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[Every Day]

First of all, have any of you had fish swallow artificial's before?
Out of the 12 fish I've hooked on the new fly I tie, 2 of them have taken it very deep. My friend also had 1 out of the 2 he got take it deep.
By deep we are talking about down in the gills or not even seeing the hook at all and only seeing the line.

Now the questions.

First of all, the one I hooked today was hooked down in the gill rakers.
I'm wondering after a fight if a fish hooked like this will even survive, especially after I had no where to go so I had to bring it up through current towards me.
There was minimal blood that I saw, but then again I left the hook in so it may have been clogging the wound possibly.

Secondly.
In this case would you guys just cut the hook like I did or try and take it out?
I might post a pic later, but you can hardly see the roe fly in the mouth anyways 

Cheers,
Dan

[cutthroat22]

The more blood loss = more chance of death imo.

Gills bleeding is almost a sure death.

[BNF861]

I assume you are talking adult steelhead?

Out of curiosity, what size hook is used on the roe fly?

I haven't deep hooked a steelhead yet using artificials. I have on trout on lakes though. I think in most cases if it is that deep, you will probably to more damage getting down in there and removing. I would think cutting the line and hoping it will work itself out is better than going deep and tearing it out but I'm not sure because you never know what happens after despite swimming off. A while back someone above me deep hooked a juvenile using bait. He pulled the hook and it swan away fine with no hesitation. Twenty minutes later or so, what I assume to be the same fish came by me half floating half swimming being taken down the river in the current.

[Every Day]

1/0 hook on the roe fly.
They just keep hitting it so hard, and it's not like I'm letting them chew on it, I set the hook right away.

And yes the one I got today was around 9 pounds.

[bigblue]

As we are using barbless hooks here in BC, hooks will likely pop out in a few days by itself.
Whether gill damaged fish will survive is another issue.

[BigFisher]

Hey BNF was that you I saw at the crossing around noon?

I think they would make Roe Flys illegal. To appealing, and now causing high numbers of accidental deaths.

[DionJL]

I deep hooked a fish yesterday with a GLX egg. I have forceps handy, so I removed the hook from the gill rakers quickly and efficiently, but there was still blood and I was skeptical if the fish would survive.

[Dave]

Hormone charged, soon to be spawning salmonids are tough SOB's.  I have seen many bleeding salmon, captured and held for hatchery reproduction, that I thought would surely die - but very few did.  It's a tough call and all situations are different, but I would cut the line rather than stress the fish even further by trying to retrieve the hook.

[Bently]

Case by case decision I would imagine,  but if I'm not able to get the hook out with ease on the first try, I'm cutting the line for sure.

[Fish Assassin]

Why risk doing more damage ? Just cut the line.

[Dennis.t]

1/0 hook on the roe fly.
They just keep hitting it so hard, and it's not like I'm letting them chew on it, I set the hook right away.

And yes the one I got today was around 9 pounds.

IMO a 1 odd hook is is too big to use driftfishing for steelhead.I rarely use anything larger then a #2 size hook and have never,ever gut hooked a Steelhead using atrificials in almost 30 yrs of fishing steelhead.I can count on one hand the # of times ive had a bleeder, fishing bait.Interesting side note,a hatch steel i recently cleaned had a gooey bob minus the hook in its belly.

[Every Day]

IMO a 1 odd hook is is too big to use driftfishing for steelhead.I rarely use anything larger then a #2 size hook and have never,ever gut hooked a Steelhead using atrificials in almost 30 yrs of fishing steelhead.I can count on one hand the # of times ive had a bleeder, fishing bait.Interesting side note,a hatch steel i recently cleaned had a gooey bob minus the hook in its belly.

A larger hook should actually prevent deeper hook ups, for some reason this is not the case.
If you are saying a 1/0 hook is too large or spooky, I hit 3 fish in a day in crystal clear water on this fly in front of people using small presentations and bait.

Most of the time Steelhead don't take artificial's deep to my knowledge.
These are the first 2 I have ever hooked deep in 4 years of fishing, and until this year all I had ever used was bait.

[Bently]

IMO a 1 odd hook is is too big to use driftfishing for steelhead.I rarely use anything larger then a #2 size hook

By the looks of the "Egg Fly", it needs a hook that size, maybe downsizing the pattern and seeing what it brings could be an idea ?

BTW, Every Day,  I like the "Egg Fly", send me a dozen, and I'll do some PR work for ya    

[Dennis.t]

A larger hook should actually prevent deeper hook ups, for some reason this is not the case.
If you are saying a 1/0 hook is too large or spooky, I hit 3 fish in a day in crystal clear water on this fly in front of people using small presentations and bait.

Most of the time Steelhead don't take artificial's deep to my knowledge.
These are the first 2 I have ever hooked deep in 4 years of fishing, and until this year all I had ever used was bait.

Never said anything about spooky.Your missing the point...a big hook is not needed to catch a steelhead.IMO a small hook is alot more ethical and less damaging to the fish.

[hue-nut]

Never said anything about spooky.Your missing the point...a big hook is not needed to catch a steelhead.IMO a small hook is alot more ethical and less damaging to the fish.

oh my gosh...."more ethical" ! I hope you are kidding because that is a ridiculous and unfounded statement!