LDR

RCF

RCF

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Yesterday I was trolling at a nearby lake. Several of the fish hit my fly hard and immediately leaped out of the water a couple of feet. All of them released my fly. Very aggravating especially when I can see the size of the fish that was on my line.

I always believed between the trolling tension and the line in the water would have enough tension to keep the fished hooked. So much for beliefs...

One would think after fishing 50+ years I would of figured this out. So much for thinking too...

So should I just be happy that I got to see the fish or is there something I should do to keep them hooked?
 
I actually like LDRs, no needing to handle the fish. I hate most when a fish takes a fly deep. I have had to cut the fly more than once hoping the fish will be okay. I’m quite happy enough to get a fish to take my fly.
 
Jojo said:
I actually like LDRs, no needing to handle the fish. I hate most when a fish takes a fly deep. I have had to cut the fly more than once hoping the fish will be okay. I’m quite happy enough to get a fish to take my fly.
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A hook in a fish in fresh water will rust out after a while. It doesn't even get in the way when they eat. What they eat is small anyway.
 
I like to see the fish up-close. The coloration and spots are different on every fish. Such a beautiful part of nature.

I have only kept 4 fish out of this lake in 22 years because they were bleeders. Most of the time I release the fish just by creating slack in the line. Some I have to just do a quick flip of the hook. IMHO by trolling it is very rare to get a deep hookset. Like @Old Man indicated, if I am concerned about getting a hook out, I just clip the leader. Must work because I have never caught a fish here with one of my flies in it.
 
This is why it's a sport :cool: they made it sporty for you.
 
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Shad said:
Probably just one of those days, but did you check your hook point?
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Yuppers. Several times. Caught lots of fish after each LDR....
 
So maybe you are getting too much tension/line drag. Try dropping your tip a bit and feed a bit of line, then give a strip to take up some line after it lands.
 
Old Man said:
A hook in a fish in fresh water will rust out after a while. It doesn't even get in the way when they eat. What they eat is small anyway.
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I knew that …but it still must be pretty uncomfortable! How long do they take to disintegrate?
 
Jojo said:
I knew that …but it still must be pretty uncomfortable! How long do they take to disintegrate?
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I can't answer that question. I'm not that smart. It probably depends on how thick the hook is made out of wire size. Fly hooks are thin and bait hooks are quite thick.

I caught a RB out of a lake in Washington that had a snelled bait hook in it's tongue. I pulled in the leader and it's tongue flipped out. I cut the line as close to the hook that I could get and released it back into the lake. it swam off.
 
I’ve been losing more fish lately than I’m “landing “ too @RCF … everywhere, in the salt, creeks and rivers. After almost seven decades doing this it’s just kind of weird to have this happening now.
I was going to blame it on the moon phase, or maybe the new decade. But I really think it’s this new century we’re in … :ROFLMAO: Everything got weird after 2000!!!
 
Greg Armstrong said:
I’ve been losing more fish lately than I’m “landing “ too @RCF … everywhere, in the salt, creeks and rivers. After almost seven decades doing this it’s just kind of weird to have this happening now.
I was going to blame it on the moon phase, or maybe the new decade. But I really think it’s this new century we’re in … :ROFLMAO: Everything got weird after 2000!!!
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Damn Covid!! Even the fish know that we humans are contagious.......
 
While losing fish is part of the game I believe choices made by the angler can significantly affect our landing rates,

First thought, most of us when casting and retrieving a sinking line have been taught the best approach is to point the rod tip at the fly (the tip often just above or even in the water) and on the take to "strip set". My experience has been adopting that approach has resulted in excellent take to landing ratios. Decades ago, I adopt the same approach in any fly trolling I do; that is, I position the rod to point straight out the stern of the boat at a low angle (again the tip near the water) and at the take give the boat a strip set action - for example if rowing a quick pull on the oars to set the hook. Just like the casting game that approach in my trolling has resulted increases in hook-up rates and fewer LDR.

In most of the fisheries (all barbless) I take part in I expect to land at least 80% of the fish I hook. In achieving that goal I quickly discovered that not all hooks are created equal in hook and holding fish. If I'm not regularly landing at least 80% of the fish hooked I begin experimenting with various hooks. Generally, a finer wire and longer point is good starting point. In some cases the hook shape (drop shot, Kiinkhamer) or ring eye have be assets.

Remember averages are just that and during the course of a say a season one can expect streaks of lost or landed fish. An example during the mid -1970s I decided to test the effectiveness of fishing barbless hooks for steelhead (with gear) as discussions were being made of requiring such restrictions. I used all the same gear I used to and committed to fishing barbless the entire seasons. About 3 weeks into my test I had a two day period that I lost 11 straight fish on those damn barbless hooks but being bull head continued with the experiment. At the end of the season I lost a total of 32 fish hooked (that streak was accounted for a third of the lost fish) out of 165 fish hooked ( meeting the my 80% criteria). Take home message of that test barbless hooks were at least effective as barbed hooks ( have fished barbless in all my steelhead fishing since) and there were a lot more steelhead in those days.

Curt
 
Smalma said:
About 3 weeks into my test I had a two day period that I lost 11 straight fish on those damn barbless hooks but being bull head continued with the experiment. At the end of the season I lost a total of 32 fish hooked (that streak was accounted for a third of the lost fish) out of 165 fish hooked ( meeting the my 80% criteria).

Curt
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Reiter or Blue Creek? 🙃
 
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