To strike, or not to strike?

What type of fish should you not strike? Ive already been told not to strike flats? Any other fish?

Mark,

This is bound to generate some debate...:-) As a general rule of thumb if you are using grip leads striking most fish is a waste of time anyways. Think about the amount of force is required just for you to break out the lead when you retrieve, most paternoster rigs and a grip lead are a self hooking trap.

Even if you do strike the force of the strike is usually just soaked up trying to break out the grip wires, with the fish just hanging off it waiting for you anyways. Of course there are times when large fish will break out the lead, drop backs etc. and you will end up with nothing but 99% of the time I am confident to let the fish engulf the bait and only reel in when I feel it is well and truly hooked.

If you do get drop backs then wind down until you can feel the weight of the fish then firmly lift into him to set the hook. If they've dropped it by this stage then tough luck!

Trying to generalise is very difficult, with different species, venues, the tide run etc. A good rule of thumb is that grip leads are a self hooking trap, that's part of the beauty of 'em after that I reckon it's down to experience and that only comes with trial and error I'm afraid!

Liam

Any time I catch flats they always seem to very deeply hooked and find it hard to get the hook out without having to kill the fish as it takes me some time to do this, any suggestions as what tool is the best to unhook this fish?

I always seem to be able to pull the hooks out of deep hooked dabs quite easily, and they seem to swim away quite happily. :?
Bit of a Firm pull and the eye of the Hook seems to pop up to where I can twist it out...