JOAT 0 Report post Posted February 9, 2012 Did my first attempt at a fly that uses a trailing hook last night. Working from a pattern in a copy of Fish Alaska magazine. It didn't give any details on how to tie in the trailing hook, so I used a piece of leader and put a snell on the trailing hook and then ran the leader up the shank of the primary hook and used a nail knot to attach directly to the shank behind the eye. I then used my tying thread to wrap down the mono leader to the length of the shank and soaked the whole operation in head cement before continuing on to tie the rest of the fly over the top of that. It looks like it will work just fine, but I was curious if there are other methods or knots that folks use for doing something like this? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
nightheron 0 Report post Posted February 9, 2012 Hi Joat, there are lots of different ways to accomplish that trailer hook. First, I will assume you aren't chasing toothy fish or you would use wire instead of mono. Your technique will certainly work. When I'm using a multi hook fly I generally want it to articulate. You can do that several ways. One is to use fly backing and loop it through the eye of the trailing hook and tie to the shank of the forward hook. This gives maximum flexibility but with some materials can cause a lot of fouling of the hooks together or the trailing hook looping over your leader. My preferred method is to use hard mason monofilament. Create a loop of line through the hook eye and thread wrap those two tag ends together leaving just enough loop in front of the eye to flex freely. Super glue that "stick." Not head cement or Hard as Nails, use super glue or crazy glue. Now you can wrap materials on the "stick" to bridge the gap between the two hooks. It's easier to tie your trailing hook materials on before making your "stick." Once the stick is wrapped leave enough empty stick to tie to the forward hook then super glue that. Now you can complete the front hook section of the fly. Hope this helps. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Jaydub 0 Report post Posted February 10, 2012 For a trailing hook like on an intruder, I use one of the super braids like power pro. I make a loop of the braid to attach the trailer. With the thread at the front of the front hook, position the loop of braid so that the tag ends are extending out over the eye. Tie in the braid and wrap over it to the back of the hook. Double back the tag ends and wrap over them back to the front of the hook. Trim the tag ends and coat the hook with super glue. Then tie the rest of the fly and attach the trailer hook to the loop. This is very secure and the super braid is stiff enough to avoid fouling. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
JOAT 0 Report post Posted February 10, 2012 Thanks for the replies. I'm curious about these methods that don't have a physical tie into the leading hook about the strength of the trailing hook on larger fish, such as salmon? Here's a pic of the fly I tied (I'm thinking about doing a little trimming to clean up the head as well as shorten the tail a little bit) along with a pair of nekid hooks that are tied together by the same method. That is 30# mono (which I use for nearly all of my traditional salmon leaders, so I have a lot of it around) with a physical connection to both hooks. On the fly, I then wrapped thread over the nail knot and secured the mono down the length of the shank prior to coating both mono knots and the wrapped section with cement. The bulk of the nail knot isn't a problem as it gets buried behind the eye bead and hidden by the rest of the materials on this particular fly. Other than the hook point going through the rabbit skin, there is nothing actually tied to the trailing hook on this one. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
flytire 0 Report post Posted February 10, 2012 here is a video for tying a tandem streamer. it could also be used for tying a trailing hook Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Jaydub 0 Report post Posted February 10, 2012 Thanks for the replies. I'm curious about these methods that don't have a physical tie into the leading hook about the strength of the trailing hook on larger fish, such as salmon? Being a skeptic as well, I tested the method I described by grabbing the two hooks with pliers and pulling hard. It was solid. Several Steelhead in the 10 - 12 pound range also tested it, without any problems. If you want a little extra security you can run the tag ends through the eye of the front hook before doubling them back. I don't see why your method won't work just as well. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Frank G. Swarner III 0 Report post Posted February 10, 2012 If your fishing for king salmon in AK (which your profile says thats where your from) I wouldn't trust how it is shown in the video. I like your idea of snelling the rear hook, but I wouldn't do the nail not on the front. I'm sure it will hold on, but I would be worried about having a salmon hooked on only by the trailing hook. I think it may slide underneath the body and pull the body material along with it. I guess you'll find out when you hook one!! I like using a loop to loop connection at the eye with the material that is used to attach the trailing hook. Then attach the two strands to the top of the hook shank, then put the tag ends down through the eye and double them back underneath the shank and tie down again. It will probably be tough with 30 lb leader material though. Braided line like power pro, fly line backing, or beading wire should be fine. The nice thing about the loop to loop method to attach the hook is that you can swap out the hook as long as the trailing loop is long enough. Good luck and sweet fly!! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
JOAT 0 Report post Posted February 10, 2012 Re the video... I like that method and I'm sure it would work well for lighter weight stuff. I just couldn't trust that for a big salmon that was pulling only on the rear hook. Will have to give it a try for some smaller streamers. I do have some smaller coated wire leader that I use for pike rigs. (speaking of which, I'm sure this particular fly pattern would work just as well for pike as it would for the salmon that it was originally intended for) As for the nail knot sliding down the shank, I'm fairly sure the combo of glue and full length thread wrap would prevent the knot from sliding, but even if it did, the furthest it would go is to the bend in the front hook and you'd still have the fish, right? Flies are more or less sacrificial, especially a big streamer that is getting eaten by a fat 20# Coho! So I wouldn't expect something like this one to last a real long time when dragging it through a school of 10,000 salmon. BTW... even though I live 3 minutes from the famous Kenai River, I very rarely participate in King Salmon fishing anymore. It is yet another of our world's great fisheries that has been destroyed by bad management and massive over harvest. The tourist driven sport fishery has been targeting trophy Kings for the last 30 years and now there are very few trophy sized Kings left. As an example, a local tributary stream that I spent countless hours on as a child was filled with huge Kings spawning every summer. I recall many monster fish in the 60-70 pound class traveling up those waters. Now, that same stream is nearly dead. The biologists have a fish weir setup so they get to count every single fish. Last summer they had a total of 22 Kings go up that stream and the largest was maybe 25 pounds. And there's no way of knowing how many of those made it past the bears to actually spawn. At any rate, I choose to fish the exceptionally healthy stocks of Sockeye, Pink, and Coho salmon as we need to give the Kings a break. If I were emperor, I'd shut down all retention of King salmon for the next 6 years to allow the stock a chance to recover via maximum escapement, but since there are politics involved, we'll probably keep fiddling around until the King is dead. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
bad fish rising 0 Report post Posted February 11, 2012 whether im using braid or coated wire to connect a trailing hook i bind it down on top of the front hook then bend it under the shank binding it down to the bend but dont go through the eye. i use the coated wire to make articulated flies but braid to make swing flies like alaskabous where the hook needs to be in the very rear of the fly. i have had great success landing fish with an octopus hook behind the swing flies with the front hook trimmed off. no leverage for the fish to throw the hook like there is if you use a very long streamer hook. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites