On Thu, 03 Aug 2006 02:41:18 -0500, chas
wrote:

I wondered about the Alaska statistic about the number of injuries, and then I
remembered their fondness for pegging beads above the hook. Even the legal 2
inches is enough slack to put the bead in the mouth and the hook in an eye.
Fishing one or two single egg flies around here and up in Alaska not gill
hooked or even injured a steelhead yet, and that's probably about 50 fish.

I say blame the beads, not C&R.

Hmmmmm. I've fished beads for three years in Alaska and have never
seen a hook in the eye. The whole reason for the beads was to cut
down on mortality. I was told that fishing with a normal egg pattern
resulted in the rainbows striking the egg so hard that hook-ups were
deep within the mouth, often causing injury and bleeding. With the
bead, when you feel/see the strike, you set the hook pulling the bead
out of the mouth and hooking the fish in the jaw. Most hook-ups I
witnessed were in the upper jaw, while the rest were in the lower jaw,
and that's about 400 fish. No gills or eyes were damaged.

For the past two years, I've used the same technique in Maine fishing
the sucker spawn for brook trout. Not once did I foul hook a fish,
and all the hook-ups were in the jaw (lip). I used to fish the sucker
spawn with egg patterns and often hooked the trout deep on the
"tongue" or elsewhere inside the mouth, sometimes causing bleeding.

So, I can't blame the beads.

Dave