anonymous
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David:
You’ve gotten some good advice so far. Like so many things in fly-fishing, it is often a personal discovery.
The difficulty is there is no one way to set the hook. Most techniques in fly-fishing are relative to what you are trying to do and the conditions.
1) Fish don’t always take the same way and are sometimes aggressive; sometimes less so; sometimes very subtle and change througout the day.
2) Conditions affect how you retrieve and set the hook. Water clarity, flows, depth, and sunlight all can influence the fish’s take and your hookset. Recently, we’ve been getting larger fish deep in the holes in the late afternoon to mouth the fly, but try to set the hook normally and you pull it right out of their mouth. You sometimes have to throw a change up in the normal timing to pull when they have their mouth shut. Setting the hook in fish in deep water is defintely more challenging.
3) Tackle affects hook setting and playing. Lines, leader and hook sharpness can make a difference. If your hook point does not catch on the back of the fingernail, it is too dull. Sharpen it until it does. I check hook points often. A sharp hook will allow your hook to find a grabbing point in the fishes mouth easier with less effort.
My personal taste is to use the least amount of pressure possible to get a solid hookset. I’ve found using a lot of beadhead streamers that if you overset the hook you make a bigger hole in the fish’s mouth. Any slack at all will allow the fly to swivel more easily and fall out.
Some of my most enjoyable moments have been watching artful anglers, swinging wet flies, let the fish virtually hook themselves and then play them with a gentle hand. I see a lot of torn mouths from anglers rough housing fish that is not necessary if you plan to release your catch.
So, experiment and enjoy the learning process. Find what works in different situtations and add it to your bag of tricks.
Seafood- I still have my switch rod and use it often.
When I heard of the switch idea I jumped to an assumption of what that meant, based on my own needs:). Erroneously perhaps:))
For me it suggested I could effortlessly move between two handed overhead and two handed change of direction/anchor casts ( spey if we need to use that term)
Mike lol- ahh I ditched my cheap Hodgemans for re badged Hodgemans:))))) there is some irony in that:))))) I like it.
Will
Spenser, I have the original Coolpix 5000 – 5megpixels.
The optics on the old one were great. Very sharp images but the ISO only went to 800 and was grainy.
It was (is) slow to record in jpeg. Tiff image and RAW recording was not acceptable to me–processor took forever, but that was true of most point and shoots then. The new version looks like a needed upgrade. The one thing I did like about it was the swivel screen, but I’ve had some problems with the catch button that turns the screen on when you pop it out. The new fixed screen looks larger. It took great macro shots, and I hope it still has that capability.
If the read/write times are fast then it should be fine. I see they changed to a sd card now.
Will be interested to here reports on the new one.
Scott
I,ve been using Moly Grease ( left over from my slot car racing days:)). Nice and light . My reels are mainly click and pawl English and Redington AS and AL “s
Will
Hi
Ty -glad you enjoyed them- cam is a now discontinued Sony DSCR1- APS size sensor with a Zeiss lens 10.3 mpixel cam.
Hi
It may depend on what kind of Sturgeon you have White or Lake.
On the Canadian west coast the White’s feed on the post salmon spawn carnage/debris and the Smelt run. From what I understand Whites are far more aggressive than Lake Sturg.
I,ve talked with some of the folks out there . From what I,ve been told there is a very definate pecking order in pool alignment/placement- big fish having the prime spots( nothing new there:), but it does make a difference on how a holding spot/pool is fished.
Lake Sturgeon is what we have here. Big gobs of worms is the bait of choice. Here they are found in numbers below Hydro Dam Tailwaters re- big flows /heavy current. From talking to the folks who know- a couple of feet either way off the feeding lane = no action.
Both the West Coast Whites and the local Lake Sturg. are being chased with big weight( 2-6 and ++++oz ) rigs.
Bit of a fly fishing challenge, to find a system that would gain entry:))
Will
Dunbar Creek! I spent quite a few days on that creek when I should have been in class! Definitely a fun little freestoner to run to for a day trip. It’s a shame that the locals have turned some of the areas into what seems like a circus.
“Opening Day” is truly a spectacle here in PA…where else can you hear commercials on the radio talking about stocking up opening day of trout season? Thanks to the special regs areas and steelhead fishing, trout season never truly closes. But the second Saturday in April is definitely steeped in tradition and sometimes total chaos. I’m off to Ohio for the last hurrah of steelhead season, and to escape the madness here.
Good luck, and don’t forget to take the little ones along!
Hi
Eric- I agree on the “grip and grin” being tired . I’ll preface all that is to come with- I have no where near the experience or skill of
Zach. Have not seen that particular pattern, but it sure looks like a modified stimulator to me :-). There seem to be quite a few foam bodied stonefly patterns that are take offs of other flies.
We currently have a giant black stonefly hatch coming off on the White. The cold spell has killed it but it should last for the rest of April. Unfortunately, they do not come off in the number the western species do. But the fish are aware of them.
