Normally, my hit to hookup ratio is pretty good, but this past weekend baffled me. I had 14 takedowns and only 2 landed. The worst ever by far. I'm thinking that it was the 8/0 hooks that switched too. I should have stuck with 5/0. Oh well, chalk it up to a learning experience.

BB

I had 8 take downs that didn't stick this past saturday,I was runnin a 4/0 off the belly and a 5/0 off the butt end.Saturday we went 7 for 12 with eight other take downs on plugs.Sunday the same plug on a different river went 8 for 9.Explain this???.I'm convinced it's all in how the fish takes it,meaning from the left or right side to side north and south.If it were legal in some area's I'd run a 2/0 owner treble off the back on a size 3 or 5 barrell and a 4/0 single siwash off the belly on barrel also.I think this would help.Good luck,
STRIKE ZONE

WOW talk about overkill. Have you looked at the difference in wire caliber between a 5/0 and 8/0. Unless you are using a broomstick for a rod and a virtually locked up drag, there's NO way you could ever drive that much metal into a fish's jaw, assuming of course that it was barbless. With a barb, it would be even worse. 5/0 is plenty.

I learned the same lesson tossing spinners for coho with 8# test and a light action spinning rod. I was using Vibrax #5 outfitted with 5/0 siwash from an Alaska king trip. Needless to say, I lost EVERY fish I hooked over the next week because I didn't have the backbone in my outfit to drive that much metal into flesh. Switching over to a 1/0 or 2/0 was an infinitely better choice. Oh well!

Overkill is right. The hooks were barbless, but didn't make a difference. They just didn't drive home. Every takedown on the 8/0's resulted in two pulls of line and fish off. We had some of the kwikies rigged 5/0 octopus and some siwash. Those were the only ones to land fish, but they too had their fair share of losses. Thank goodness we had our eggs with us (backbouncing with 5/0 octopus hooks) or we would have had a fruitless trip.

BB