Unless a one-hook rig is fishing hangback, it's capable of mortally wounding fish just as easily (if not moreso) than the dreaded 2 hook rig you are demonizing.

How a guy rigs his gear makes a HUGE difference.

Understand this.... the fish is trying to engulf/ingest whatever it is you are offering up... lure or bait.

If the hook is attached directly to or buried into the offering, that hook will be ingested right along with the bait/lure of choice. I don't give a flying [Bleeeeep!] if it's a fly, a jig, a spinner, a spoon, a plug, or a baitfish... there is significant risk that the hook could mortally wound that fish.

The best way to avoid a mortal hooking wound is to ensure the hook NEVER enters the fish's mouth. Either don't fish, or rig that hook hangback.

Hey Doc -

How far back from said offering would classify as a hang-back rig?

If everyone would just fish a dry fly, we wouldn't have any problems...

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.

My experience suggests that, as long as you're using hooks and fish are biting them, mortal injuries occasionally occur. Yes, even with dry flies. However, I have personally observed fewer such injuries when I use artificials vs. bait. I'll fish bait when the situation calls for it (especially when I plan to harvest the target species), but I do think artificials are the way to go when incidental encounters are most likely. Besides all that, I enjoy the action.

True dat, especially when each fish is netted, held beside boat for photo-ops, and handled/released. Practice what we preach especially in the case when said fish are by-catch species. That goes for at least two participating in this discussion that I personally witnessed on 16 Sept.

Pictures of said photo-ops or it doesn't count newbie

Not sure who you are aiming this at...but if you are in any way insinuating that this happened in eyeFish's boat I can assure you that it did not, as I was in that boat on the 16th.

There were exactly 18 coho landed in that boat...and since there were six of us fishing that day in that boat, there were exactly "zero" coho released, with or without photos...and as soon as the 18th coho was killed all the lines came in and we headed back to port.

If you mean someone else on this thread I'd be curious to hear who as we were out there all day and I didn't notice it happen a single time amongst any boats, much less anyone that I know and is posting on this thread.

Fish on...

Todd

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.

Todd

You did it right behind me while were were releasing a chinook (w/o a net by the way) and you almost ran us over. CanyonMan had to prevent a collision. I do not know of the rest of the day as we were done at noon with our fish and off the river...but as cris carter says "comeon man." I saw at least several chinook (aka by-catch) netted and photographed at the boat, handled, and released.

newby

Chinook are not coho...of course we released all the Chinook we caught, but that's not what this thread is about.

Fish on...

Todd

THIS THREAD IS ABOUT HANDLING/RELEASE MORTALITY-PERIOD. Before the other four people chime in, check my post, I indicated by-catch species (aka chinook). That is not the way to treat fish that are not even available for harvest. Nuff said.

Sorry, I didn't notice your edit.

Fish on...

Todd

The edit was a typo, not a substantive change. The point being, we should all practice what we preach. Those chinook are off limits to retention and should not be handled in that manner. If we want to maintain/enhance sport fisheries, we should clean our house first before throwing stones at the neighbors.

Who's casting stones?

For the record, kings 15# or less (my call) were typically released by grabbing the leader and using a dehooker stick. Larger fish were typically coralled into a knotless soft-mesh C&R bag to shorten the battle and facilitate expeditious hook extraction. Total handling time typically 10 seconds or less, a little longer for the few photo-ops of the day.

Probably a combined 200-plus years of fish handling experience on the boat that day. The kings did just fine thanks.

I do understand your point salvelinus, but you can't compare estuary kings to estuary coho so far as hooking/landing/handling mortality goes...the kings are warriors at that point, and the coho die if you say mean things to them.

Fish on...

Todd

I believe the thread is entitled "Slaying coho...."

I can start a new thread if that would make you feel better?

Cliff notes version of release mortality.

1) If you want it to be ZERO... don't fish.

2) If you choose to fish, regardless of how you fish (bait/lure/fly)... single biggest way to reduce mortality is to keep the hook from ever being taken into the mouth.

3) Once you hook up, fight 'em as hard as the tackle can stand.... translation = quick is good, slow is bad

4) When releasing, no-touch technique is best, but sometimes you gotta touch 'em (net or hands) to get that hook out fast.

5) Watch the airtime (gills exposed to air), translation = short is good, long is bad. This applies to extracting the hook as well as photo-ops

Photo-ops are NOT the end of the world. J F C .... you just intentionally skewered the critter with a potentially lethal sharp pokey piece of metal and caused it to violently struggle for its life for the past 5 minutes. Any potential harm caused by the 10 second photo-op while it revives pales in comparison... like pissin in the ocean

Thats what I thought.