"If you were to set out to make an instrument with which it was just, but only just, possible to lift a fish out of the water, which was tricky to use at any time and impossible at others which, given a big fish lying within 3ft. of you in quite shallow water, was quite capable of missing the fish but gaffing the hook out of its mouth, which tears a fish when you do get him and which cannot be extracted without further tearing when on the bank, which twists in the hand and appears to bend in the water like a snake, is too big to put in a pocket and too heavy to fit to the top of a wading staff, an implement from which a well-made protector can never be removed when it is needed and an improvised but handy one, such as a champagne cork, is always falling off when not needed, you could sit down and think for a lifetime about it and not succeed in designing an object so successful for your purpose as the standard gaff."
Richard Waddington - Fly Fishing for Salmon
A terrible instrument in my opinion Sandy, :twisted:
All the best
Chris.
I agree. I have never used one but I have used a tailer, I prefer my hands though :)
He goes on to say.
"I do not use a gaff myself. But if ever I lose the use of my hands I shall take good care to see that my gaff is a more efficient instrument than the present outsize fishhook"