The Case of the Backward Hook

[Okanagan]

My first clue was that I was not catching fish.  That is normal, but the hardest clues are the normal ones.  It was the kind of case where neighbors would say afterwards, “ He was a nice guy.  He talked fishing like everybody, but we never expected him to actually catch one!”

The second clue was that my partner was catching fish.  That is NOT normal.  It stood out, big time, if you know what I mean.

I’d had an odd tangle way up my leader almost an hour earlier, but didn’t look at the hook once the leader was straight.  I normally check a hook every few minutes but it was clean water, no snags, and I kept fishing hard, for almost an hour.

Then I examined the hook.  The leader had made a perfect clove hitch around the bend of the hook, pulling it backward.  I had set the hook several times when I’d felt a fish, and hooked nothing.  ...Now I knew why.



After I turned the hook around to the right way, this was the result of my first cast.



A few casts later, this finished my limit of two sockeye.



Case closed, though I wonder how my partner managed to sabotage my hook with that clove hitch in my leader.  

[coyote101]

Nice fish!  I'm glad you solved the mystery. I see you smashed the barb. Is that required where you were fishing?

Pat

[KySongDog]

    Funny how things happen sometimes.   

[pitw]

You are not nut's anymore .  I may be able to put up with them people for a fish like that once .  Great job of figuring out the problem .

[Okanagan]

Nice fish!   I'm glad you solved the mystery. I see you smashed the barb. Is that required where you were fishing?

Pat

Yep, single barbless hook, and it has to have some kind of lure, can't be a bare hook.  Nearly all of the sockeye are snagged on the outside of the lip, when the leader goes into their open mouth and slides through to the hook.  I run a yarn fly and small corkie as shown, because once in awhile a Chinook salmon will bite that combo.  The big Chinooks are in the river at the same time, and we are allowed one big one of those on top of the two sockeye.

In years past I have fished in the combat fishing line, but this year have stayed away, one evening in a friend's boat, the other two by fishing less ideal water but where I usually catch fish.  

[Okanagan]

Great job of figuring out the problem .

Thank you!  Yeah, it takes me awhile to figure things out, but people do give me credit for not being very smart either.

[Tappen]

nice fish okanagan, its required that you fish barbless here as well, but i don't mind it, to bad ya didnt catch the problem sooner 

[pitw]

but people do give me credit for not being very smart either.

I somehow find that UNBELIEVABLE

[Okanagan]

but people do give me credit for not being very smart either.

I somehow find that UNBELIEVABLE

It takes one to know one!   

[FinsnFur]

Thats funny, but I'd think that knot would place the hook in an upside down position, it didn't?...or you didnt notice?

Dang nice fish though once ya got stuff back in line... you know...back in line

[Okanagan]

Thats funny, but I'd think that knot would place the hook in an upside down position, it didn't?...or you didnt notice?

Me?  Notice what the hook is doing?  

I've assumed that the hook rides up or down and every which way.  It is drifting in the current when fishing, with a sinker (& swivel) about ten feet up the line and the leader loose and not tight at all till something grabs the hook.  When all is working, the leader is drifting downstream about six inches off the bottom.

Added:  the corkie floats, so it would tend to orient the hook with point down in the water, since this knot attaches the corkie to the "top" or back of the hook shank, away from the point.

[FinsnFur]

That makes a little  more sense
I didnt realize you were running a floating rig

[Okanagan]

That makes a little  more sense
I didnt realize you were running a floating rig

To clarify:  I put a sliding sinker on the mainline bumped against a bead stopper and swivel.  Two ounce sinker is the usual in the swift currents we fish with this.   Leader is 10-12 feet (10'6" rod) tied to the swivel and with the terminal hook.  The small corkie shown almost exactly balances the weight of the hook for a neutral buoyancy.  

We cast across and slightly upstream and let the sinker bounce bottom in a long sweep past till it is straight downstream.  We want the leader drifting full length near the bottom, hoping one of the upstream facing fish will open his mouth at the right moment to take in the leader, which slides through to the hook.  Hence the hook-sets on the outside of the jaw, usually in the corner of the mouth.

It is a blasphemous fishing technique to many purists, but super effective and the only way anyone has come up with to catch sockeye in opaque silty glacial water.  (Nets, etc. also work!)  When there is clear water, you can present a lure they see and strike.  Sockeye (called reds in Alaska) taste the same whether hooked inside the lip or a quarter inch away outside the lip.  

[FinsnFur]

Sockeye (called reds in Alaska) taste the same whether hooked inside the lip or a quarter inch away outside the lip.  

Now I find that, awful hard to believe

[Todd Rahm]

I have done more then my fair share over the years.

[weedwalker]

Look at the bright side of it Okanagon, at least you got an extra hour of relaxing fishing instead of catching your 2 fish and going home.