Kev, You're asking almost the key questions here. Attaching a trailer hook can be more problematical than beneficial, as it can interfere with the natural swimming motion of the tail and it can become a place for the tail to foul up.
As a fly designer, you must weigh all factors in designing your patterns, or adapting patterns you already have. Then you must field-test them to see if your ideas worked. Are you just casting, or dragging river and lake bottoms with weight attached? Are you trolling it by pulling it behind a float tube or boat? How good a caster are you so as not to hook yourself after the backcast? These questions are all relevant. Will you be using a full sinking line, or a sink tip, or a floating line with an indicator and long leader? On my large tandem deceivers (saltwater), the eye of the lead hook (6/0 to 10/0 3X hvy. hooks) is large enough to pass the trailer leader through the eye and back on itself, so tying it down makes it very secure. On smaller lead hooks, there usually isn't enough room in the eye to do this, so you must snell the front of the leader (or two leader tips) to the front hook shank, glue down, then tie over the ends to fix the leader firmly to the front hook. I've had billfish bend 3X wire trailer hooks, but never pull one out with this system. On small hooks, and for smaller quarry, you can wire-rib the hook-shank with gaps, then coat with cement. Then tightly tie down your leaders to the shank, and if they're mono, melt a ball on the tip. The bumpy base and the melted tip will stop the leader from pulling out. Once again, you must take your quarry into consideration- if you can get away with a mono trailer leader or if you need bite-proof. If you want to be able to change out the trailer hook, you need to use a loop rig that can pass through the eye of your trailer hook. If it's too limp, you can furl it. Don't use a leader material that has a bite/fight memory, i.e. one that will get all beat up and out of alignment after a fish gets through with it. If the trailer doesn't return to its original position, find a different trailer leader material.* *On my marlin flies, I use furled loop-style tandem leaders (Tiger-wire or similar), shielded in plastic tubing or thin flex-body tubing (Flex-o). This material is stiff enough to return the trailer back to its original place, can be slid forward to replace the trailer hook, protects the leader from the abrasive bill of the fish, and blends in with the fly. Every billfish I've caught or hooked so far has been on the trailer hook. Most dorado have been on the tandem, except the 51 pounder, who swallowed the 12" fly on the take. Also, you may want to tie a trailer portion of the fly and a lead-hook portion in front, so your fly is articulated and two-piece. This leads to all sorts of fly designing. You could tie a rabbit-strip matuka-style fly and have a trailer hook passed through the leather half-way back through the tail. This would position the hook, keel it down, stiffen up the front half of the tail a little, but let the back end of the tail swim freely, with less chance of foul-up. I always use a turned up or turned down eye for the trailer, as I'm not tying to the eye itself, but the shank behind it. Loops and snells will align the hook in a straight line if it goes through the angled eye back onto the shank. This gives straight-line hook-setting properties. Depending on local laws and the fly design, the trailer can be positioned either in the materials (tail), below the materials, hook up above the materials, or behind the materials. Lots of choices, but that's fly designing. Your fishing circumstances and quarry dictate some of these things (like weed-proofing), but then the rest will be up to just you. When you use a trailer hook, you can back off on the length of the front lead hook, and use a short-shanked trailer. This is better for holding on to the fish and making less damage to the fish. Depending on the type of fish, the depth, and how it takes the fly, a circle hook option is worthy of having. Fly rods are notoriously slow for setting hooks, even on slamming streamer-takes. A circle hook does not need to be set (shouldn't be set), so the take and hook-up happen before you can even respond to the strike. I could go on and on for pages, but this should get you started in the right direction. DonO ----- Original Message ----- From: "Kevin W. Machon" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Sunday, December 03, 2006 6:52 PM Subject: Re: [VFB] Streamer fishing - trailer questions > > DonO - which do you prefer? What method would you use to attach a short > trailer to a rabbit strip muddler or similar type streamer? What > weight/stiffness mono or other material would you use for something like > that? > > I know i get a lot of short strikes when streamer fishing - especially when > using a more active retrieve. I think adding a stinger hook will certainly > get more hook-ups out of those strikes. > > I agree w/ the last couple posts - this has been a great thread this week! > Thanks, all. > > Kev > > > From: "DonO" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Reply-To: <[email protected]> > To: <[email protected]> > Subject: Re: [VFB] Streamer fishing > Date: Sun, 3 Dec 2006 18:02:12 -0700 > > Uhhh. I seem to remember something. Buggs forgot to remind me. > You wanted to know how to attach the trailer hook, right? Well, > there's at least a half-dozen ways. Depends on the size fly, the quarry, > and a few other variables. Does it need to be bite-proof? > > You can: > > Snell a mono > Snell a Tiger wire > Furl a mono or wire > Loop either > loop and shield > etc. > > DonO > ----- Original Message ----- > From: Michael Bliss > To: [email protected] > Sent: Sunday, December 03, 2006 5:26 PM > Subject: Re: [VFB] Streamer fishing > > > To all who helped with this line thank you. I learned a lot and I > ordered the suggested book. I am going to make a good effort using > streamers even though my comfortable way would be to nymph. I know I can > catch fish that way. Thanks for all your help and DonO I am still waiting > on answers to my reply to your post ;>) > > Mike > > > On 12/1/06, Wes Wada <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > http://www.theflyshop.com/fly17.htm > > I was dinking around and happened on this streamer page at the link > above. > > Not trying to promote The Fly Shop in Redding, Calif.! > > Just thought the page had a nice pictorial assortment of a variety of > streamers. Wish I had a few of each! > > > Wes Wada > Bend, Oregon > > > > > > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- > > > No virus found in this incoming message. > Checked by AVG Free Edition. > Version: 7.1.409 / Virus Database: 268.15.6/565 - Release Date: 12/2/2006 > > _________________________________________________________________ > Get FREE company branded e-mail accounts and business Web site from > Microsoft Office Live > http://clk.atdmt.com/MRT/go/mcrssaub0050001411mrt/direct/01/ > > > > -- > No virus found in this incoming message. > Checked by AVG Free Edition. > Version: 7.1.409 / Virus Database: 268.15.6/565 - Release Date: 12/2/2006 > >
