Tippet - 10 May 2007 06:33 AM
I would think any kind of sturdy forked instrument long enough to keep your hand clear of the sharp things would do the trick pretty good.
Do you guys use barbless for these fish? Sure would make it easier to remove. Trout I think are easier to keep on with a barbless, but that’s probably not a good comparison as the fish obviously move in totally different ways.
I don’t have a lot of time with de-hookers, but here are some of the issues that I’ve encountered:
- If the fish is fairly hot at boatside, which is what you want if you’re going to release them, it can be very difficult to get a forked release device into the bend of the hook and get it to stick there long enough to push the hook out. You can imagine what happens with a Dorado, or a shark in “roll mode” next to the boat, while you’re trying to get the fork into the hook bend….
I think that’s why many of the “offshore” release sticks have a loop of some sort (including the ARC dehookers approved by the IGFA). You loop the device over the line, then slide it out to the hook bend. If the fish moves, the device will follow. The problem with loops it that they are rarely large enough to go over the head of a large popper or plug, and they obviously don’t work well with anything that has multiple treble hooks.
- If the fish is fairly small, it may be tough to get the device down it’s mouth. Also, if the fish is small (say under 5 lbs), it can be tough to use a dehooker on a solidly hooked fish, because when you shove backwards to back out the hook, the fish moves backwards, too.
I have a 5’ release stick with a loop, but I only use it on sharks hooked with a single hook or fly.
I’ve used barbless hook some, but not as much as I should. The times I’ve used them, I found them to be only slightly less effective than a barbed hooks on fish that don’t jump a lot.
The reason is that the drag of the fly line is often enough to keep the hook seated, even if the fish is running straight at you…Imagine that it takes a run away from you, then reverses course and heads straight back at the boat. With conventional tackle, you would get a lot of slack line immediately. With fly gear, the fly line drag will create a large loop which will be pulling directly backwards on the fish, keeping the hook seated.
I’ve had many times where the line off the rod tip is going straight off the stern, and the fish swims right by the boat, trailing the fly line. Of course, that all changes when you don’t have much line out - then it becomes a lot more critical to keep a tight line. But again, the flexibility of a fly rod helps maintain some tension. The main problem then is to crank fast enough to keep a reasonably tight line.
That said, I’m open to suggestions anyone has on better techniques to handle dehooking, or using dehookers!
