Any thoughts? Is it possible to set the hook too soon. :-[
yeah, you should concentrate more on how fast you set the hook than how hard you set the hook at first anyway.
One of the things I do with my clients before we get on the river is I always check their hook set. I will make them cast to me while I am standing about twenty five feet away. When they finally put a cast right on top of me I will grab the line and wrap it around my fingers and tell them to set the hook. Even with the hardest of hook sets you would be amazed at how little pressure you feel on your fingers. This is a great way for me to coach them to the perfect set and it has been fairly affective years. I also pretend like I am a fish on the end of that line so they know how to land a fish once it is caught, but that is a whole other post! 🙂
The other thing about a hook set you want to remember is that it is all about angles in fishing. Make sure you are not set the hook in a manner that is actually pulling out of the fishes mouth.
And if you are going to use light tippet like Zach suggested I would suggest that you also use bardless hooks in already don’t. With a barbless hook the fish has a fighting chance of getting that hook out that you just tugged in there.
JT
David:
You’ve gotten some good advice so far. Like so many things in fly-fishing, it is often a personal discovery.
The difficulty is there is no one way to set the hook. Most techniques in fly-fishing are relative to what you are trying to do and the conditions.
1) Fish don’t always take the same way and are sometimes aggressive; sometimes less so; sometimes very subtle and change througout the day.
2) Conditions affect how you retrieve and set the hook. Water clarity, flows, depth, and sunlight all can influence the fish’s take and your hookset. Recently, we’ve been getting larger fish deep in the holes in the late afternoon to mouth the fly, but try to set the hook normally and you pull it right out of their mouth. You sometimes have to throw a change up in the normal timing to pull when they have their mouth shut. Setting the hook in fish in deep water is defintely more challenging.
3) Tackle affects hook setting and playing. Lines, leader and hook sharpness can make a difference. If your hook point does not catch on the back of the fingernail, it is too dull. Sharpen it until it does. I check hook points often. A sharp hook will allow your hook to find a grabbing point in the fishes mouth easier with less effort.
My personal taste is to use the least amount of pressure possible to get a solid hookset. I’ve found using a lot of beadhead streamers that if you overset the hook you make a bigger hole in the fish’s mouth. Any slack at all will allow the fly to swivel more easily and fall out.
Some of my most enjoyable moments have been watching artful anglers, swinging wet flies, let the fish virtually hook themselves and then play them with a gentle hand. I see a lot of torn mouths from anglers rough housing fish that is not necessary if you plan to release your catch.
So, experiment and enjoy the learning process. Find what works in different situtations and add it to your bag of tricks.
Each hook size is coupled to a leader size.. Usually smaller hooks have smaller leaders etc…
the small stuff will set themselves…. Bigger hooks will take more of a tug.. So each hook size requires a different set pressure, and this will take a lot of time to get used to..Not to say Zach is wrong, I just think the opposite would work better. Strap on some heavy tippet and an indicator and crank the hell out of it when that thing goes down.
Yeah, sorry Zach, but I disagree on the light tippet too.
Hook setting totally depends on the way you are fishing, for instance if you are using classic nymph or dry fly techniques (dead drift) you want to hook the fish as soon as it hits but if you are pulling steamers or swinging a wet fly when the fish hits just wait a second or two or continue striping one of two things will happen, the fish will grab it and turn or it will have the fly “swim” out of its mouth and attack it again.
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