Thought this was too important NOT to share here.

click here.... but dial-up BEWARE

Don't work.

Doc,

Getting an "invalid address error" message when I click the link.

I think this is where it was supposed to point to.

http://www.ifish.net/board/showthread.php?t=268341&highlight=hang+back

Better?

click here

I've fished with Francis for several years, and I can say as an eyewitness that many large kings have been boated by us, and released relatively harm free, due to being hooked on the outside of the jaw, rather than in the gullet...and virtually all of those fish were hooked using whole herring, too.

Just for kicks and grins, here's another good reason to use big worms for wild steelhead...when you put the hook at the tail end of a six or seven inch worm, they end up getting hooked the same way very often...no hooks anywhere near any vital parts...the eyes, the tongue, the gills...nuthin'.

I've eyeballed many wild fish grabbing worms, and they tend to chase them down from the side and grab 'em right around the middle...the resulting hookset puts the hook right in the bony part of the jaw.

Besides not hooking a fish in a dangerous spot, it also has the added bonus of getting the leader out of the fish's mouth so it can't saw through it, and sticks the hook in a hard spot so they can't get off, either...the best of all worlds...well-hooked fish that can't bite through the leader and don't get hooked in a bad spot.



Fish on...

Todd

Yup, works fine!

What Todd said...


Oh, and Francis too... along the same lines as that article in Salmon and Steelhead Journal on Amputated Options for Coho (it applies to other species as well!)

That pic makes me smile Twitch.

Nice write up Doc. I imagine backbouncing bait, it would not be so important to let the fish take the bait as long.

I always tie the trailing hook so that it's at least an inch behind the herring/hoochie...Last week we got into dogfish, and I hooked 6 in a row, all on the trailing hook right in the front of the mouth. All were easy to release, and the leader had no nick's in it. I've yet to hook a salmon on the outside of the mouth, but they're almost always on the trailer, and it's a real clean removal especially if the fish must stay in the water...Tom

This is not a rig you would want to use on any of the new "anti-snaging" rule waters. The rule is specific in that the fish must be hooked inside the mouth to legally retain it.

The new anti-snagging rules (and recent modifications) were written for zone specific meat market flosseries over non-biters.

They've been doing a lot of back-peddling to accomodate legitimate fishing techniques, particularly trolling/backtrolling.... fishing from a craft UNDER POWER.

What I am promoting is 100% legit.... based purely on willful take, but resulting in a NON-mortal outside-in hookup.

Au contraire mon frere.

I think it's especially important to WAIT WAIT WAIT in any presentation that is straight behind the boat, whether forward trolling, backtrolling, or backbouncing. You need that fish to inhale your goods, then turn sideways to the axis of the line/leader. Once he does that, he presents a huge profile to the current which immediately pushes his entire body down river. It's at that instant that the rod loads up maximally and the trailer pins the cheek/jaw/maxllary plate from the outside in.

My secret fear is that the fishing the hangback in a straight down below-the-boat presentation might backfire in the river. If a big king takes the bait from directly behind, the trailer might well be tickling its tonsils at the moment of the take. That would be disastrous! My solution to that scenario was gonna be a circle hook to counter the possibility of a swallowed hook.

But so far my fears have NOT been realized... at least with the little bit of experimenting with diver/bait that I did with summer run steel on the CR. Perhaps it's because I'm hanging that trailer a good 4-5 inches behind the amputee. Remember that even with a D/B, the bait still dips and swirls to some degree at the whim of the current. I think getting that hook to float straight down a steelhead's gullet would be pretty tough unless the fish came at it from directly below in a PRECISELY straight line, and continued to mimic the natural to/fro movement of the bait. Kind of like an old lady trying to thread a needle with shaky hands.... chances are pretty slim that I could successfully "thread" that presentation hook-first into a summer steelhead's small mouth.

Now the cavernous mouth of a giant Kenai King, that may be another story altogether. Maybe trail that hook back there a good ten inches? Talk about WAIT WAIT WAIT!

nice. now to get this to work on side drifting and such without snagging up on every cast.
say on a side drift with dick nites in a fairly low river.
tough even with a light weight on your line.
???????

I don't know about Dick Nites, but side-drifting eggs with a hangback amputee would be THE way to do it if you are likely to encounter a lot of wild fish that must be released (or you willfully choose to release them out of a genuine consevation ethic where they are still legal to bonk).

I believe side-drifting or dragging pink worms is another excellent application of the hangback rig.... as Master Ripley has so deftly demonstrated. For the purposes of this discussion, that worm is no different than a plug-cut herring, only you don't need a front hook to keep it stationary on the leader. I say trail that hook a good 2 inches behind the worm's tail.

The itty bitty Dick Nite version of side drifting smells too much like bonafide flossing to begin with. Miniscule offering presented sideways on a long leader. It doesn't need any help from a hangback rigging. It's already the prime example of MEGA hangback..... trailing hook 6 ft behind the sinker.

Show me some photo examples where Dick Nites have been inhaled by non-biting Snoho coho and I might be convinced otherwise

Thanks for your input Doc.

I have NEVER fished a diver and bait for steelhead...... NEVER will!

I am alway's concernd back bouncing egg's for nook's.

In the Tillamook streams we are allowed to kill native chinook, but when the good day's come along where you can pick and choose the fish you want to retain.....I am always looking for a better way.

Your advice defintly has me thinking.

Let me know if you ever want to fish the Tillamook area.

While the percentage isn't very high, I will have to admit that backbouncing has the highest incidence of mortal bleeders on my Kenai boat compared to other techniques. Still experimenting and searching for the ultimate rigging to achieve an outside-in hookup. Either that or resort to using circles with the intent of having the hook inhaled, waiting for the fish to turn, and hoping to God there's enough gap in the hook to hang "the scissors" from the inside out.

Know anyone that has backbounced or done D/B with circles?

ahem...

Tried circle hooks bobber fishing in a area that was loaded without any presure other than myself with some guy's from Eagle Claw a couple of day's.

Many bobbers went down....but a couple of head shakes....and they were gone.

Tried bouncing bait down to them with the same results.

A circle hook requires a fish to commit to the bait, you can wait as long as you want, but unless the fish decides to swallow....missed fish.

It was frustrating, I wanted those circle to hooks to work like they did on halibut in Alaska.

Sorry, but the few time's I have experimented with them, the results were not what I was hoping for.

If you want some circle hooks for your own experiments, I have a bunch I would be happy to donate to the cause.

Just say when Twitch.