Hook keeper - yea or nay?

[wgmiller]

To date, all of my rods have hook keepers on them. Lo and behold I bought my first Orvis rod a few weeks ago, and well, you know... Do you use a hook keeper or no? I've found them very useful through the years and will be adding one to my Orvis rod as soon as possible. I know you can find other places to stow a hook (snake foot guide, stripping guide foot, etc.), but I just really like the hook keeper, particularly for small hooks.

 

[jifigz]

No, I put my hook in my eyelet backwards and bring the leader down and behind the reel. I NEVER use a hook keeper.

 

[wildtrout2]

I don't use mine a lot, but it is convenient having it.

 

[redietz]

You left out a choice: sometimes.

Some of my rods have them, some don't. I don't miss them on the rods that don't have them. On the rods that do have them, I usually only use them when I'm done for the day and have a long walk back to the car. I'll also sometimes use them when I need to thread my way through a bunch of multiflora rose.

Using them means that I'll have the line/leader connection inside the guides, which is generally something I'd rather avoid.

 

[Forestfishin]

I use them but reverse the fly direction and bring the leader around the reel to keep the leader from entering the guides.

 

[redietz]

I use them but reverse the fly direction and bring the leader around the reel to keep the leader from entering the guides.

That only works if your leader isn't too much longer than your rod. Most of my rods are 8' or shorter and I usually fish a leader of about 13 feet. Hooking into the guide just below the tip top and then wrapping around the reel works just fine.

 

[Forestfishin]

That only works if your leader isn't too much longer than your rod. Most of my rods are 8' or shorter and I usually fish a leader of about 13 feet. Hooking into the guide just below the tip top and then wrapping around the reel works just fine.

Yeah should have mentioned usually 7.5’ rod with about an 7.5’ to 8’ leader. I fish a lot of small streams with thick vegetation and underbrush. I’ll probably have nightmares now that I’ve imagined trying to fish a 13’ leader.

 

[tjsingle]

Use mine all the time on my 1st gen Recon. When I got a a newer clearwater, I sometimes wished it had one but I usually just put the fly on the stripping guide.

 

[wildtrout2]

You left out a choice: sometimes.

... I usually only use them when I'm done for the day and have a long walk back to the car. I'll also sometimes use them when I need to thread my way through a bunch of multiflora rose.

That's pretty much the only time I use the keeper.

 

[falcon]

You hardly ever see a hook keeper on a saltwater rod.

 

[Solitariolupo]

At first I hated them as some are put on wrong and my line would catch on some of them mostly spinning would do it. But if position right it does it’s job and I do use them on bigger rods.

 

[lars]

No, I put my hook in my eyelet backwards and bring the leader down and behind the reel. I NEVER use a hook keeper.

same here, keeps the leader knot out of the guides too.

 

[Bamboozle]

I should preface this by saying that despite not using a hook keeper that often, I want one on a rod because having fished bamboo almost exclusively for decades, I've come to expect one on my rods and there are times they prove extremely useful.

I also REALLY like a hook keeper on spinning & casting rods although most stupidly don't have them.

When fly-fishing, almost 100% of the time my leader is longer than my rod so for almost as long as I've been fly fishing, I hook my fly in one of the uppermost guides and loop my leader/fly line behind my reel.

There is another advantage to this system (if you don't already know this trick)...

When you want to begin casting again (WITH THE FLY STILL HOOKED TO THE GUIDE)...

Just un-loop your leader/line from behind your reel and let the leader/line hang down from the guide where the fly is hooked. With your line hand open & flat, lightly bang your rod as far above the grip as you can reach while holding the rod normally.

If the leader didn't get wrapped around the rod and just hangs down, one or two little "bangs" will almost 100% of time cause your fly to pop off of the upper guide where it was hooked and drop down to the water.

After that, all you have to do is pick-up and make a few quick false casts to begin fishing again.

You can't do that trick if you use a hook keeper...

Despite this preference like Redietz, I find using the hook keeper with the line/leader wrapped around the rod and looped behind a guide or two to keep it tight when going through Multiflora rose, etc. a better option than having a fly hooked on an upper guide.

In regards to these situations, a word of warning to those fortunate enough to NOT have learned this lesson the hard way like me:

Despite thinking about just unstringing your rod when walking through really brushy areas, if you are fishing ANY rod that doesn't have metal ferrules, NEVER, NEVER, NEVER, unstring your rod when moving from place to place...

You'll be sorry if you do...

 

[Nocktavius]

Orvis eliminating hook keepers from their high end rods gives me major Steve Jobs vibes. I can just picture Tom Rosenbauer dressed in black pontificating on how we really don’t need an auxiliary port or a power button and how it’s better not to have one. In reality it comes down to one thing- they’re cheap and installing one requires extra labor (even if you’ve got a 5 year old doing your wraps like Orvis evidently does these days… woof). As for me, I won’t be seen with a rod that doesn’t have one.

If you fish hard and hike through dense underbrush, a hook keeper is superior to hooking a fly to a guide or around a reel seat or whatever other baloney has been suggested (don’t even get me started on the hook your fly to the cork people- no better way to destroy your rod in 3 seasons or less). I’ve got plenty of trips where I’m waiting forever for my anti-hook keeper buddies to untangle themselves from every tree on the bank or their rods getting tangled up sticking out the back window of my truck to back up my radical beliefs.

And as for the “unstring your rod” crew, you might as well make your “Lost tip of my 900$ fly rod on Penns 5-31-2024” post on the wall of shame now and save yourself the trouble when the inevitable happens!

 

[poopdeck]

If there is one I use it. If not I use a guide. Come to think of it when there is a keeper sometimes I still use a guide. I guess my answer is, I like to have the option but it’s not a deal breaker. I don’t fret where my leader/fly line connection ends up.

 

[dc410]

Sometimes I use the hook keeper, other times I use the stripping guide. When I’m carp fishing I always use the stripping guide and wrap it around the back of my reel. This allows my line to be stored with the fly line/leader connection to be well out past my tip top. This way I can unhook, prepare and present a fly to an in tight carp on the spur of the moment. Too much screwing around trying to get things out past the tip and there’s a good chance to blow a real good opportunity at a carp.

However, when moving around in vegetation and brush I always use either the keeper or a guide to secure the fly. Learned the hard way one year when Smallie fishing. I was holding the tippet in my rod hand and slid down a muddy bank, my leader got caught on a tree limb and drove a size 4 barbed Clouser Minnow almost through the fleshy part of my one finger. I yanked it back out with the needlenose pliers on my leatherman - but it wasn’t a whole of fun, and it definitely left a mark.

 

[krayfish2]

About the only time I use it is to keep my fly dry. There might be 20 or 30 ft of wine hanging out the rod tip and I'm just waiting for the fish to cycle and start feeding again

 

[phiendWMD]

If the amount of leader and tippett I'm using line up with it, I'll use it. That doesn't happen often. I prefer to run the leader behind my reel and into an eye. I forget who/where I learned that from but it's been one of the most useful things I've learned fly fishing.

 

[6xAdams(Jones)]

Yes. I hook the fly to the keeper and wrap enough of the leader around my reel to keep it out of the tiptop. I stopped reeling it up tight over 20 years ago when I became annoyed with a kink in the leader. With the fly right in front of the grip, I can unloop the leader and unhook the fly without even looking - and I can hold the leader against the grip while walking from place to place. Also, the gap between the keeper wraps is a nice place to paint my initial when I build a rod.