The elusive 20

[catskilljohn]

On a headwater stream way above the Delaware River, right at dusk where the shadows overtook the low sunlight, ahead and on the far bank a rootball the size of a vw towered alongside the stream.

The stream favors that side, and where the roots once took hold left a depression in the streambed, where water slowed to half it’s already weak state.

I cast above the hole, watched the fly bob into the slack water and some vacuum pulled it under. I lifted, he turned, and in fear of him wrapping the leader in the tangle of underwater subterranean branches, my pressure on the spool exceeded the wire on the hook.

Those big ones get me more than I get them, that’s for sure. CJ

[Algyros]

A hook straightened by a large fish is a badge of honor.

[Theroe]

shoudda useda ALLCOCK !!!

[catskilljohn]

shoudda useda ALLCOCK !!!

Then it would have come back with no point or bend Dana

[catskilljohn]

A hook straightened by a large fish is a badge of honor.

Then I shall display this one proudly Alex CJ

[redietz]

A hook straightened by a large fish is a badge of honor.

I agree. More so if it was a large hook.

I also believe some hooks are springy enough that they straighten to let the fish escape and then return to their original form.

[narcodog]

A hook straightened by a large fish is a badge of honor.

I agree. More so if it was a large hook.

I also believe some hooks are springy enough that they straighten to let the fish escape and then return to their original form.

Yikes, that's the best theory I have seen presented in a long time.

[catskilljohn]

I also believe some hooks are springy enough that they straighten to let the fish escape and then return to their original form.

Ehhhhh, I’ve never seen that springy of a hook. That is an interesting theory.
I straightened a few, bent a lot more and broke a lot of classic hooks, but never had one spring back to original.

CJ

[corlay]

sort of amazing that the hook straightened before the tippet broke.

I wonder if the fish could've been hooked through,
so the barb, protruding from its lip,
may have snagged on that giant root ball,
and imparted the required leverage to deform the steel and straighten?

Seems like if just straight pulling-force that tippet is giving out first, every time.

When encounters like that happen, I always find myself muttering:
"you win today, 'ol boy - but don't leave that spot, or you are mine."

[redietz]

sort of amazing that the hook straightened before the tippet broke.

Seems like if just straight pulling-force that tippet is giving out first, every time.

It doesn't, though. I've probably straightened more hooks than I've busted tippet (on fish at least). It's especially common on small, light wire hooks, but I once straightened the hook on a size 6 streamer. That fish still haunts me.

The reason that vintage forged hooks were flattened was to reduce the possibility of straightening. (Although in my experience, they tended to break instead.)