Wayne Kohan
Life of the Party
I fish lakes almost exclusively, except for swinging for steelhead in the winters. I have done well with balanced leeches. This winter I tied up a bunch of balanced leeches on size 12 and 14 barbless jig hooks. I was fishing a couple weeks ago from my boat and hooked up multiple times but lost the fish each time, like 5-6 times in a row. (I heard other fishermen talking “Wow, he has another one! And he lost it again!“). I did check my hook each time and it was not bent. I finally changed flies, similar hook and landed every fish after that. Then I went out yesterday, new fly with similar hook and proceeded to lose several again. I tried bending the hook more closed but that did not help. Changed flies, landed fish without problems. I don’t remember having these issues in the past, but never used barbless hooks, but just pinched barbs. Anyone else have this issue with barbless jig hooks fished as balanced leeches? I have fished these hooks as jigged leeches without the same problems. Is the head pin causing an issue? I wonder if it’s an issue with leverage of the pull on the line. I really hate to throw all those flies away, they seem to be fish magnets, magnets without staying power.
Wayne
Wayne