When I fish rock bottom river like the Kalama ( canyon area) and others I frequently check my hooks for sharpness. I only use my hook file once depending on the hook then I change up. I only use Gami and Owners hooks. This can get expensive but I rather pay alittle more than have a chromer throw me off. How often do you guys change or do you. I know of some people who never change, I have seen people pick up hooks off the banks and use them

I re-sharpen my hooks anytime I catch a fish, bump a rock or drag the bottom (and yeah, in some cases that's pretty frequent!).

I use the Gami and Vision Siwash's, and they seem to resharpen well IF you keep them sharp. Let them go bad and your swapping hooks.

Hooks are changed out when I don't feel that the hook can hold the super sharp point needed to drive that point into the mouth of a fish. Driving a 1/0 or 2/0 "home" is not always easy, and it also helps to use a rod with sufficient backbone to drive that hook home. I pinch all barbs, as having to drive that barb in (legal or not) makes it all the more difficult to get a hook-set and causes much more damage to the fish being released.

Mike

I use visions and gami's, i resharpen when the hook is dull, hooks out off snags and trees are fine if they are sharp.

I use Gami's and recycle them routinely, sharpening and re-sharpening until they can no longer be sharpened and still leave a reasonable tine on the hook. Be cautious about removing the least amount of metal possible while sharpening.

In the salt, sharpening that hook the very first time starts it down a corrosive path with no return. It will require you to sharpen more frequently. Watch sharpened hooks VERY carefully in the salt. They will rust MUCH faster than a hook straight out of the box. Over the course of a day's trolling, sometimes the entire hook point will just fall off, leaving nothing but a square stub. Pretty hard to hook a fish that way!

Hi All

Good Advice. I usually sharpen my hooks on a regulare basis.
I was fishing one of the OP rivers last fall when a local kid who lived accross the street came down and started talking to me. He had fished there before but had never caught anything. I encouraged him to go get his pole and I'd help him. He came back and started fishing. Well about the time he hooked a fish, I got hung-up on the bottom, got unstuck and helped him with a Jack (it was funny, he was scared to pick it up). About that time fresh fish finally were moving through and I hooked a nice fish for maybe 30 seconds and it was off. When I checked my hook, the tip was actually bent from the rock I had been hung on. It was the only nice fish I hooked over 2 days. I was happy I helped the kid but not so happy that I had done a fool thing.

It drove the point home and was a good reminder.