Forum Home › Fly Fishing Tips and Techniques › Does hook type affect hook setting?

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    • October 5, 2022 at 10:10 pm #25574
      Bob-STL
      Participant

      Today at Montauk, I netted 9 fish that had all been hooked with a jig type hook (glo-bug and big hurt fly).  I only lost one with these flies and it was due to trying to net it too soon.  In the past, I have had similar experiences.

       

      By contrast, I lost several hooked fish with straight shank or curved shank hooks.  I netted only three this way.

       

      The question is does the geometry of the hook setting process work better with jig hooks?  Or am I doing something wrong in setting the hook?

    • October 6, 2022 at 12:27 pm #25575
      Kenny Klimes
      Keymaster

      Bob-STL

      The short answer is yes. But not necessarily what you think. Most of the time “jig” style hooks are made with a wider gap than “normal” hooks. So in my humble opinion I say yes to wide gap hooks over “regular” gap hooks. The majority of the hooks I use when I tie are wide gap hooks, whether they are curved, straight shank or jig style. Most companies that sell flies will use hooks with “normal” gaps. If you tie then I would buy wide gap hooks. I usually use wide gap hooks from Firehole Outdoors (one of our sponsors). They are called Firehole Sticks and they are sharp and barbless – all I use is barbless.

      So in a nutshell, your problem could be your hook set but I think that wide gap hooks will improve your hook set and catch rate. It has mine.

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