doc,

you are the one stating all saltwater coho fishing has a 50-60% release mortality. i strongly disagree based on my years of fishing neah bay for coho and the data posted by smalma.

i also have lots of experience fishing a two-hook rig as well as single hook flies. it is not the location of the hook holding the fish that is wounding fish in a two hook rig but the other hook swinging around as the fish jumps and twists. it is the hook not initially holding the fish that causes the damage to eyes and gills.

i think you're being a bit dramatic when talking about 50-60% mortality in all saltwater fisheries (i will concur the studies show increased mortality in estuaries vs. open ocean fisheries) and the "significant risk" of wounding fish. i personally do not feel there is a "significant" risk of mortally wounding fish when fishing single hook flies because it happens so rarely that the term tiny risk would be more accurate than significant risk.

you may think i "demonize" the two hook rig. that is not true. i only point out in these threads with people bitching about wounding lots of fish that they might want to look at the gear they fish to reduce the number of wounded fish, especially on smaller coho. going to smaller single hooks will dramatically reduce the number of damaged coho you have to deal with, especially if you either have to or or want to release lots of fish.