Originally Posted By: topwater
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.


The primary determinant of C&R mortality is hooking location.

While they may look ugly, external hooking wounds are RARELY mortal. That's the whole point in my trying to plant my hook point ANYWHERE but inside a biter's mouth

If the hook is taken in the mouth it's far more likely to cause a mortal hooking wound.... by 2 orders of magnitude.

Now with coho, the second most lethal factor is STRESS. Stress from the struggle, stress from the handling. Salt-caught coho is a very easily stressed species... and horribly so.... the undeniable wimp of the salmonid kingdom. Even WITHOUT a mortal hooking wound, a significant proportion of the fish will still die after release.

We all see the floaters... none of us see the sinkers.

Here's a little more circumstantial evidence of coho frailty.

How often do you catch a coho with visible signs of having been previously troll caught. Virtually ZERO! They don't exist (at least not in numbers statistically disinguishable from ZERO). I've fished over 40 years and have NEVER seen a re-caught coho with a disfigured jaw, maxillary avulsion, or a gaping hole in the side of its face.

WHY?

Because statistically NONE of them survive the initial encounter. You don't ever catch them again because they're all dead.

In contrast, I'll catch a dozen or more kings with said injuries every year... EVERYWHERE I fish for them.

Ask any commercial troller and he'll tell you the same story.
_________________________
"Let every angler who loves to fish think what it would mean to him to find the fish were gone." (Zane Grey)

"If you don't kill them, they will spawn." (Carcassman)


The Keen Eye MD
Long Live the Kings!