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[milo]

The way I see it, it's part of the game. I have days with close to 100% landing ratio; others when landing ratio drops to close to zero. When a fish spits my hook, I tip my hat and say: "Well done, fish. You win this one." 

Unless of course it is the only hatchery coho of the day and a perfect chromer, too.
In that case I will let out a couple of select 4-letter words. 

[HOOK]

you mean like "poop, darn, frig......." ?? 

[Ian Forbes]

you mean like "poop, darn, frig......." ?? 

Isn't that a US Rock group? 

[fishtruck]

Last year, I couldn't keep a fish on if my life depended on it, this year, landing success is through the roof. Maybe the fishing gods have deemed me worthy once again.

[bluenoser]

This year sucks for me with coho...12 lost....only one to hand which was wild of course.

Lost 3 on the flyrod this year that made spectacular leaps and runs before popping off. One hit a blue rolled muddler and jumped 3 times right in front of me with the hook clearly in its mouth then it made a couple big runs combined with coho rolls...after its last roll it felt totally different and as I got it closer it was now hooked in the side....so I let it go...I was sure it was hooked in the yap to begin with...fly was sz 8 maybe too small.

BN

[HOOK]

bluenoser - having coho roll, spit the hook and then get re-hooked is also par for the course. I have had 2 already do that to me this year. they were both clearly in the mouth when I had them close to shore, they took a final run and arial display causing them to get free only side hook themselves with all the rolling  both were clipped ones too !!


Coho year after year are usually the pain in my a** fish with how many you hook then promptly lose or the fact I catch a lot more unclipped to clipped ones

[RalphH]

Sharp hooks are the single most important factor in effectively hooking any species of fish. I also think that larger hooks, to an extent are also  more effective. That's not to say we should all use the largest hook possible. It's also nice to see people recognizing the effectiveness of side pressure. Over 20 years ago when I started talking about holding your rod to the side to effect the fish's balance and tire them out quicker people laughed at me. However side pressure becomes less effective as the length of line gets longer. As it gets out past even 50 feet it might be better to raise the rod to keep the line clear of obstructions. In many situations, such as heavy weed growth it is best to keep the rod high most of the time. Dropping the rod a bit when a fish jumps is also a sound idea in my opinion.

FWIW last week I hooked 5 coho and landed 5 one day. The day before I hooked 6 and landed just 1. Most of the time if a fish is going to be lost it will toss the hook within the first minute or even the first few seconds. Hook sets that are straight downstream are a bitch. Try to set to your downstream side and not straight overhead.

[milo]

Over 20 years ago when I started talking about holding your rod to the side to effect the fish's balance and tire them out quicker people laughed at me.

They still do. Not long ago, I hooked into a nice chrome spring and played it perfectly. At one point, I was applying side pressure with the tip of the rod IN the water (it was a jumper and I didn't want to give it any slack). I could hear people chuckling about my 'style'. I guess they shut up when I landed the beauty on my clear water coho setup (only 8 pound test leader).

[DanL]

Let them laugh. Side pressure is your friend when playing any type of fish. The most common time to lose coho is when they jump or start flipping around on the surface. When that happens I literally submerge the top half of my rod into the water to ‘force’ the fish back down into the water. I don’t care how it looks, it works pretty well in my experience. What not to do IMHO is to hold the rod high and encourage the fish to keep dancing on the surface.

Having said that, I probably lose 20% of hooked fish in literally the first 5 or 10 seconds, I presume because of a poor hook set, or the hook only pierced the skin or somewhere else soft. Once past that ‘danger zone’ I am fortunate enough to lose very few fish.