Hooking Snakehead on Poppers

[Paul Arden]

Eight years in

I’ve been getting a lot of success this year with slower retrieves. I’ve modified my flies so that they have pronounced frog legs. Gary gave some excellent advice on tying pencil or dislocated flies, which I’ve been experimenting with (but they land heavily and I need some shorter shank hooks).

In the last month I’ve had some eats very close to the boat, where I haven’t been retrieving but have in effect had the opportunity to time the strike. Over this month I’ve gradually been lengthening the delay, up to at least four seconds. And sometimes still pulling the fly out of their mouths!

Now I am letting them eat and swim off with the fly. 10 seconds strike. This is exactly how I used to fish floating fly patterns for trout!

I assume what happens is that they inhale the fly, turn around and don’t actually expel the air through the gills until very much later. And this is when you want to strike. If you strike before they’ve expelled air it’s very much a hit and miss affair. The hanging (dislocated fly) hook can help, but the better option seems to be either not to strike but to keep a tight line or else strike after a very long delay. Ashly not striking I think seems to prove this!!

It’s fishing well at the moment but now I’m heading to another part of Malaysia for two weeks.

Cheers, Paul

[Mangrove Cuckoo]

Paul,

Here is something that I have witnessed when flyfishing for snook, especially the larger ones. We do not use wire bite tippets, but ya gotta use at least 40# mono or they will chew off the fly during the fight. One problem seems to be that when the snook close down on the bite tippet their rough lips essentially hold it from slipping. Another problem is they have very large mouth caverns and I envision that the fly is just floating around in there.

So if your hook set is timid, or worse, multiple "trout sets", the snook feels something weird vibrating in its lips and simply opens its mouth and the fly comes out.

Now here is some conjecture, but it is something I have noticed and have had some success with...

I often have witnessed anglers with me not realize that they have had a snook take their fly. It is really bad for smaller snook as the fly usually gets into their gills, but the angler who has been missing fish after fish due to trout sets is usually happy... because they have finally hooked one, even though the small snook is now commonly bleeding.

On the flip side, I have often found that I commonly "hook" larger snook around the gill rakers. These are the filter-like parts of the gill that are not blood red. This is the best case situation for both the fish and the angler as the fish does not bleed but has no chance of getting off the hook since it is not about hook-point penetration. The bend of the hook simply encircles the raker. This commonly happens when using smaller flies.

So, here is what I think is happening: the snook somehow realizes that the fly is not food and attempts to eject it. But it does not spit it out in panic, instead, it tries to flush the fly out through the gills, as it would for any other non-edible bycatch. That is when the hook bend gets around the raker.

So... a long deliberate strip set with a straight line to the fish, and no rod bend, is the ticket for hooking these fish. Often it requires a few "is he there" strips to get tight to the fish. I want to feel either the fish's tail beat or his head shaking before I "set" the hook.

How long that takes is not something on a clock face, it depends on many things.

I don't know if it will work for you, but ask yourself a simple question:

How many fish have you missed because you struck too soon, and how many fish have you missed because you waited too long? Apparently, the answer depends on what species of fish you are after. I have heard that trout quickly reject a fly, and I know permit can, but with snook (and maybe Snakehead) I know what my answer is!

BTW... I spoke to an angler last night who mentioned he was doing real well on our local Snakehead, and he had photos to prove it. They were the largest I have seen. His "secret" was he fished them at night. Have you tried it?

[Paul Arden]

Last things first Gary! That’s a great question. Yes have tried but had no success… yet. I am sure I’m missing something but not sure it’s with Snakehead. Adults with babies very obviously sleep the night and get up quite late – I’ve followed them “home” and been there when they’ve woke up in the morning. So it’s also very possible that adults without babies do the same. There are definitely behavioural differences between the species and even between locations. Jungle Perch I have caught at night. Gourami not, and that’s what I think I’m missing.

Waiting too long is a problem – I just think that that’s a lot longer than I originally thought. In the case of positively buoyant flies and trout (for example, which is where I have far more experience) it’s not that they try to expel the fly through their gills, but that they try swallow the fly! I definitely do not want to wait too long. I can’t recall ever having a Snakehead hooked in the gills, deep yes, and thats even with setting the hook. How many seconds before Snook expel the fly do you think? I find a huge difference between buoyant flies, unweighted flies and weighted flies. The heavier the quicker the spit! Buoyant flies on the other hand are often swallowed in my experience. Boobies, floating dry, suspender buzzers…

Certainly it could be the wire and very strong mouth closure (and teeth!) that they have. My current thinking is that they expel air late, after they have turned away and relaxed, and before this they still have a mouth full of air! I don’t know how long is too long or what happens when it is “too long”. This is an experiment I need to try when back on the lake.

It’s very hard not to set the hook, especially when stripping, but this is what I’m training myself to do to see where it leads.

Thanks,
Paul

[Paul Arden]

Well it’s been a lot of work, but finally things are starting to come together, I think. Having experimented with multiple approaches using different fly patterns and hook configurations, as well as experimenting with different delayed strike timings, I’ve ascertained that pausing a long time and setting the hook with either the strip or “trout” set doesn’t work either! However… (!) allowing them to eat and then slowly increasing the pressure seems to work! I was worried about potentially deeply hooking but it seems I get more hook holds in the lips this way too. (Which I really don’t understand yet by the way).

