Fly Fishing Tip – Missing a Take

Fly Fishing Tip – Get that fly back in there…

I saved a clip from one of my most recent fly fishing outings to help illustrate a technique, maybe better a thought process … that I have been doing now for quite some time. While retrieving your streamer for any fish … and you feel a take or bobble, hit or jab … whatever you want to term it, pick the fly up and get it right back into the water as fast as possible. For a second …. be the fish … you swiped at something you identified as a food source and missed … the instinct is to look for the target. At the same time we as fishermen, too often tend to pick up the fly and completely remove it … or lift our rods and move it too far for the predatory fish to come back a second or third time. First learn or make yourself learn to strip set with the line or off-hand. By doing this you will only move the fly a few inches to a foot in the water, leaving it still visible to the predatory fish. Second … if you do strip set and then lift the rod … and miss the hit, get the fly back into the water as quickly as possible and allow the fly to sink with just an occasional small flicker. Once again, the larger predatory fish will attack, sometimes a third, fourth or fifth time. I have found that trout are also notorious for slash and grab for grub. Lifting the rod and removing the line will also eliminate your chances of a hook up. So, give this short clip a watch and the next time you find yourself with a hit or jab at the end of your fly line … leave it alone, but if you have picked it up … throw it quickly back into the same area and hold on!