what is your percentage of fish landed vs. lost?

[bigslackwater]

Ball park figure here, not a scientific study...Lately, I'm losing a LOT of fish. I'm thinking only about 25% of the fish I hook make it to the net. I'm not talking about a hit and missed hook set. These are fish that are on and I have them half way landed and somehow get off. I've always fished barbless but I'm considering leaving the barb on at this point!!! I know that some "spitting of the hook" is typical with fly fishing but is 25% normal?

 

[redietz]

An interesting question. There are days when I land everything I hook, and days when I'm lucky to land 50%.

It depends in part on how you're fishing, I think. I lose a lot more when fishing downstream than fishing up.

 

[afishinado]

redietz wrote:
An interesting question. There are days when I land everything I hook, and days when I'm lucky to land 50%.

It depends in part on how you're fishing, I think. I lose a lot more when fishing downstream than fishing up.

^ Same here. Some days I can't miss and some days many, if not most fish come unbuttoned during the fight. I've never been able to put a finger on why. I can only guess a number of factors come into play, such as the aggressiveness of the fish that day, my method of fishing, the flies/hooks themselves, my reaction time????

Anyway, most times I don't mind long releases since I C&R anyway.

 

[Six-Gun]

redietz wrote:
An interesting question. There are days when I land everything I hook, and days when I'm lucky to land 50%.

It depends in part on how you're fishing, I think. I lose a lot more when fishing downstream than fishing up.

Precisely. I have had days where everything comes to hand and other where no matter how careful I am, the majority of strikes get away.

I had a day on a Utah creek using a pattern that I tied to match some of the little scuds I found swimming in there. I was using a cheaper, heavier-bodied offset scud hook that I never had the chance to sharpen. There's nothing more frustrating than nailing exactly what the fish want to eat and losing every...single...one of them before you can get them in the net.

 

[Letort]

Probably land 70% of hookups, give or take. Days when I am sloppy on line management, that number goes down.

Been dry fly fishing more this year and the number of takes to hookups has been somewhat frustrating. This is all on native brookie water.

Couple of days ago, I had a native take my dry fly caddis under water 5 out of 6 casts, but never hooked him. Just had to laugh.

 

[pete41]

Since 90% of my fly fishing the final 25 years I was really active in the sport was with size 2 streamers,8 pound tippet and 8wt. rod on big waters for big fish and they would hook themselves ,I landed between 98 and 99 % .
Which is why I can honestly say " it's the ones that got away I have the fondest memories of". They whupped me and I salute them.The rest were just fish,little remembered and soon forgotten.

 

[Fishidiot]

bigslackwater wrote:
Lately, I'm losing a LOT of fish.

Me too. It's a slump.

However, I do lose a significant number of fish (and I think I'm good at hooking and fighting fish). I'd estimate that over the course of a year of FFing for trout that I probably bring to hand (or very close) only about 60% of the trout I solidly hook. This percentage is worse with streamer flies (under 50%) and probably slightly better with upstream dry fly presentations.

Over the course of a year of bass fishing, I'd guess my percentage of fish landed is probably even lower, especially in summer when I'm mainly sticking small fish on poppers. I'd estimate that probably 70% of popper hooked bass are off within two jumps.
(Again, just ball park estimates off the top of my mind)

 

[kbobb]

Bad days - 50%. Good days - 90+%. If i lose 2 fish in a row - I always check my hook to make sure its not broken or bent . if it looks good I then pull out my little stone or file and sharpen it up. Sometimes this really helps - other days it's just me being slow on the draw.

 

[McSneek]

I may be as low as 25% with most nymphs. Today I was something like 1 for 4 or 1 for 5. Streamers and dries I would estimate 75% or better. Think it's just a more solid take. Streamers bigger hook obviously. If I've already landed a few no big deal if they come unbuttoned unless it's a really nice one.

 

[JackM]

As a lawyer, I always drive the point home-- barbs or no.

