Hooks coming loose and controlling SM yellows.

[Grant111]

HELP!!!

I don't know what I'm doing wrong.

I have 2 issues at the moment and it's driving me mad. Quick overview.

Went on a SM clinic and have gone from 3 fish a day to 15-20 a day on my next three outings. So that fantastic and I now understand the process and I'm working on improving my catching technique.

First problem. Hooks popping on about 40% of the fish I hook.

So what is an acceptable rate of losing a fish purely due to hook dislodged? Not broken off.
I have a combination of hooks popping after a few seconds to popping after a few minutes. So I'm thinking it's due to hook size. On All occasions I've been fishing size 16 nymphs and brassies. Could that be a logical reason?
Or hopefully it's something I'm doing wrong.

FYI the flies in question are Sci flies and debarbed.

Next problem.
Not being able to put enough pressure to stop the fish going where he wants to and in many cases that's down stream and far away. Lost two great fish to this today.

I think my subconscious is telling me not to pull to hard as the hooks are gonna pop and hence loose control of the fish.

So any advice or assistance will be greatly greatly appreciated.

Regards
Grant

[Andre]

Hooks pulling out the fish's mouth, could simply be a cr@p hook, or the hook might be blunt, in that it doesn't penetrate well enough. Also, the dressing on the fly could also be a factor if it is tied too far into the hook bend, not allowing for a full hook set. Definatly not hook size, some really big fish can easily be caught on small hooks. Brings to mind Ian Lourens'e 16 pound largie on a size 16 hook. Sometimes small hooks do a better job than large hooks.
About the fish running downstream... that's just a matter of experience. could also be the conditions of the river, in that you might be fishing in a place where its difficult to hold the fish due to the flow. Next time, go after it, and keep the tension on the line. Whatever you do, don't let the line go slack. Lower the rod to the side, and give it side pressure. Don't be scared to give a yellowfish some serious muscle. Takes experience to know the limits of your equipment however.

[redhumpy]

Before the sm clinic you probably weren't fishing "in the zone", now that you are you are going to foul hook a lot more fish because you are fishing where the fish are.

Before the clinic you were catching 3 fish a day.
Now you are catching 15 -20 a day AND losing 40% a day. If you landed them you will be doing approx 20- 25 fish a day...? The fish you are losing are foul hooked.

Unfortunately when you buy flies out of the packet the hooks used are always k@k, REGARDLESS.
Buy hooks out of the plastic boxes in the fishing shops they tend to be tied on better hooks like daiichi and kamasaan.

[Grant111]

Ok. You both refer to cr@p hooks but I would think sci flies Grip hooks would have been good hooks?

See pics of actually flies in question. So does this address the hook and dressing issue?

Yup I'm definitely in the zone now after the clinic but can foul hooking account for so many popped hooks? I do space the flies by at least 40cm.

The problem was that the flows were very low and it was basically just one continuous rapid and no real pools to direct the fish to. So I guess you must pick you spot to fish where you can land a fish rather that just fishing anywhere. That comes with experience as you say but right now I'm just so happy I'm catching fish as those long days of 1-3 fish were so frustrating.

[Grant111]

Flies in question.

[FlyCraft]

Hi Grant,

Offset those hooks slightly (hook point to the side) with your forceps and see how it goes. Quite often on some commercial flies, like the PTN, the fly is overdressed, closing the hook gape. On those brassies, if you draw a straight line from the hook eye to the hook gape, you will see that the gape is actually very small, offsetting will help.

[Korrie]

As mentioned, off setting the hook point, is probably the most important and easiest to start off.
If you by flies, before you put the flies in your fly box, take 2 or 3 minutes and with the forceps, but slightly offset.
Once set, the offset hook, digs in deeper.

[Andre]

Its not only foul hooking that accounts for such a high loss rate. The way that yellowfish feed, also can account. They are bottom feeders most of the time, and when nymphing for them, they very quickly can expel the fly as they realise that it isn't food, resulting in an insufficient hook set. Even the very experienced guys have quite high loss rate, but as your experience grows, you will see that you will land more fish. If you are able to detect the take, and set the hook timeously, you will find that you will get a quality hookup more often, and therefore land more fish. Basically just takes practice.
One more thing... Its looks to me that those brassies might be dressed a little far into the hook bend. Perhaps two or three turns too many, but that's just my observation.

[Grant111]

Thanks guys will give that a go.
Any points to note when manually offsetting a hook?

And I see your points on overdressing and wraps going to far down. Always makes sense when someone tells :-).

[Gerrit Viljoen]

Yes,

You can also use your vice to bend it and once done test it between a folded sheet of paper, if you get stuck wham you have it sorted don't go bananas with the degree of angle, as little as 4-5% is 100%!