Eight or so months since I last posted. What can I say? winter can be depressing! Perhaps the long dark days would have been brightened by writing about fishing. I’ll try to remember that next winter. Meanwhile, spring has landed upon us. Perhaps it’s the increase of sunlight that has inspired me to write about a fish hook.
Let me state, first, that I’m not generally a big fan of fly fishing product reviews on blogs. While in the aggregate advances in fly fishing gear technology have moved our ability to catch fish forward a lot, after 5 years of fishing I realize that what really improves my ability at this point is being out on the water. Not buying fancy new fly tying materials or using a new kind of float. And boy does the fly fishing industry give you chances to buy stuff. So what’s so special about the Upside Downie Trutta hook? I write because my hookup rate was such an improvement over the norm that I though I should share.
I had read about Trutta Upside-Downie hooks (jig hooks) in comments on the fly fishing subreddit. People said they were great, and I’d seen some nice looking nymphs tied with them. So, thought I’d give them try. I ordered a pack of size 16s and with bunch of 2.0mm jig-head tungsten beads already in my droor, I tied several of my favorite standards: Frenchies, Copper Johns, and Princes.
My first day on the water was in mid January. This is typically a very good month around my parts for tailwater fishing, and that day was no exception. The rainbows were aggressive and the river was full of them; I hooked 15 fish in about 2 hours. This wasn’t much different than what I expected.
What surprised me was my landing rate. On this water I was used to about a 50% landing rate when using small nymphs. Lots of hookups, but lots of grabs and spits and lost fish during the fight both with jigged and regular hooks. So, I was astounded when I brought to hand 11 of the 15 fish I hooked. I also noticed that the “soft-hookup” – where I totally miss a strike because my line is slack either from rod tip to indicator, or indicator to nymph – was noticeably higher. In other words I missed setting the hook, but the fish gets well hooked anyway (basically hooking itself). This I attribute to the large gape and point that angles back towards the shank of the Upside Downie. It really hooks well.
So, I have ordered size 14s and 18s, as well as beads, from Trutta, and all my nymphs (save for longer bodied ones) will now be tied on them. The hooks and beads are super economical – 50 to a pack.
I’m a fan. 🙂