I live in Colorado, too. Foul hooking spawning Kokanee is pretty common. They do not actually feed during the spawn. They will "bite" flies, especially if they are red. I find that there are a few reasons they are foul hooked. Since they are generally bunched up during spawning, if one fish goes for the fly and you set the hook, you can easily snag the fish next to it. I don't think their mouths hold on to flies very easily, since the male are shaped for fighting, not eating. For that same reason, if you use two flies and they take the top fly, when you set the hook, they drop the first fly and are snagged by the second. Third, they are just aggressive towards flies and may nudge them without biting. It feels like a take, but they actually hit it with their body. I catch plenty in the mouth, but many others are unintentionally snagged. Since Kokanee do not successfully spawn in Colorado (they are captured by wildlife workers to get the eggs, etc. to raise at a hatchery) you are not doing any harm to future generations by snagging them. However, intentionally snagging them seems unethical to me. This year, I was at a stream where the salmon were gathering in pools, but not aggressive enough to take a fly. This was on catch and release water. Some guy was there with a weighted, tremble snagging hook he had tied some red yarn to. He was pretending to fish a "big fly" on his fly rod. What I saw him doing to those fish made me sick. His snagging hook embedded deepn into their bodies. A number 12 hook won't do much damage, but his snagging hook was much bigger.

🤔"The Outlets at Silverthorne"...dude gives up the spot in the first 90 seconds BUT when he's back home on the East Coast, he's as tight lipped as the CIA 😆. Great videos! Keep up the great work!

@hardmanfishing

8 ай бұрын

Well lets be honest this spot was hard to conceal.. plus it's fishing for dying salmon. 😂 Some of these super popular places out west are hard to conceal. Thanks for watching!

Such an awesome looking fish!!

Love your video as always!

@hardmanfishing

8 ай бұрын

Glad you enjoyed it!

Gah, so jealous. I was out of town for work most of the Kokanee run this year. Thanks for letting me enjoy it secondhand!

@hardmanfishing

8 ай бұрын

Glad you enjoyed it!

Awesome video definitely one of my bucket lists fish. I was surprised there weren’t more people around that area looked pretty urban. Thanks for sharing your adventures with us.

@hardmanfishing

8 ай бұрын

I just got there early and fished before more people were willing to get up. But there were definitely people around!

Man if that river was back east it would be shoulder to shoulder fishing a.k.a. combat fishing. Nice vid.

The name foul hook says it all

Yo always loved watching your stuff especially since I cant get out on the water myself too often. One suggestion: have you ever considered getting a head mount for the gopro? it may seem a little bit wonky but it makes a huge difference in what we (the viewers) see! cus sometimes it just feels like we miss more than we know when your chest is facing down and all we see is the water at your feet and your arms blocking a majority of the shot. again love your content, definitely see love being poured into every vid!

Awesome fishery, enjoyed

@hardmanfishing

8 ай бұрын

Glad you enjoyed!

Nice video! There are kokanee in southern Oregon, I have yet to catch one. I saw one caught on the Rogue river above lost creek res

One of the things i enjoy about your channel is both you and your brother seem reflective and thoughtful about your angling and respectful of your quarry. I live in Oregon where snagging salmon is illegal but unfortunately common. It's so common in fact there is a subcategory of mouth snaggers called 'flossers.' Snagging is not sport fishing. It is harvesting and damaging to the fish and their chance of reproductive success. That is not what is happening here, where you are accidentally foul hooking fish. That just happens. For your question, a foul hooked fish is not considered a catch by me or any other ethical angler. There is a reason it's called foul hooked vs. fair hooked. You don't run towards first on a foul ball, a foot fault negates a strike in bowling and a foul hooked fish does not count as a catch, period. It is also considered unethical to fish on spawning fish but here i think it's inexperience more than unethical behavior. As your salmon fishing experience grows, you will find that the more willing biters and brighter, harder fighting, table worthy fish are caught in different water than spawners though there is sometimes overlap. Good luck. I enjoy the channel.

I'm from the UK and I've never heard of a foul-hooked fish not counting, it must be a USA thing. What beautiful fish but I was surprised how small they were, great sport though. In this part of the word we get Atlantic salmon, they're much larger and don't necessarily die after spawning, most return back to the sea. You certainly had a great time.

@hardmanfishing

8 ай бұрын

That's interesting! In the US people get really bent out of shape over foul-hooked fish. I never thought much of it until people started getting mad when I foul hooked fish when I was streamer fishing. Anyways thanks for watching!

@tonycamplin8607

8 ай бұрын

@@hardmanfishing No, it's much appreciated that you post them.

Those are also some nice looking (and decent size) trout hanging out too.

