By Jim Parks
Having borrowed the title from a 1980’s movie, you may have already been hooked! However, as I write this article on a cold, snowy winter day, the intent of the article is to help you hook those fish that from time to time either get loose after a brief fight, or never get fully hooked even when you strongly believe you set the hook timely and effectively.
As I close in on fifty years of fly fishing, one of the best lessons I’ve learned in that time is the importance of the hook. Though this can relate to most types of fishing, my thoughts are on fly fishing. From the beginning I have tied my own flies and one step I take religiously is to sharpen the hook before placing it in the vice. Realizing most are packaged pre-sharpened, I still introduce each hook to a sharpener before tying any pattern. Afterwards the hook goes through the thumbnail test. If you’re not familiar with the thumbnail test, it is how I test the sharpness of a hook by rubbing it along my thumbnail. If it digs in, it is sharp. If it glides along my thumbnail, it is sharpened until it does dig in. I also perform the thumbnail test as I tie the fly to my tippet as well as regularly while using it. Once happens, twice is a coincidence, three times is a trend. I don’t like trends that result in fewer fish!
Following are three solutions for when you suspect you are making good hooksets, but the hook is not holding:
Solution 1: With time, any hook will become dull, whether it be from hooking fish, getting snagged, scraping against submerged stones, or a myriad of other unknown reasons. Regardless, a hook should be regularly checked for sharpness, BEFORE you lose a big one. One of the tools on my vest is a simple hook sharpener. A few good strokes of the hook tip along the sharpener are typically sufficient. Though always important, a sharp hook tends to be a bigger issue for me when streamer fishing. While fishing the Alagnak River in Alaska, we were stripping bunny flies for Pink and Chum Salmon. As I watched my buddy land one after another, I set the hook on solid strikes but failed to hold onto several in a row. I asked my guide for a hook sharpener. His minimal guide experience revealed itself, along with several other ways throughout our week together, when he stated, “A hook never needs sharpening!” I know my jaw dropped as I felt a strong desire to feed him to one of the many nearby brown bears at his statement, which he said in the fullest of confidence. Not wearing my vest containing my hook sharpener, a big mistake, I looked around for a small river stone to sharpen the hook. Though not easy, it did work and I began regular, solid hook ups and landing salmon.
Solution 2: If after sharpening the hook to my satisfaction, I continue to set the hook only to have the fish get off, my next move is to alter the shape of the hook. I’ve noticed that some types of hooks are packaged slightly bent to the side. So, with that thought in mind I sometimes use that idea as a way to fix a perceived problem with the sharpened hook that has a trend of letting fish off. Surprisingly, I use this solution several times a year and rarely does it fail to change the aforementioned trend. When looking down on the hook from above, I will take a pair of forceps and slightly bend the tip of the hook to the left. I do not think it matters to the right or left but being right-handed it seems easier to bend the tip to the left. I have shown this to help others with whom I have fished, and surprisingly none have ever done this previously.
Solution 3: Sometimes a hook just does not work. I don’t know why and I will not attempt to speculate why. It is sharp and I’ve bent it to the left and it is still not setting well. A few years ago, I was fishing for large rainbows under a strike indicator on the Moraine River in Alaska. I was pegging an egg with the hook about two inches below the bead egg. As I mended my line and watched the indicator drift along the current, it abruptly disappeared beneath the surface. With a hard quick hookset of my seven-weight rod, I instantly felt the strong tug of a large rainbow. Within several seconds, it got off. Well, it happens. But not six consecutive times!! I had checked the hook for sharpness and even bent it to the side. I asked our guide for a new hook, to which he notified me that the hook I had was fine. Frustrated with him for the umpteenth time, I turned and walked a short distance away to avoid the temptation of any ill intent. Having learned from the previous day, I was wearing my fishing vest with my own gear which I used to replace the hook with a new one. After landing the next several ‘bows, the guide replied, “See, that hook was fine!” to which I replied, “I changed the hook!” As I said, sometimes a hook just doesn’t do its job, nor does the guide.
Being a “Happy Hooker” means landing more fish with fewer, if any, getting off because of an issue with the hook. When you are certain that you are setting the hook quickly and strongly enough to score and the fish still gets off, sometimes it happens but it should not be a trend. Whenever there is a failing trend, something needs to be changed. Sometimes it is the hook.