Bring Back the Hook Keeper!
- Thread starter ABITNF
- Start date
No. My fishing now is pretty much lakes and chironomids under indicators. I do fish shorter leaders on the beach but off the end of either a ten or 14 foot clear polyleader.
Good way to break a rod. Ask me how I know.
I may have to plead the Fifth...
SebastianV
Freshly Spawned
The problem with the hook keeper is most leaders are longer than the rod. Once you hook your fly into the hook keeper and reel in the slack, the junction of the fly line and leader are now in your guides. When you get to a new spot you have to set your reel down and pull the line out the guides. It’s a pain in the butt and can actually lead to breaking the tip off a rod.
When moving to a new spot I leave 18 inches or so of fly line out the guide, take my fly and hook on one of the snake guide (the farthest one I can reach), take the slack line and pull it behind the reel foot, and reel in slack. When I get to a new spot, I pull a little line off the reel, unwrap the leader from behind the reel, hold my rod tip over the water, and give the rod a light karate chop. The fly, leader, and line are out in front of me and ready to start fishing.
When moving to a new spot I leave 18 inches or so of fly line out the guide, take my fly and hook on one of the snake guide (the farthest one I can reach), take the slack line and pull it behind the reel foot, and reel in slack. When I get to a new spot, I pull a little line off the reel, unwrap the leader from behind the reel, hold my rod tip over the water, and give the rod a light karate chop. The fly, leader, and line are out in front of me and ready to start fishing.
I agree and also do this when fishing. It's when I go to store my rod in my two piece rod cases that I miss the hook keeper.
I know that I probably do it different than most others but I can stow a rod with two flies and not snag them in the lining of the rod case.
Probably just jinxed myself with that last statement.
SebastianV
Freshly Spawned
Yup. Technique works great with 2 flies and a bobber, if you’re into that sort of thing.
A hook keep is like a wisdom tooth, it’s there but not useful and ends up fucking everything up so you remove it. Glad to see it getting bred out of fly rod DNA.
A hook keep is like a wisdom tooth, it’s there but not useful and ends up fucking everything up so you remove it. Glad to see it getting bred out of fly rod DNA.
So...if I hook just one fly in the hook keeper to store it in my rod case am I still a terrible person?
Huh. 20+ years with 20+ rods and I've never once had a hook keeper fuck everything up. Or, really, cause any kind of negative anything at all. In fact, I've often found them convenient. Weird.
Must be doing this fly fishing thing wrong!
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We gotta get you fishing midges deep with a floating line, a 25-foot long leader and, of course, a quick release bobber.
You mean tenkara fishing ?
Oh, I’ve done that. Just not much lately.
Most the time I’m using a 7’ or less leader where I like to fish. I think most people I see fishing are doing the same.
I like having a hook keeper as well.
SF
Brian - If I still lived in Port Orchard, with access to the Sound and Canal, my leaders wouldn't be much different from yours. The few times I do get over to Hood Canal, I'm using leaders shorter than my fly rod.
I've always been in the pro hook keeper camp, but since so many rods are made without them these days I've gotten used to not having one and rarely use it even on rods that have it.
I haven't fished a leader long enough to end up inside the guides in many years, and even when I did consistently fish longer leaders I never saw any issue using the keeper.
These days the rods I use consistently live rigged up on storage racks inside two rod lockers on my boat. For years now I just stick the hook into the cork on the bottom of the fighting butt. I suppose this damagea the cork a bit but I don't give two shits. My rods are tools and nothing more and I use them hard.
I used to just hang the hook on the first stripping guide but this often puts the leader connection inside the guides. Doesn't bother me in terms of messing up the leader but I much prefer the leader connection out of the guides at all times specifically to make it faster when I see something and need to grab a rod, strip out some line, and fire off a cast quickly. If the leader connection is inside the guides that's often just an extra second or few required to be in a position to cast.
I haven't fished a leader long enough to end up inside the guides in many years, and even when I did consistently fish longer leaders I never saw any issue using the keeper.
These days the rods I use consistently live rigged up on storage racks inside two rod lockers on my boat. For years now I just stick the hook into the cork on the bottom of the fighting butt. I suppose this damagea the cork a bit but I don't give two shits. My rods are tools and nothing more and I use them hard.
I used to just hang the hook on the first stripping guide but this often puts the leader connection inside the guides. Doesn't bother me in terms of messing up the leader but I much prefer the leader connection out of the guides at all times specifically to make it faster when I see something and need to grab a rod, strip out some line, and fire off a cast quickly. If the leader connection is inside the guides that's often just an extra second or few required to be in a position to cast.
Living in an era in which complaining has become a national pastime no minutia is too trivial to escape the wrath of the offended. Somehow the innocuous little hook holder, originally designed to aid the angler and make things a bit easier, has become a villain in the plot and garnered the anger and contempt of those so infuriated by it's presence.
C'mon guys-certainly we can find something even more microscopic than a hook holder to vent our rage on! We can't let the innocent hook holder become the epitome of our frustrations....
C'mon guys-certainly we can find something even more microscopic than a hook holder to vent our rage on! We can't let the innocent hook holder become the epitome of our frustrations....
