There are plenty of estuary salmon in a river right now.
Although they are not huge unlike ones we were catching in the ocean a few month ago, but they can still go hard on a light rod. I hooked up one good fish yesterday, and it took out nearly entire fly line as it went down stream with current.
I was having a great time yesterday hooking up those fish, but there was one problem. I was having too many fish taking a fly too deep in their mouth or throat. It was not only a pain for me to get a fly out, but it was potentially lethal to fish as well.
Fish were hitting my flies on a dead drift, and when I felt takes, it was too late as fish already got my fly way too deep. One fish unfortunately got caught in a gill, and I had to feed it to a pelican at the end as I could not revive the fish.
Anyway, I tied this bendback streamer last night hoping this will reduce the chance of fatal hook up around gills. I have been thinking that having a hook point up, it will get stuck into the upper part of fish's mouth instead of the bottom part where gills are closely located.
I went down to the river again this afternoon to test it. Unfortunately I only got two fish on this pattern, and one of which even got off. So I couldn't tell if the fly was working as I intended at this stage.
Interestingly, I was watching Roger kept hooking fish after fish using a much bigger fly with very fast retrieves, but one fish still manged to swallow the fly, got caught on a gill, and ended up as a free meal for a pelican. I begin to think, salmon likes to swallow baits unlike bream which will try to nibble or crash their food first.
I don't mind the whole thing, if I was keeping fish, but not for catching and release. Hopefully a upside down hook could be a solution to save some fish from deep hook ups. Although, I am not a big fun of Clouser Minnow, Crazy Charlie or other patterns with a hook point facing up. I don't think they swim well, but I am happy to use them for salmon if they can reduce the chance of hooking too deep.
Interestingly, I was watching Roger kept hooking fish after fish using a much bigger fly with very fast retrieves, but one fish still manged to swallow the fly, got caught on a gill, and ended up as a free meal for a pelican. I begin to think, salmon likes to swallow baits unlike bream which will try to nibble or crash their food first.
I don't mind the whole thing, if I was keeping fish, but not for catching and release. Hopefully a upside down hook could be a solution to save some fish from deep hook ups. Although, I am not a big fun of Clouser Minnow, Crazy Charlie or other patterns with a hook point facing up. I don't think they swim well, but I am happy to use them for salmon if they can reduce the chance of hooking too deep.
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