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carpflyguy

Pegging Beads... Fishing or snagging?

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I'm sure this has come up before, but with salmon running again out here soon, the legged egg pictures are appearing again on every forum I check.

 

So, is this fly fishing? Regular lure fishing? Snagging? Go!

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Don't know squat about salmon fishing but watched it being done in Alaska where the "anglers" were lined up darn near shoulder to shoulder dragging their 'flies" across the river. One local said the salmon aren't hungry just focused on their run and swim up stream with their mouths open and are hooked when the line slides through their mouth. If that's true then I would say snagging best describes it.... but like I said....I don't know squat about salmon fishing. unsure.png

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Don't know squat about salmon fishing but watched it being done in Alaska where the "anglers" were lined up darn near shoulder to shoulder dragging their 'flies" across the river. One local said the salmon aren't hungry just focused on their run and swim up stream with their mouths open and are hooked when the line slides through their mouth. If that's true then I would say snagging best describes it.... but like I said....I don't know squat about salmon fishing. unsure.png

Yeah, that's "flossing", different than pegging. That is 100% snagging in my opinion, as is pegging

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Hooking a fish through a method where the fish doesn't take the hook.

 

Snagging.

 

I've seen a lot of impressive mental gymnastics used to rationalize it, but at the end of the day, the fish isn't biting the hook.

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My thoughts exactly, cold.

 

Plus I can't think of any way in which you could pass off a plastic bead as a fly... And I consider most synthetic flies, flies.

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If the bead is pegged so that the fish is hooked inside the mouth, then it's not snagging IMHO. Not fly fishing but maybe fishing with a fly rod.

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Doesn't a plastic bead of the right color look like an egg? Just thinking of why it might qualify as a "fly". Like Trampus, I have no knowledge of salmon or fishing for them.

 

However, I see all these pretty flies tied for them, and then I hear people say they don't eat as they swim up to the spawning area.

 

Can't have it both ways, in my opinion:

Either they ARE eating those flies, or ANY salmon caught during the spawning run is a snagged fish, no matter where it's hooked.

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Don't know squat about salmon fishing but watched it being done in Alaska where the "anglers" were lined up darn near shoulder to shoulder dragging their 'flies" across the river. One local said the salmon aren't hungry just focused on their run and swim up stream with their mouths open and are hooked when the line slides through their mouth. If that's true then I would say snagging best describes it.... but like I said....I don't know squat about salmon fishing. unsure.png

Yeah, that's "flossing", different than pegging. That is 100% snagging in my opinion, as is pegging

 

Learn something new every day...we don't get salmon or steehead runs down in my neck of the woods so the terminology is greek to me :)

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"If the bead is pegged so that the fish is hooked inside the mouth, then it's not snagging IMHO."

 

If a fish hits a streamer from the side and is hooked by the trailing stinger outside the mouth, was it snagged?

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I would consider it snagging regardless. In my mind, if the fish takes the hook, it's angling. If you drive a hook into the fish, it's snagging. I don't care if the circle hooks get them inside the mouth or not. You didn't fool that fish into taking a hook...

 

Not to even get into the fly issue, but I haven't met one of these mental gymnasts yet who can defend a plastic bead as being a fly...

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Mike, depends on where and what. Stellies and rainbows can be caught on eggs. Cant speak for salmon, but i think they can as well at times. There are times, however, when they wont eat, and just do what trampus described which is when people "floss" for them

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For me it comes down to intent. Was the presentation designed to illicit a strike like the streamer and stinger (for short strikes) then I would say no it's not snagging even though the hook did in fact snag the fish. If on the other hand a hook bare or dressed that is dragged through the water for the sole purpose of hooking a fish that has no intention of feeding then I would call that snagging. I think one is an action (snagging) and the other is a result (snagged) that are not mutually exclusive.

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Coho swim upstream with their mouths open and is such great numbers that with the propper rig and technic they can, with great regularity, be hooked via "Flossing". The line catches in their mouth and the hook is driven into the side of the mouth. The "fisherman" is not responding to a hit, but rather constantly flinging the single hook (sometimes decorated to appear to be a fly) out 10' -15' and then yanking it back. The yank is turned into a fling with one continous motion if nothing is hooked. Fling, yank, fling, yank. Flossing for coho is legal in Alaska if the hook penetrates the side of the mouth. If the fish is hooked anywhere else, it must be released.

 

I've read that salmon don't feed during the spawn, but merely strike out as a reflex or territorial aggression. I believe some salmon do feed during the spawn. I've seen them rise to the surface to take a streamer.

 

I consider fishing with an egg pattern or pegged bead to be just as much fly fishing as nymph fishing. The rig and technic is virtually the same. Besides, no one knows for sure why that salmon decided to take that particular egg pattern at that particular time. And it really doesn't make any difference in the fight.

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There is a second scenario with salmon fishing during spawn , this is one where a salmon doesn't take a bait fish as food but to kill it and keep it away from the spawning bed areas. At least so I've been told in the Land Locked Salmon runs out here in the North East, which are a spin off of Atlantic salmon. In the fall we get a rough take sometimes and it might fall short of a hook up. Also in the fall we use more contrasted colors in our fies than in spring run fishing. In the spring the fish are for sure feeding on smelt and hook ups are very solid. Do enough of this and you learn to feel the difference in take.

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