Dry Fly Hook Ups On Larger Fish

[dfly]

I have been having lots of luck lately on the dry fly due to the massive amount of caddis flying around, however I am having trouble hooking up with larger fish. The smaller fish are damn near suicidal when they hit my fly and a hook set is not required most of the time. I did have some larger fish come up and hit based on vision and just the size of the swirl and splash. I lost several fish (16"+) over the past week either off the hook set or in the first few seconds of the fight. Does anyone have any do or dont's to improve my hook up percentage?

Thanks!

[bjbailey]

Try slowing your hook set down. Saying "God save the queen" (or something similar) under your breath helps give the fish time to fully eat the fly. Big male browns especially need the extra time because they often have gaps in their mouths due to the size of their kypes. Also try paying attention to whether or not the fish took facing downstream (quite possible, especially using larger dry flies such as golden stones), you need to give an extra pause on a downstream take for the fish to turn its head.

 

Hope that helps you stay connected

[angler]

I try to keep a small loop of extra line off the reel but not played out. As you set the hook allow this to slip tru your finger. That'll delay hook set by a second or two.