Man if I can solve this problem I’ll be very happy! This is a great time to experiment too because there are new babies around. I’m expecting a great few weeks coming up

Cheers, Paul

[Mangrove Cuckoo]

Paul,

If you are experimenting, why not just wait and see how long your Snakeheads will hold onto the fly before rejecting it? They may be really slow-witted? We have a weird nearshore fish called a Triple Tail that is great on the table and it will hold onto a fly for what seems to be an unlimited time. In fact, they will hold onto it through a fight and then only let go when you get them near the boat... and all the while you thought they were hooked!

There is definitely no rush to set the hook with snook. Tight is better than quick.

Also... have you tried a circle hook? Coming tight slowly and getting a hook stuck in the lips is the way they work.

As to Snakeheads sleeping... well... our local introduced species (Bullseye Snakeheads) look as if they do, and some don't even wait until the sun sets. It is rather common to find them along a shore with their heads buried in some hole or under a ledge while almost their entire body is still sticking out. It takes quite a bit of effort to wake them up, but then they are not in the mood to eat.

[Paul Arden]

I’m sure all fish sleep in their own way. One time I was fishing with a mate, Tom, on lower Mystery River X. We found a double figure brown sleeping under a willow tree. Tom was on strike. After presenting a number of different patterns I gave Tom a large white woolly bugger which he then proceeded to wake him up with, jigging it in front of its nose. Fish woke up and ate it!!

Yep I’ll certainly try waiting longer. What I don’t like about that with buoyant flies is that (trout anyway) swallow them. I haven’t tried circles, but I did buy them. Just haven’t gotten around to dressing them yet!

It’s funny for years I never thought about it and it was never a problem (hooking them). Then when I tried to skew it more in my favour I made it worse. I think I’m now ahead of where I was in the first place.

It’s makes a huge difference when shots are limited. And then I have to teach it.

I’m not sure how circles will tie with a Popper…

Cheers, Paul

[Paul Arden]

Talking about sleeping fish, I was fishing central Spain for Barbell. I was on one side of the lake and Tonio on the other, far enough to see but not close enough to see what. There were fish everywhere but my damsels weren’t working. Along the margins in inches of water, were shoals of 20-30 barbell very obviously sleeping. At first I ignored them. Then I decided to float a large RFU over the sleeping fish. After about 30 seconds one would wake up and eat it!

I really got into them after this (Tonio can be a little bit competitive and, to be fair, had completely out-fished me on a previous trip ). So I worked fast… I had released 18 fish when I got a text message from Tonio. “How are you getting on?” “18 barbell!” “BS!!!” “No really!” Long pause and then he called me! Yeah he had been ignoring those too!!

There was another time I was fishing for Kahawai in NZ. They were also sleeping, heads down, tails up, floating around as a shoal. Those fish would wake up and eat!! The challenge was to wait until the shoal had drifted to within Casting range.

Brown Trout on the other hand mostly spook. I was with Camo-Guy on Mystery Lake X. There was 40-50 browns 5lbs and up sleeping in a river mouth. I’ve fished with Guy before and he’s pretty fast at getting the first shot away and I knew it was important to be first. So I managed to quickly make a shot, the first fish woke up and spooked, and then proceeded to spook the fish around him, which in turn spooked the fish around them. I spooked 50 fish with one cast! Oh how we laughed

[Paul Arden]

Lost another fucker yesterday. That’s the last four eats with no set. The three prior to this I got them all. It’s frustrating! Next fish I’m going to let swim off with the damn fly and show it to its buddies.

Circle hooks will be next. The last time I had a run like this was three years ago when I missed 8 in a row. That’s when I started experimenting with tandems.

What I don’t like about runs like this is when you start to expect to miss them then it’s almost guaranteed that you do. However on the good side it gives me an opportunity to solve it.

Ok it’s a good day to fish…. if you have any ideas I can try please let me know I’m back to the drawing board (again!).

Cheers, Paul

[James9118]

Paul,

Of the videos I've seen of you hooking snakehead you've almost always strip-struck immediately. Are you sure you're not suffering from a bit of observational bias in thinking that you have to wait longer and longer?

James

[Paul Arden]

Hi James,

Some hook that way for sure. But more than half don’t. I really don’t know the issue with the half that don’t and I’ve been trying many things over the years because it can potentially double my catch rate. It’s pretty frustrating when you do everything right, find the fish, get in for the quick shot, make the shot, get the eat…. And then 50% fail to set. Out of every four or five sets found I hope to get one in the boat. But if I can get two in the boat that would really be something.

Today I got two chases and no eats. So no chance to experiment. I found quite a few sets but they’ve obviously seen some pressure recently.

Interesting if you watch replays of Flavio’s fish that took off after the popper or Ashly’s non-existent strikes. She always hooks them and never strikes! Of course she doesn’t always land them because sometimes she almost gets pulled out the boat.

Cheers, Paul