Dry Flies, Downstream Takes And Deep Hook Sets.

[Guest bigdirty]

Getting some dry fly experience this month. What fun. But I've been getting alot of deep hook placement. I've had a number of downstream takes. I wait for the fish to turn before I set. Maybe I'm waiting to long? The fish is practically setting the hook itself as it turns and swims. I give a gentle strip set and raise the rod.

 

Thinking of trying out one of those hook release tools for these times. Looking to hasten the hook removal process. Sometimes they won't let me handle them enough to get down in there with the forceps.

 

Any tips from you more experienced dry guys?

[BurningChrome]

Just how deep are they taking your flies? Most of my dry fly fish are lip hooked, but I'm almost always getting them upstream unless I'm skating the fly ie. stones. If the fly is fairly deep and you're having trouble getting it out I think that cutting the leader close to the fly might be the better course of action for the fish's survival.

[Guest bigdirty]

A couple times the fly has been so deep that my forceps were in up to the handle.

 

The downstream takes are my own fault, cast that often come up short. The fish turns, comes right at me and eats. I wait for the fish to turn back and I set.

 

At what point do you give up and leave the hook?

[somereddeerguy]

In this warm water and having them be as tough as they have been to revive if I don't hook them in the lip id cut the tippet. In the 10+ plus years of fishing the central Alberta brown trout streams I have never seen water this low and warm for this time of year. As much as id like to be out there the rest of the week fishing these phenomenal hatches as of late i'm not comfortable with watching them be so slow to revive. If you are fishing these waters and they take a hook deep consider cutting the tippet and getting that fish back in the water asap

[Guest bigdirty]

Thanks guys.

[BurningChrome]

A couple times the fly has been so deep that my forceps were in up to the handle.

 

The downstream takes are my own fault, cast that often come up short. The fish turns, comes right at me and eats. I wait for the fish to turn back and I set.

 

At what point do you give up and leave the hook?

I don't think there's a hard and fast rule that anyone could give you, but if your forceps were in up to the handle I think I'd cut the leader. If I feel like I'm going to need to keep the fish out of the water too long to remove the hook or it's deep enough that my forceps will probably cause more damage than leaving the hook, then I'll just cut the leader.

[Guest bigdirty]

Thanks for that BC, learning as I go.

[alan2]

I carry a small pair of side cutters and sometimes I can get close enough to chop the hook and leave minimal metal in them. Like with streamers.

[Heimdallr]

My general rule is basically if I can't get the hook out in one or two tries, I'm cutting the line. Sometime a deep hook is still really easy to remove with forceps and sometimes it isn't. If it's going to take me more than 10 seconds to remove the fly, I'm losing it. I had a number of pike take flies pretty deep on me a couple weeks ago and one died on me. I couldn't even keep it because of the size restrictions, and I felt pretty shitty about it.

[tieflyer]

Try this method of staying in touch with the end of your line;

once the fly is running and there's tension on the entire line, including retrieval, tick the line with your second finger every few seconds...just a light tick will let you know if there's a visitor.

[tieflyer]

OK, This time I actually concentrated as I re-read the post...

Dry fly; right. Kinda like getting a true grasp of a posted topic...Concentrate on where that fly is. It may be your simply not concentrating on where that fly is, the trout takes it and dives, swallowing the fly.

Even if you lose sight of the fly if your focused on where that fly SHOULD be, your prior recognition of the speed and proximity of the fly will help you recognize a take...

all that and one thousand more days of F'fing and you'll never ever miss another trout take...(most of the time...sometimes...rarely)

[Guest bigdirty]

A couple deep sets last outing, release tool does wonders for quick removal.

[TroutFlyFishingAlberta]

When I started fishing I almost always set the hook too early and was just pulling the flies right of the mouth. Deep hook sets happen, but forceps in up to the handle is too deep to be digging around for hooks in my opinion - just cut the line. Pinch those barbs too!

[flyfishy]

Taken down to the handie! Can't ever remember when a trout swallowed a Dry fly!

IThink That would rune my day., having that happen.

Tip: when jigging that bug downstream , viberO rate the line, with small strips in . BANG he's on!!!