 

[Chaz]

I would say that I land most fish that I hook. Over 90% but who keeps track. Usually the trouble is not barb or barbless. Barbless hooks generally hook deeper in the tissue of a trout's mouth then a barbed hook. I'm betting that your hook set is not quite right.
Are you tying your own flies? Are the hooks sharp? What size flies are you losing the fish on? This last one is important, because the gap between the eye and the point of the hook gets smaller as the hook gets smaller. I use a straight eye hook for everything smaller than #18.
Watch your line management, too much line on the water will lose a lot of fish. Line not tight enough will lose fish, or if you let off the tension the fish will throw the hook.

 

[bigslackwater]

I seem to have most of the problems with stocked rainbows. I swear they have slippery lips! Lately some of the wild browns I've been hooking have been a problem too. Especially larger trout that put up a fight. I had one on that was probably close to 20" a few weeks ago and it started violently side to side thrashing. This was back and forth 180 degrees. Eventually the hook came popping back at me. Had I had room for it to run I would have let it take some more line but it was heading under a tree with lots of roots to get tangled in. As far as flies and size, it seems to be everything. When I was fishing streamers all the time, I was landing almost every fish. This spring though streamers aren't even saving my day. On the bright side, at least I'm finding fish!

 

[pabrookie94]

I have lost some fish certainly but on an average day I'd say 80% hit the net. Then again I've had slumps where just about any fish I got on got right back off...

 

[krayfish2]

Solid hook up / to net ratio is pretty high. The old saying "some days you're the windshield....some days you're the bug".

A year or two back, I had a span where I couldn't get fish hooked. You'd see the nose come out and your dry disappear. Pull and nothing was there. Ok, I pulled too soon. Next fish, wait 2 seconds and nothing. They weren't false rises as I had another angler spotting the fish and saw everything transpire. I watched DaveS get every fish in a pod rise / eat his fly. 5 takes, 5 hooksets and zzero fish on. I don't think there's any rhyme or reason for failing to hook up or to land fish. I chalk it up to bad luck streaks. They go away as fastas they appear though.

if it continue to have a low fish to nett ratio over a prolonged period, I'd take a look at the method you're using to fight them.

 

[duckfoot]

I learned years ago while bass fishing to always keep the rod near the water and away from where the fish want to go, that way the hook always stays buried.

Every time I've had a fish wriggle free, it's because either I had slack in the line, or I didn't swing the rod away.

I probably land 90% of what I hook.

 

[fisherboy3]

Last time I had good dry fly fishing the fish hooked to fish landed was very low. I dont normally lose fish during the fight. Most of the time i lose them as soon as i hook them. Cast, rise, take, hookset, gone.

 

[PennypackFlyer]

If we are talking about catch and release with any time of fish, My ration is quite high above 85%.
Lately for trout it has not been so decent - I'd say about 65%.

 

[SteveG]

This year I've only been fishing softer graphite rods, and I don't often lose a fish. One exception being a very large fish on Penns that took off downstream into some rough water. I conceded because I wasn't about to kill myself chasing after it.

 

[Luke]

This is a timely post as I had a horrible, horrible, success rate on Saturday. My landing rate was only about 5%. I was fishing a wild trout stream in Perry County which has a below average density of trout (I would estimate). In retrospect, I really don't know why I was so stupid as to not change my fly and/or technique; sometimes I just enjoy the scenery and knowing that there was a trout where I thought and I don't worry too much about what I am actually landing.

To some degree, I like to use a bigger fly on these streams to keep the real dinks off. So, I was using a size 12 stimulator. As with the streams, the fish liked it, but I missed so many reasonable sized fish. I know that there were at least three problems, but am still wondering about a fourth.

1. Was fishing downstream
2 Fly too big
3. Should have sharpened hook

The fish I did manage to land were brown trout or "mountain trout" as the locals call them . Previously, on small freestoners, I have never noticed any difference in takes between small wild brown trout and equal sized wild brook trout. But after Saturday I am wondering...

 

[Tiogadog]

I fished a delayed harvest stream here in Virginia on Memorial Day. We were there having a picnic with another family, so my fishing was relatively casual. I was fortunate to find a large pod of recent stockers. In about 15 minutes of fishing I hooked six of them on a parachute ant. I only brought one to hand.

I blame my failures on a poor hook that kept opening. (I am unsure of the brand, but believe it was a Mustdad R50.) Adding to this was my laziness in not just tying on one of the 50 other parachute ants I had.