Believe it or not, it has happened to me only once that a hook has failed me. I try to be very picky in hook selection and always spend that little extra for the top of the line gear.

If you are paying a fortune for a license and use a top of the line rod and reel you should be able to spend a few pennies more on good hooks.

I was in river Blanda last year and the river was full of MWS, i hooked in to a huge one in the „Breiðan pool“. At first everything went according to plan but then the fish decided to head back out towards the ocean. Straight below the pool there are massive rapids and fish that go down are almost certainly lost.

Now, there are two theories what do to when a big fish wants to go down rapids, give slack or fasten the break and fight. In retrospect I think the slack option is always best, then the fish thinks he is free and calms down, refusing to use its strength to enter the rapids again.

There I was and in excitement had taken the wrong choice. This was a massive fish and he used the current of the river to its advantage as well. When he was just about to cross over the edge towards the rapids I put a full stop on him and held. There was a standstill for seconds but then…bang. The fly came loose with such force I almost got hit in the forehead.

When i looked at the hook, there was the culprit in plain sight. Two hooks totally bent up!

Tight Lines

Johann David – jds@lax-a.is