TR: Rangitikei River in New Zealand (long)

On Mar 27, 6:57 pm, "Peter A. Collin"
wrote:
Your story reminds me of a trip I made to Quebec several years ago for
trophy brook trout. I was using streamers with large hooks, and kept
losing fish like you - the hook just kept pulling out. It was
exasperating and I never figured out what I was doing wrong.

Peter Collin

Nice to commiserate; I feel your pain. ;-)

I'm not very acquainted with big fish, so I'd like to hear from some
of the better catchers about the difference in setting the hook for a
big fish vs a smaller one. Do their beaks get much more bony and tough
as they get larger? How hard to folks set the hook if they are in a
region with 5+ pounders?

--riverman

riverman wrote:
On Mar 27, 6:57 pm, "Peter A. Collin"
wrote:

Your story reminds me of a trip I made to Quebec several years ago for
trophy brook trout. I was using streamers with large hooks, and kept
losing fish like you - the hook just kept pulling out. It was
exasperating and I never figured out what I was doing wrong.

Peter Collin


Nice to commiserate; I feel your pain. ;-)

I'm not very acquainted with big fish, so I'd like to hear from some
of the better catchers about the difference in setting the hook for a
big fish vs a smaller one. Do their beaks get much more bony and tough
as they get larger? How hard to folks set the hook if they are in a
region with 5+ pounders?

I don't claim to be a "better catcher" of big fish than anyone else, but
I think you're on to something. Big trout have tougher, harder mouths
than small trout, IMO. My suspicion is that you were playing the fish
too gently in the beginning, even for 5x tippet. On the other hand,
maybe you were just unlucky that day. Everyone's had infuriating runs of
missed strikes and pull-outs.

When I hook up on a big fish I usually try to "set the hook" on its
first run.

Great TR, riverman. You were snakebit on that trip, but it sounds like
you still had fun.

--
Cut "to the chase" for my email address.

On 27 Mar 2007 04:26:37 -0700, "riverman" wrote:

On Mar 27, 6:57 pm, "Peter A. Collin"
wrote:
Your story reminds me of a trip I made to Quebec several years ago for
trophy brook trout. I was using streamers with large hooks, and kept
losing fish like you - the hook just kept pulling out. It was
exasperating and I never figured out what I was doing wrong.

Peter Collin

Nice to commiserate; I feel your pain. ;-)

I'm not very acquainted with big fish, so I'd like to hear from some
of the better catchers about the difference in setting the hook for a
big fish vs a smaller one. Do their beaks get much more bony and tough
as they get larger? How hard to folks set the hook if they are in a
region with 5+ pounders?

--riverman

Um, "setting the hook?" How were you two going about "setting the
hook?" If y'all were "snatching" the rod up, that'd be the problem. If
you have any "slack," it'll be all the worse.

TC,
R

On Mar 28, 9:09 am, wrote:
On 27 Mar 2007 04:26:37 -0700, "riverman" wrote:





On Mar 27, 6:57 pm, "Peter A. Collin"
wrote:
Your story reminds me of a trip I made to Quebec several years ago for
trophy brook trout. I was using streamers with large hooks, and kept
losing fish like you - the hook just kept pulling out. It was
exasperating and I never figured out what I was doing wrong.

Peter Collin

Nice to commiserate; I feel your pain. ;-)

I'm not very acquainted with big fish, so I'd like to hear from some
of the better catchers about the difference in setting the hook for a
big fish vs a smaller one. Do their beaks get much more bony and tough
as they get larger? How hard to folks set the hook if they are in a
region with 5+ pounders?

--riverman

Um, "setting the hook?" How were you two going about "setting the
hook?" If y'all were "snatching" the rod up, that'd be the problem. If
you have any "slack," it'll be all the worse.

TC,
R- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

I was keeping a tight line...I can say it definitively because all of
my takes were during the lift while I was nymphing. With smaller fish,
I just lift the tip and pull back firmly when I feel a take, but not
with any sort of 'snap' or sudden jerk. In fact, I think the fish
pretty much set the hook themselves and I'm just reinforcing the idea.
But with larger fish, I wonder if I have to really HAUL back on the
rod.

--riverman

On 27 Mar 2007 18:40:54 -0700, "riverman" wrote:

On Mar 28, 9:09 am, wrote:
On 27 Mar 2007 04:26:37 -0700, "riverman" wrote:

I'm not very acquainted with big fish, so I'd like to hear from some
of the better catchers about the difference in setting the hook for a
big fish vs a smaller one. Do their beaks get much more bony and tough
as they get larger? How hard to folks set the hook if they are in a
region with 5+ pounders?

--riverman

Um, "setting the hook?" How were you two going about "setting the
hook?" If y'all were "snatching" the rod up, that'd be the problem. If
you have any "slack," it'll be all the worse.

TC,
R- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

I was keeping a tight line...I can say it definitively because all of
my takes were during the lift while I was nymphing. With smaller fish,
I just lift the tip and pull back firmly when I feel a take, but not
with any sort of 'snap' or sudden jerk. In fact, I think the fish
pretty much set the hook themselves and I'm just reinforcing the idea.
But with larger fish, I wonder if I have to really HAUL back on the
rod.

--riverman

While I'll wait for the definition of "HAUL back on the rod," I suspect
we have our answer. Being fully prepared for the, um, replies, I think
you'll find "setting the hook" is often as much the part of the quarry
as the fisher. That said, without knowing more about what you did, I'd
not attempt to troubleshoot it. I will say, however, that attempting to
jam a unsharpened (no, I don't mean "dull," I mean _unsharpened_) hook
into the mouth of a large fish with the tip of the rod...oh, like say a
3 wt. catching fish too large for it...with a sudden "snatch" will often
fail. Hey, IIRC, you're a math guy - think about the angle of the line
to the fish, and if you must, the force required, Greek letters, pi, the
cosine of the tangent, etc. when you attempt to set the hook, and
consider what you are trying to stick into what...OK, so there's a
gimme...

TC,
R