@hardmanfishing

8 ай бұрын

Yep there are trout around there as well!

They're beautiful They're blue n redish orange they lok crazy in the water ❤

LETS GO love the video!!!

@hardmanfishing

8 ай бұрын

Thank you!

Also, when I lived in Alaska, the was a salmon season where it was for snagging used a 1.5-2oz snagging hooks. Snagging is a greater fight when hooking in the midsection to the til. Biggest I CAUGHT was 38lb king. Oh! And that was at Seward Bay.

Beautiful fish and enjoyed every minute watching you land some Kokanee Salmon. Great video and always tight lines. Thanks, Tony

@hardmanfishing

8 ай бұрын

Thanks for watching as always Tony!!

It's a beautiful fish

A foul hook is still a catch. This year fly fishing in the Missouri Ozark Plateau, tweaking & twitching the fly like you do, I guess a nice bow swung at the nymph and hooked in the annus. I brought it in.

Cool.. they look a lot like Mi.pinkies

Ive started over a dozen great days of fishing right where you first casted. Hard to conceal that spot! lol

@hardmanfishing

8 ай бұрын

No doubt...

that spot your fishing is an insane spot i fish there quite often!!

@nathanleeper4519

8 ай бұрын

It’s the most pressured spot in America bruh

@jalenrobison1756

8 ай бұрын

@@nathanleeper4519must be the only place you’ve been to in CO

@stevenbutler3869

8 ай бұрын

not at all... @@nathanleeper4519

@hardmanfishing

8 ай бұрын

@@nathanleeper4519 definitely top 5 😂

@andrewstager1378

8 ай бұрын

It’s a good spot, but I like the hole just below the ped bridge better :-)

Andrew, great fishing there. Re: foul hooking - if you're in the fishing game, you're going to foul hook fish. Just the nature of the sport.

@hardmanfishing

8 ай бұрын

Couldn't agree more! Thanks for watching

if it is a small fish and i foul hook it, i just count it and say 'whatever it happens.' If I accidentally snag a big fish then i usually get pretty disappointed and don't count it as an actual catch. however if the fish is foul hooked outside the mouth but really close to the mouth then i normally count it as a catch.

Looks like some serious fun. Beautiful fish

@hardmanfishing

8 ай бұрын

It was! Thanks for watching

It looks like your in Silverthorne right under highway 6!? I could be wrong but I hear a highway and see the bridge and walkway path.

I fish in San Diego where we don’t have any like streams and rivers with wild trout, just lakes that get stocked, not a lot of water flow or anything and supper duper clear, I’m getting my first fly fishing set up and just curious on like what flys would be good for some stock rainbows

Bro you make the best fishing videos I just wish you did catch and cooks!!

@pyro9013

8 ай бұрын

Nahhhh. Catch and release for the win

@nathanleeper4519

8 ай бұрын

@@pyro9013Fr bruh

@hardmanfishing

8 ай бұрын

I plan on doing one or two next year for stocked / hatchery trout! But I probably won't do it for wild trout

@jmebig3044

7 ай бұрын

Agree, neither pure catch and release or pure catch and keep capture the essence of the sport. Gotta do both to do it right. This channel is way too far on the C&R side. Need some catch and cooks to make this a truly good fishing channel.

My first time ever snagging anything was a beaver it scared me so bad

@hardmanfishing

8 ай бұрын

I've done that too! Wasn't an ideal situation

What a fun day! I say I caught x number of fish plus 1 that was foul hooked.

@hardmanfishing

8 ай бұрын

I think anyone who's fished for any amount of time has. Thanks for watching Larry!

Personally I don't count the fish that I accidently snag, but sometimes its unavoidable in small creeks when lots of fish are present. Not sure what stereotypes there are about fly fishing in Colorado, but around the WNY region it seems like everyone using hardware believes that fly fishermen purposely snag. I got accused of snagging just last week while using a single size 12 hook egg fly pattern with one 0.5 gram split shot.

@ryanahern259

8 ай бұрын

Went up for the salmon run in the Pulaski area. Witnessed people herding fish with rocks and stomping them out of where they’re holding them blatantly snagging them. Especially in small creeks. There’s a difference between that and accidentally getting some while drifting a fly into a bunch of fish. It happens

@alanmiller4122

8 ай бұрын

You guys may already know but New Mexico has a Kokanee snagging season to salvage the spawning salmon that will just circle the lakes til they die.

@SouthMend

8 ай бұрын

@@alexstamopyeah man it’s so sad to see, never been to the salmon river but Burt Dam is a tragedy to witness.

