I personally fish a single #2 Gamakatsu hook while drifting bait. But recently I have been reading about double #4's. This seems like it wouldn't make all that much of a difference to me. I have picked a couple double hook riggings out of trees before but have never fished with them. What is the advantages or disadvantages of double #4's? I know alot of guides boondog or side drift small egg clusters with double #4's. Come on guys don't you ever read the articles of the Cowlitz guides in F&H News? j/k! I feel that if you a fish picks up a bait either way single or double hook, you should be able to hook him just the same. I am just looking for different oppinions and wanted to put up a real fishing post instead of all this other crap.

Thanks,
Andy Matthews

Andy you make sure your second hook is facing the opposite direction...if the first one misses cuz its pointing out of the fishes mouth the other one sticks. Theres my .02

Have Fun,

Jim

All the other crap??? Andy, do you consider everything but your self-promotion posts to be crap? How about the important C&R debates to help save the fish- and eventually your business? Are those real fishing posts? I'm sorry, but your image has just taken a significant hit! ..shtick

Fishtick,
HMMM I am not saying that the C&R debate is a bad thing at all. I think it is a great discusion. Well lets take a trip to the past only a few short weeks ago. Do you remember the post "Should Women be aloud to fish"? What kind of BS post is that? I have been on this bb for a year or so, and in that year I have seen it go down hill! This has nothing to do With Bob. bob used to write back on alot of my posts as well as others, lately I am sure that he is disgusted with peoples posts! This used to be a fishing bb now it is combat crap talkers like yourself. I am not here to make any enimies, nor do I think I have, if anything I have made a few friends and have a pretty strong background. My business may not be a million dollar enterprise but I do just fine and stand behind all of my products 110%. People like you jump to conclusions. I bet you are the first guy to chuck lead at the side of a guides boat that may be pulling plugs through a drift that you wanted to fish huh? I am not even about to stoop down to your level and post on someone elses post about a completely different topic all together. Sorry for the inconveinence.

Thanks,
Andy Matthews

I hardly ever use double hook rigs here in the Midwest. Most tandem rigs around here are double flies, or a egg pattern up above, with about a 5 or 6 inch dropper with another egg pattern or a stonefly or wiggler pattern below. Some times it's a deadly combo. In snaggy rivers, it often comes down to how much gear you want to sacrifice to the fish gods. Also, sometimes our runs are so loaded with fish, the double combo foul hooks too many fish. that's the two reasons I don't use them much.

Now, for the better part of education. If we took the damage away to the nates on double hook rigs, and we were in Eutopia, and you had "thriving" populations of these fish, why would you use them? I have seen tons of magazine articles pertaining to fishing the NW for steelies and salmon, and run in to those double rigs a lot. I saw a guy in Alaska with one last year fishing for native steelhead, and the size and profile of his rig just about made me start to dump logs. Educate me guys on why this would be more effective on my Midwest brats if I was willing to sacrifice gear to the fish gods. Hope this changes the tone of this post. Go Fish.

Andy, for you and I the difference between single and doubles may make no difference at all at the end of the day. But just think of all the novice anglers that the guides who freedrift the Cowlitz, Lewis and 'Nooch take out. Double #6's and #4's are so tiny, I doubt that a steelhead feels them until its too late. Another thing is that the novice angler does not need to set, by the time the 1141S has surged down a couple of times, the fish is on. The backward movement of the boat sets these little hooks. Maybe a firm raise of the rod to the 11 o'clock position is all that is needed.

You do NOT need a double hook for drifting bait. Period. Because the cowlitz boys do it does not mean it is the gospel.

Here's the way I see it; in medium to low/clear water conditions like you and I like to fish, we are drifting bait on #2 or #4 hooks (I use 4's 90% of the time). Lead used will be light for a delicate, finesse presentation. I ususally fish straight bait or bait and yarn. When the offering is coming towards the fish and it looks enticing, the fish is trying to eat it plain and simple. #4's are so small that often the fish does not feel the hook until well inside it's mouth. By then, it's too late for the fish-you got em! It only takes 1 hook. 2 hooks is overkill and a waste of money.

