Really

Always seemed like a stupid idea to me. Being able to consistently fool fish into taking your offerings is only one part of being a great angler. The other part is being able to smartly and cooly play big fish and successfully land them, to not let your brain and pounding heart get in the way and to think clearly when you hook a gigantic fish that is putting all it's might against your knots, reel, and rod. Not to mention the fight is such a fun part of fishing as is cradling, unhooking, and admiring that beautiful fish before turning it safely loose.

Yep, that's a stupid idea.
 
It would be like hunting with blanks.
 
Or hunting with a camera instead of a gun assuming your wearing a go pro while fishing. It would cut a lot of the fun out of it for me, I love playing a fish on the long rod, that was one of the feelings that really turned me on to fly fishing after spin casting for so many years growing up.

To each their own though. I could see someone taking a lot of enjoyment in being out in nature and watching a trout rise to a hookless dry. I've always considered catch and release similar to counting coup on a trout. Meaning having the ability to kill it, but letting it go. Hookless dries would be a more pure way of doing that. Kind of eliminates nymphing also?
 
I couldn't do it. Although I do find the take to be the biggest thrill, there is also a great thrill in hooking the fish. Once I feel the weight and fight, I am satisfied. Reeling it in or playing it has always seemed anti-climactic.
 
JackM wrote:
I couldn't do it. Although I do find the take to be the biggest thrill, there is also a great thrill in hooking the fish. Once I feel the weight and fight, I am satisfied. Reeling it in or playing it has always seemed anti-climactic.
Click to expand...
size matters ---did I ever babble on about the first bonefish like run of a tail hooked sucker?
Oh, I did...
 
I'd imagine these guys could get away with 12x tippet, lol.
 
Hey, don't knock it. It would reduce angler-caused fish mortality. That's a good thing for the rest of us. ;)
 
Maybe PA will be home to the first no hook fly fishing only section in the United States. Then we would have something to really ***** about.
 
how long before they can put an I-pad in the no hook flies so we can post pics of the fish taking ?
 
I don't think it's stupid at all. Our impact as a species is literally killing the earth as we know it (granted it will recover without us).

We are such a bumbling species that even in our best efforts we still manage to destroy. How many of you have unknowingly killed a fish after release or stepped through a redd? Do you think losing snagged flies contribute positively to stream life?

I'm not trying to play devil's advocate or sound like a jerk, but there's an inherent difficulty in what we do because any contact is generally too much contact.
 
You sure this was not on article from "The Onion"? ;)
 
My wife likes this type of fishing. That way she can test her ties without harming fish.
It is pretty big in Alaska with mouse flies etc. just to see big bows attack.
 
Well, there's always bowling.
 
It's a slippery slope: barbless guys attack barbed guys, fly fishers hate on spinner guys, hookless guys hate on hook guys. Hell, throw a fly line without a rod if you are a true sportsman...

I have said this before, some fisherman should really just use polarized binoculars and keep the bird watching equivalent of a life list... Dear diary, Today I spotted 20 stocked rainbows, a creek chub, and a white sucker. I have yet to capture on camera the elusive black nosed dace.
 
I am pretty into the ethical treatment of animals. It strikes me, though, that even if you spent all day foul-hooking every fish in every stream you ever visited, bashing all their skulls in, and then using their lifeless bodies as boomerangs to chuck at other wildlife to kill them as well, you'd still be doing far less damage to the natural world than pretty much every other aspect of your seemingly innocent lifestyle does on a daily basis.

This is not to say you shouldn't try to be conservation-minded, but half-hearted efforts like hookless fishing or super religious c&r practices just seem to put the energy into the wrong area and look silly doing so.

 
Yup, tying those hookless flies up under a lamp powered by electricity, in a home heated by gas, while snacking on farmed foods, etc. Then driving your car to the stream.

The hook in that fly ain't anywhere close to the worst thing your doing to a fishery. In fact, it has almost no impact.
 
I've flyfished for trout with no point on the hook.

Not on purpose, though.



 
troutbert wrote:
I've flyfished for trout with no point on the hook.

Not on purpose, though.
Click to expand...

Lol. Me too. "Why do I keep missing every strike? Oh, because my hook isn't a hook anymore!"
 
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