About a week ago I went down to the channel to do some night fishing.I was Walleye hunting so I had a new cup of leeches and was rigged with my favorite setup (blood red Gamakatsu Finesse Wide Gap).After getting situated I wrangled a big fat leech onto a brand new hook only to lose it to a stinking bullhead! No worries I changed depth a little and hooked on another leech this time the darn thing wiggled off the hook.I had double hooked him so I was rather surprised to find him gone when I pulled up to relocate.This happened two or three more times.I was irritated to say the least so I decided a new hook was in order.I re-rigged  with a worm hook with the thought that  the extra barbs on the shaft of the hook would impede the wiggle ability of the slimy sucker.I was right.I didn't lose anymore leeches to wiggle power and caught a nice 18" Walleye.Fast forward one week to last night.Same setup,same location, same time(hell same cup of leeches)only thing different was the temperature.I started fishing about 9:30 by 9:35 I had a Perch on the line.This went on and on Perch after Perch.In between Perch catches I had something biting but I couldn't get the hook set.I started to think about it.Those worm hooks were purchased in probably 1998.If you leave a sharp knife in a drawer for 11 years just the exposure to the atmosphere will make it less sharp (i'm not saying dull but there is a difference in the edge)so I would suspect that the same is true for fish hooks.I don't know what was playing me but it hit hard and would run like the dickens right after so I am assuming it was the Patriarch of the Perch family (Walleye Perch and Sauger are the same family of fish)But alas I had a 11 year old hook rigged and could not set the hook.Before I left I caught(and released) eight Perch ranging from 6" to 9" and I changed hooks re-rigged with a blood red Gamakatsu Finesse Wide Gap.I'd rather set the hook on a Walleye and lose a few leeches than catch little Perch all night.