Foul Hooked?

[salmo]

On May 13 if fished the Little J with some friends. The water temp was high 40s. The air temperature about the same. Weather was cold and cloudy. The water appeared to be running well, but I’m not familiar with this section so I can’t be certain. The water was slightly off color. I was caught in a shower later in the day. The was no visible hatch and I only saw a few fish break the surface. I was fishing a 10 ft rod with a long leader and two weighted nymphs. I spotted a likely place on the far bank against the undercut roots of a large tree. I worked the river until I was in position to cast toward the roots. On the second cast I hooked into a large fish. It headed downstream and almost to my backing. I turned it and thought that the fight was over. It turned down and across where it wrapped itself around a submerged branch and then I was down to a single fly. I never saw the fish, but it fought like a trout. Later in the morning I caught and landed a nice 12 inches. Maybe the first fish was foul hooked?

 

[CinnamonJoe]

I mean, it happens, eh?

Joe

 

[Mike]

Carp?

 

[salmo]

Perhaps, but this fish was fast. I’ll never really know.

 

[poopdeck]

Foul hooked fish don’t swim or fight better than a lip hooked fish they just come in sideways. I say catfish.

 

[Solitariolupo]

Foul hooked fish don’t swim or fight better than a lip hooked fish they just come in sideways. I say catfish.

No control when you foul hook a fish. In mouth you have control so a foul hooked fish can feel bigger than what it was. My guess without knowing the waters could have been one then big trophy trout they stocked. Or just a big fish

 

[wildtrout2]

Foul hooked trout definately fight in a more frenzied manner than if lip hooked, and I agree with Solitariolupo, they often feel bigger than they are.

 

[Nymph-wristed]

Foul hooked fish don’t swim or fight better than a lip hooked fish they just come in sideways. I say catfish.

I would respectfully disagree there. It would have much more autonomy to head to its hiding spot too, which is what sounds like happened. Much harder to turn the head of a tailhooked fish 😀

PA Woods and Water looses "monsters" all the time. He also fishes three nymphs and regularly catches one in the arse 😉

 

[Swattie87]

Foul hooked definitely a possibility. Also possible you got into one of the large stocked Bows that finds its way into the LJ. Some sections more likely than others that this was the case, Gorge section in particular. Or both. The biggest Trout in PA I’ve ever hooked was on the straightaway below the island above the second railroad bridge in the Gorge. Flows were high (700ish) and it ran straight downstream and was into my backing in seconds. No way I could chase it downstream in those flows so I pinched the line to break it off and the fly pulled out. Maybe it was foul hooked, maybe not. I got one kinda decent look at it right after I hooked it. Football shaped Bow in the high 20’s somewhere. I had zero control over this fish.

When they are foul hooked they orient themselves different (sideways) in the current, and in doing so you’re fighting a lot more hydrodynamic drag from the current against the sides of the fish. They don’t necessarily fight any harder, but you feel more “weight” for a given size of fish than normal, and you’re asking your tippet to take on that additional force. When they’re hooked in the mouth they still orient themselves in the most streamlined fashion (less drag) to the current, usually upstream, or their intended direction of travel.

Outside of really big fish, I can almost always tell when I have a Trout foul hooked just based on how the fight feels. You can tell it’s a fish and not a stick, but the weight feels disproportionate to the fish’s head shakes and ability to run. Kinda similar in a way to pulling in a big Rock Bass (more weight than fight), if that makes sense. And nearly all of my foul hooked fish come from multi-fly set ups…nymph rigs or dry/dropper.

 

[poopdeck]

Swattie nailed it. I catch a lot of foul hooked striped bass. Yes they are harder to get in but it’s not that they are swimming better or fighting harder. It’s because they are coming in sideways against the current. They feel heavy but they are not really fighting. I can tell a foul hooked fish pretty easily because the runs and the fight is not there, it just feels like weight.

 

[rustbeltwilds]

Ib be willing ti bet it was foul hooked. This happens once in awhile. And some epic battles under these conditions usually yeild a avg size fise foul hooked...like nymph wristed said. You wont turn a tail hooked fish....lol try a king or steelhead. N jus break it off

 

[dc410]

I would respectfully disagree there. It would have much more autonomy to head to its hiding spot too, which is what sounds like happened. Much harder to turn the head of a tailhooked fish 😀

PA Woods and Water looses "monsters" all the time. He also fishes three nymphs and regularly catches one in the arse 😉

If you are fishing a multiple nymph rig your chances of foul hooking a fish go up exponentially with each additional nymph you add to your leader.

 

[wildtrout2]

If you are fishing a multiple nymph rig your chances of foul hooking a fish go up exponentially with each additional nymph you add to your leader.

Come to think of it, the times I've foul hooked a trout, which have been few, was when I was fishing a dry dropper rig. The dropper always being the culprit.

 

[Mikey2006]

I’ve foul hooked a few nice fish on that river. I’ve also hooked just as many big ones that fought the way you described, it’s easy to tell the difference just on how they fight. Foul hooked fish will just go on a bunch of runs composed of short powerful surges, if you feel head shakes it’s in the mouth. Either that or you hooked a big sucker. Hate when that happens.

Don’t completely rule out the possibility that it was a big brown hooked fair and square. Although with all the fish that drop out of spruce it might not have been a wild fish if it was really that big. You never know though, they are in there.

Edit: didn’t see swatties post. What he said. The biggest fish I’ve ever seen someone hook on the little J was in that same stretch. Two foot brown that broke the guy off right at his feet. Likely a spruce fish but one can dream