Following on from the Priests post, for those who have deeply hooked a fish, necessitating killing it, how were these fish caught? ie what sort of flies were being used and what methods?
Were the fish caught on dries, nymphs, static, swung wets, etc?

Thanks,
Steve

In my short career I've only had one trout hooked in the throat, it took a Daddy long legs. It was one of my 'bag' so it was destined for the priest anyway. Nothing remarkable about that, but Noeyedeer had the same happen to him, also on a Daddy, a short while later, and a third angler too, just down the bank, all of us fishing dry. It seems that sometimes, perhaps when trout are in competition for a favourite food source, they will bite and swallow immediately. I remember the swirl as the trout 'drowned' the big dry and the line tightened less than a second later. I don't see how it could have been avoided.

SharkeyP

In my experience its not deep hooking that causes problems , its the fish wrapping itself round the leader when nymphing that causes damage . I have never had a fatality when dry fly fishing.

That's interesting Buzz, so you had to knock fish after they tangled themselves in the leader? I've only had fish spin on the leader like that once, on the Coln in Glocestershire. After inspecting but refusing a range of dries I switched to a 20 Lunn's Particular and they went wild. They for some strange reason spun like tops when hooked wrapping themselves in the leader like a stringed cane blank. No harm though, they swam away strongly, though they did have some line marks around the head.

I know some fish like Barramundi in Oz and the largemouths in the US swallow lures because of the way the take the prey. They open their large mouths and the prey is swept in with the sudden inrush of water. I suppose in this case deep hooking could occur, but I don't think there's any large amount of this happening even with soft plastic baits which are fished fairly slowly or even static.
Do trout take like this, or is it a "snap"?

The "necessity" of killing deep hooked fish is vastly exaggerated by crazed conk-em-all anglers who are desperate to justify their need to kill fish. "It'd do no good to put 'em back, they'd die anyway. . . Blah, blah, the usual bull #### lines here.

If the fish is alive and able to swim under its own power, according the scientific studies on C&R, there is an extremely high probability it will survive. If C&R produced a significant death toll, there would be entire trout rivers here that would be completely devoid of fish because they have been 100% mandatory C&R for a decade or more. It's amazing how many "deep hooked" fish survive when chronic conk-o-maniac meat fisherman are prevented from using their own "judgment".

Grouse

Nile Perch can also inhale a lure in that manner.




The Coln obviously has a good head of choosy, but classy, wild fish.

Don't use a booby if you want to return fish, a high proportion are hooked deep, sometimes very deep indeed.Daddies, along with other dries, are quite often taken deep, but not so far you can't quickly extract them using forceps.Needless to say pinching the barb in makes life much easier, and only results in the occasional lost fish.

__________________
Behold the fisherman
He riseth up early and disturbeth the whole household.
MIGHTY ARE HIS PREPARATIONS!
He goeth forth full of hope and when the day is far spent he returneth
Smelling of strong drink, and the truth is not in him

That is very true, some people look for any excuse to kill a fish. I remember being told bleeding gills in a fish is like us getting a nose bleed, looks bad, but isn't life threatening.

I probably caught around 250 trout last season and i had to knock 2 on the head as they were deep hooked and bleeding. Both fell to daiwl bachs on the top dropper.