An additional note on the cowlitz boys double hook infatuatiuon. I've observed from fishing down there over the years that when one person does something different and has some success, everyone drops what they use and rushes to use the "new technique" forgetting what they were using worked perfectly well. Someone down there decided that summer fish would only bite a double #4 with a tiny red corkie in the middle and a bit of egg on a 6 ft. leader. It works but at the same time it's laughable because it's overkill. We are fishing beside these guys using a good old single #4 gammie on a 3 ft. leader with straight eggs and doing just as well. The same rig we've used for a decade.

In summary: Theres no reduction in effectiveness with double hooks but there's no huge advantage either. Save some money and get twice the milage out of your hooks-fish a single.

I only use single hook setups #4 or #6 but if you think about it, steelies are smart fish and will spit your bait out before you even know you had a bite. So a double hook setup would just put more hooks in their with the hope that one out of the two sticky gammies will find its way without you feeling it. Or when using eggs, the first hook gets covered up normaly by roe so the second can be exposed. I'm not a pro guide but thats my 2 cents.

Guys,

I think Hohwaiian hit the nail on the head. The tandem hook set-up is often in the hands of a novice or intermediate fisherman/gal. The tiny tandem-hook setup is used so that the action in the noodle rods they use, combined with the boat drifting downriver gives a novice a good chance at hooking fish that would just spit the bait if a single, larger hook was used.

Eric, you may not need a double-hook setup, but you can bet your ass that if you had a couple crackers in your boat who didn't know a bite from bottom an you were trying to catch fish "for them", you'd be foolish not to use them.

They're (tandem-hooks) probably overkill for an experienced angler like Eric, but they do increase the chance of a hookup for those who aren't quite as quick on the trigger, and on certain days that could be any of us!

Fish on......

All good points!! The best though in my opinion is...."quick on the trigger" That is how you can definitely tell an experienced steelheader from an inexperienced one...the intensity of concentration and speed of the hookset. Experienced steelheaders are easy to take fishing...tend to the sticks let them fish...inexperienced....whole different story!!



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Jim Bain
Always have Fun while Fishing!!!

Well I have to disagree with everybody except Mr. Bain. I fish double hooks exclusively except on jigs,spinners,plugs and c&r. I also match the double hooks to the size of bait I am using. Big bait big hooks...small bait small hooks....ALWAYS RAZOR SHARP. I truly believe it is a part of my sucess at the end of the day. The best fishermen I know use doubles and one who uses three.
But hey this is a post so andy can cut more costs....go single on your setup..the guys buying them don't know the difference.

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Marty
www.steelheader.net
marty@steelheader.net

Andy,on the rare occasion that I do use doubles,it is dbl 4#s with a small corkie in between ( sometimes ),and only when I fish sandshrimp,but in the past year or so I feel that is over doing it ,I catch just as many on singles as doubles and I snag up a lot less,The key to bait is sharp hook and sharp concentration....use the force Luke...

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Tight Lines
FISH ON ------<*)>><
Men are like fish we get into trouble when we open our mouths to much!!

Marty if what you say is true then you must be rigging up rags w/ double hooks. If this is the case then how do you rig up a sandshrimp tail so that it looks natural? I'm trying to visualize this, and it looks messy. I don't mind learning, if you don't mind divulging.

I have to agree with Marty and disagree with the rest of you, too. I use double hook setups almost exclusively (#2 Vision), and don't consider myself to be "novice" by any means. Like Marty's observation, the best fisherman I know also use this method. I don't think we need to label others as "novice" etc. because we don't use the same methods you do or because it happens to be the same method that the guides use. Hey, bottom line is that it works for me, and that's what's important. If you find another method that works well for you, good deal!

Let's see, who said that tandem setups were for novices? I think the statement was that tandem hook setups give a novice a better chance at hooking fish. By default, that also means it gives experienced anglers a better chance at hooking fish, too.

Let's try not to get wound up about this, since I don't think anyone ever claimed one setup was "better" than the other. Just differing points of view about how "necessary" tandem hooks are.


Fish on.........