From: bc@col.hp.com (Bryan Call)
Subject: Re: Setting the Hook
Date: Fri, 14 Aug 1992 22:13:02 GMT
Organization: HP Colorado Springs Division

bcking@HQ.Ileaf.COM (Christine King) writes:
> Okay, I'll throw myself on your mercies: I'm a novice.  I've caught a
> few fish over the years, mostly sunnies or trout on bait.  I have a
> Really Basic Question:
> 
>   How, exactly, do I "set the hook"?
> 
> I mean, I hate it when I pull in an undersized trout who has swallowed
> my hook.  I'd much rather just ease it out of his jaw and send him on
> his way.  Is there something I can learn to do, to hook him there
> rather than let him swallow the whole thing down to his ankles?
> 
> -- 
>   Christine King
>     Internet: bcking@hq.ileaf.COM
>     US Mail:  Interleaf, Inc. / 9 Hillside Avenue / Waltham MA 02154 USA

For starters, don't use bait for trout fishing.  You will usually hook them
very deep with bait.  Lures and flies are always (I've never seen one  
otherwise) hooked somewhere in the mouth area (snagging discounted).  If 
you must bait fish for them, try to go barbless.  If you do, a hook remover
can be used for shallow swallows without much damage to the fish.  This 
is a long tool with a notch on the end.  Slide the tool down the line until
it bottoms on the hook.  Hold the tool and line together and gently push 
the hook loose and remove slowly.  If you hold the fish on its back it will
usually stay still and make the proceedure easier and safer on the fish.  
Don't squeeze the fish or hold it too tightly.  Always use wet hands and 
don't keep it out of the water any longer than necessary.  If it is hooked
so deeply that you can't get the tool to the hook without giving the fish 
a tracheaotomy, simply cut the line an let the hook stay in the fish.  It 
will usually desolve without much, if any, real damage to the fish.  If you 
use a lure, go barbless and preferably with only single hooks.  A multiple
set of treble hooks with barbs can really tear up a fish.  Barbless is a 
good idea even with flys.  Fishing flies and lures takes a lot more skill
and knowledge than bait fishing.  It would be advisable to get someone 
who knows the ropes to show you how and to tag along for a few trips until
you felt confident about your lure/fly selection and technique.  Maybe
John Cloud or some of his buddies up there would be willing to help make 
a convert. :-)  Actually it is nice to see a novice express concern about
the resource.

Good luck

Bryan

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Remember:  Fishing is NOT a matter of life and death.
              It is much more important than that!
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Bryan Call (719)590-5772  |All opinions expressed here are mine & mine alone.
Hewlett-Packard Co.       |  But then, I've never let that stop me before.     
Colorado Springs Div      |--------------------------------------------------
P.O. BOX 617              |    Many men go fishing all their lives without 
Colorado Springs, Co 80901|    knowing that it is not fish they are after.
bc@col.hp.com             |                                         - thoreau
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Newsgroups: rec.outdoors.fishing