I keep hooking tailor in the eye

[linewetter]

So fishing has been very tough for me since winter started. I have not caught any bream or flatties on lures for what feels like months now but have caught many handfuls of tailor, particularly small ones. Lots of fun catching them still but a noticeable amount of them get hooked in the eye and I hate it. I always try to set the hook early as soon as I feel them since I can always tell when it’s tailor now…just feel dozens of bumps in very quick succession. But I still come away with some hooked in the eye. 
 

Does anyone else have this issue with smaller tailor? I’m using #2 hooks with soft plastics. Never have this issue with any other species, or at least not to the extent I am seeing. I hate the idea of blinding them. Tonight I hooked one particularly bad and when I released it into the water it didn’t swim off like all the others. It started swimming sideways and in circles and damn I just felt terrible knowing I reduced its survival greatly. 
 

Some pics from the past few weeks of the tailor:

 

 

 

 

 

Edited July 5 by linewetter

[bessell1955]

Perhaps use the Tailor for bait?

[Green Hornet]

12 minutes ago, bessell1955 said:

Perhaps use the Tailor for bait?

It’s illegal to use undersize fish for bait or anything else for that matter. A tailor must be at least 30cm to keep.

[Green Hornet]

@linewetter Tailor are prone to being hooked in the eye from the way they tend to continually slash at a lure until they hook up. Also having a hard, bony head the hook has difficulty taking hold until it comes in contact with something softer such as the jaw or unfortunately the eye.

Although I’ve hooked a few in the eye, no more than other species, I can’t say it’s been that many I’ve felt the need to do something to prevent it.

Perhaps you could try crimping the barb on your hook. You’re still going to hook the occasional fish in the eye, but the damage will be minimal seeing the hook will simply slide out.

The trade off is you may lose the odd fish fishing barbless hooks, but ensuring you keep a tight line and bend in your rod will help prevent this .

Edited July 5 by Green Hornet

[noelm]

Tailor tend to “slash” at their food, biting the tail off small baitfish, then coming back to swallow the disabled prey…….so, best guess is, they are swiping at the tail and the hook is in just the right place to catch their eye because of the length and the size of the fish, going by your pictures, they are all near the same size.

[linewetter]

24 minutes ago, Green Hornet said:

@linewetter Tailor are prone to being hooked in the eye from the way they tend to continually slash at a lure until they hook up. Also having a hard, bony head the hook has difficulty taking hold until it comes in contact with something softer such as the jaw or unfortunately the eye.

Although I’ve hooked a few in the eye, no more than other species, I can’t say it’s been that many I’ve felt the need to do something to prevent it.

Perhaps you could try crimping the barb on your hook. You’re still going to hook the occasional fish in the eye, but the damage will be minimal seeing the hook will simply slide out.

The trade off is you may lose the odd fish fishing barbless hooks, but ensuring you keep a tight line and bend in your rod will help prevent this .

I would say maybe 20% of the tailor I’ve been catching have been coming back hooked in the eye compared to nearly none of any other species I’ve caught. Though it’s always a similar size tailor I’ve been catching too like in the pictures. The bony head part makes sense. I also figured maybe it’s the geometry of their head at their size coupled with their aggressive nature - I usually don’t hook up to fish on this smaller scale when fishing soft plastics but the tailor will hit no matter what. I’ll try crimping the barb to help as well. 

[linewetter]

11 minutes ago, noelm said:

Tailor tend to “slash” at their food, biting the tail off small baitfish, then coming back to swallow the disabled prey…….so, best guess is, they are swiping at the tail and the hook is in just the right place to catch their eye because of the length and the size of the fish, going by your pictures, they are all near the same size.

Yep it is usually after feeling a few bumps that I hook up. I always wonder what it looks like under the water because it feels so fast as if it’s a school attacking the one lure, each taking turns hitting all in one second. And that is also what I’ve noticed - the ones I’ve hooked in the eye are all about the same size as the ones I have pictured…so I figured it must have to be related to just their size coupled with how they’re built as a fish in relation to where their eyes are to their mouth vs other species. 

[james Cutler]

We all have these days. I move on. Change the bait. Change the lures.

Good luck.

[Aussie_fisher]

Yep lots of tailor this winter not too much else. I’ve had this happen too with tailor on soft plastics. Bit of a nuisance which can hurt the fish but not much that can be done about it. As @Green Hornet said u can crimp the barb if you really want to.