FISHING Pinching down the barb of this fly hooked in author Dennis Dauble’s grandson’s nose would have made streamside removal easier and caused him less pain, if that tear is any indication. (DENNIS DAUBLE)
On Bad Hooksets And Good Releases If you’re an angler, you’ll eventually get hooked, and here’s how to deal with it. By Dennis Dauble
E
ver been wedged in a lineup of combat fishers and felt drops of water on your neck as someone whizzed a golfball-size piece of cured roe past your face? Cast jigs at a school of rolling pinks from a crowded boat and dodged a steady “thwack” of lead on the gunnel? Yanked on a snag and
sent a loose lure flying past your face? Had a pal stick a No. 6 Purple Peril in your shirt collar while they Spey cast in an upriver breeze? If so, you might relate to the possibility of a bad hookset. Six decades of fishing has led to two bad hooksets of a personal nature. The first occurred early in the wooing period with my wife. This was
before a cellphone in every pocket and $3 cups of coffee, a time when my standard summertime fishing attire was a pair of cutoff jeans and tennis shoes. Nancy snagged me in the back with a Super Duper while casting for rainbow trout on a remote Blue Mountains lake. But rather than miss the evening bite, we let the lure nwsportsmanmag.com | NOVEMBER 2021
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