Parker,

Your experience is different than mine. I (well, my boat) hooked and caught well over 50 salmon this fall on siwashes. NONE of them were hooked in a manner that caused them permanent harm. Most were hooked in the corner of the jaw. A few were hooked in the roof of the mouth. These were on a mix of kwikfish, wiggle warts, and spoons. All could have been released without harm, and most were.

I haven't been there when your examples were caught, so it's hard to say what this means. However, 50 fish is a statistically significant sample, and so therefore I am unconvinced of your position, that siwash hooks are harmful to the fish.

I fish mostly fairly large hooks. I use 3/0's and 4/0's on Kwikfish, and 1/0 or 2/0's on warts. Of course, all I use are those cheezy Gamakatsu's, so that may make a difference.

I also think that the indirect effect of using single hooks is important. If you use singles, they get tangled in the net less, which makes it easy to quickly release fish. If the goal is to get a healthy fish back in the water, I think this important.