Foul hooking muddies whilst fishin for yellows

[Drenalinjunkie]

Hi Guys,

I fished the Vaal on Sat. It was my first time out for yellows with an experienced friend. He told me how the muddies tend to get foul hooked.

Why is that? Is it because of the shape of their mouth that they have to turn sideways? I managed to land 5 muddies of which only 2 where hooked in the mouth. I was not fortunate enough to land a yellow. I was told that you really have to work hard for them on the Vaal.

What do you guys do or do you have any tricks concerning the muddies? What would you recommend I do to improve my chances for a yellow?

Thanks for all your help.

[pieterkriel]

Hi Guys,

I fished the Vaal on Sat. It was my first time out for yellows with an experienced friend. He told me how the muddies tend to get foul hooked.

Why is that? Is it because of the shape of their mouth that they have to turn sideways? I managed to land 5 muddies of which only 2 where hooked in the mouth. I was not fortunate enough to land a yellow. I was told that you really have to work hard for them on the Vaal.

What do you guys do or do you have any tricks concerning the muddies? What would you recommend I do to improve my chances for a yellow?

Thanks for all your help.

I would say that yellows are easier to catch properly than muddies. If you find a spot with yellows and your drift is right and fly is good you'll catch the yellow long before you get the muddy(just my opinion)

To catch muddies consistanly in the mouth you need to slow down you drift a lot, they also take the fly sneakier than yellows. Striking in time will produce a muddy caught in the mouth.

[Drenalinjunkie]

I presume knowing when to strike comes with experience as well. I let me SI sink down about 5cm before striking. Does this have an affect as well?

Thanks for replying Pieter

[pieterkriel]

I presume knowing when to strike comes with experience as well. I let me SI sink down about 5cm before striking. Does this have an affect as well?

Thanks for replying Pieter

You just answered your own question, by the time your SI moved that much you are striking too late foul hooking the muddy, as for yellows the same applies the only thing is that a yellows moves off faster than a muddy and you wont even foul it. Fishing with a strike indicator you need to react to almost unseeable reactions from the SI if you are to catch either species

[Garage]

I often wondered about all the foul-hooked muddies, and particularly that they were often hooked in the anal or pectoral fins. I thought after a visit to an aquarium that had yellows and muddies in a display in running water that I had discovered the answer.

The yellows feed mainly into the oncoming water, facing upstream. The muddies generally dont and move around the bottom scraping away at the rocks. They are often facing downstream with their tails raised and facing upstream. Quite how they stay in that position amazes me, but I saw it with my own two eyes. A weighted New Zealand rig or czech nymphing rig would roll under the muddies body and would stutter when it hit the fish's anal or pectoral fins. The angler would strike and the fish would be hooked in the fin, or in that area.

Always made sense to me, but might not be true.

What do other forumites think?

[Garage]

If I counfused you, I meant "with their tails raised and pointing upstream". Sorry.

[MyWorld]

In bait fishing if you constantly foul hook a fish (like carp) then it is a sign that your bait and hook is too big and you should fish "finer", with this we mean you put on a much smaller hook and put on less bait.

Could it also be that the fly is too big and when they take it and release it it had no time to set properly in the corner of the mouth?

To the pectoral fin scenario that Garage posted, makes sense, now all we need is the masters of the Vaal to shed some more light on this!
:P

[Andre]

I think you are always going to foul hook muddies. If this is happenning in deepish , fast flowng water, you may be fishing a little heavy. I find that a lighter control fly generally helps. If you are getting muddies in the mouth, you know that the weight is perfect.

[Culprit]

A tip from a relative newbie to another.

If your in a spot with a lot of muddies remove your strike indicator and catch (or jig ) them while feeling the strikes on the line. Like I said just a suggestion it helped me develop some feeling for fishing without a strike indicator.

[Andre]

A tip from a relative newbie to another.

If your in a spot with a lot of muddies remove your strike indicator and catch (or jig ) them while feeling the strikes on the line. Like I said just a suggestion it helped me develop some feeling for fishing without a strike indicator.

Good tip about the strike indicator. Now, when you remove it, remember to throw it away, and never use it again, oh, and if you have any more strike indicators, throw them away as well.