This looks like the Blue River in Silverthone, CO

Do you get big rainbows hanging back waiting to suck up eggs that go by?? Ive seen people use egg sacks to catch rainbows. Great content btw always jealous of your location but mines pretty dam good 👍 😅

@daveofthewoods3133

8 ай бұрын

I was thinking the same thing. Did you see the one rainbow in the one clip of b-roll? It's about halfway thru the video when he takes about snagging them

@hardmanfishing

8 ай бұрын

Nope! Didn't really try to though!

Ive never caught one either and ive been eyeing them recently, where did you fish in colorado?

@thejleeproductions

8 ай бұрын

This is the Blue River in Silverthorne, CO. You can see the outlet mall out in front of him, ski town about 1 hr West of Denver. Surprising to see him pull up so many while in town!

@marzvphantom_dc2

8 ай бұрын

​@@thejleeproductionsYeah! And thanks for the info 👍

What weight rod/setup are you using? Also if you are okay with letting me know where is this at in Colorado?

@nathanleeper4519

8 ай бұрын

Silverthorne

Could see a bright, neon red or pink fly in the fishes mouth when netted. But could not make out what fly pattern was being used. Were you using a bright pink Squirmy wormy fly? Or, egg pattern?

@hardmanfishing

8 ай бұрын

the good ole pink squirmy!

Foul fish= no pictue with at least for me

What weight fly line are you using it looks super thin?

It still counts as a catch in my opinion but never intentional

They don’t taste very good when they are spawning but when they aren’t they are amazing

@spotburningsucks4043

8 ай бұрын

Don't be an idiot, if they are spawning let them go

@jasonehredt968

8 ай бұрын

@@spotburningsucks4043 Haha. Simmer down trout-bruh. They’re salmon, if they’re in the river they’re spawning. Daily bag limit below the bridge there is 10. And snagging is permitted. Go slap some more stickers on your outback transplant.

@winterwolf13

8 ай бұрын

@@spotburningsucks4043 one I’ve never tried them spawning. Two they are still good fighters and attract big brookies. Three there is a bag limit of like 200 here

Nice colors on those fish! Love kokes but never have hooked into one stream-side. Do you guys ever run mono rigs or just a standard ESN setup?

6:45 A city seems to be near the river. I was surprised that it was able to fish up big fish like you do close to a city.

@wyodrifter9452

8 ай бұрын

Of course you can if you fish overs the redds.

@hardmanfishing

8 ай бұрын

@@wyodrifter9452 It's literally a dying salmon 😂

What net are you using?

No info on flies or line size etc?

we get kokanee in nz they get pretty big aswell ive hared of some reaching over 15 pounds

@winterwolf13

8 ай бұрын

No one cares

@Beyond_the_drift

8 ай бұрын

He actually wasn’t first either 😂😂😂

@callenarmbruster4168

8 ай бұрын

​@winterwolf13 no one cares about you

@troutobsessionnz

8 ай бұрын

@@winterwolf13 wow who hurt you

@winterwolf13

8 ай бұрын

@@troutobsessionnz lots but no one cares who’s first or not

I stood in that same spot several weeks back and … did not catch any Kokanee. Caught a big rainbow though, and a dozen of the up above that bridge. My technique must not have been favorable for catching the salmon.

Using a 10 wt for those big guys

Where is this?

Most salmon includes Kokanees are foul hooked or lined. They really don’t bite much.

@Getgrabbedfishing

6 ай бұрын

As an Oregonian who lives in a state with dozens of rivers with great runs of salmon that is absolutely and unequivocally false. If you can't fair hook salmon you are doing it wrong! They are very willing biters. Please see my profile for one such example. I'd say I fair hook 95+ percent of the salmon I catch.

no way mans nymphing for salmon

@hardmanfishing

8 ай бұрын

Well it worked??

if it's in the net, it's a catch

It's easy, if you land a fish you caught it. Don't buy into the got to hook it in the mouth. Jerimiah Johnson didn't care!

It is considered a snag.

If you foul hook a salmon in Oregon the fine is huge! So I say it does not count as a catch!

Them fish swim backwards.....

Yes accidental snagging happens but no it doesn’t count as a catch

P

Actually, you only get fined if you harvest the salmon. Still, foul hook, not a catch in my book.

Let them spawn. They're 75% dead

Harassing junk salmon,(spawners). Not really my thing, I know it's big on great lakes rivers too. Glad we have real fish here

Really,all you are doing is harassing salmon on their spawning beds. It's just ridiculous that this is allowed. They are going to be dead in a couple weeks,what is the challenge or any sort of accomplishment to catch these fish.

@Anyfishcounts

8 ай бұрын

The thrill of

@Anyfishcounts

8 ай бұрын

It’s not harassment it is a sport that people have done for thousands of years