Dry Fly Trout Fishing

davidk11811

I've been fly fishing a bit lately and having lots of success with wet flys but when it comes to the dry, I can't hook them. I can rise trout easily and my presentation seems good but every time I strike theres no fish. How long should I wait before striking? Or should I just strike immediately, which is what I'm doing at the moment.

thehamo

davidk11811 wrote: »

I've been fly fishing a bit lately and having lots of success with wet flys but when it comes to the dry, I can't hook them. I can rise trout easily and my presentation seems good but every time I strike theres no fish. How long should I wait before striking? Or should I just strike immediately, which is what I'm doing at the moment.

General consensus is to wait a second before you strike, but it depends on the fish. On rivers like the dodder the fish are lightening quick and you would need to strike immediately

davidk11811

thehamo wrote: »

General consensus is to wait a second before you strike, but it depends on the fish. On rivers like the dodder the fish are lightening quick and you would need to strike immediately

Yeah, I'll try waiting longer but every time I see the fish rise I just strike without even thinking. I suppose it's just trial and error. It's frustrating since I missed the same fish five times today and ended up catching nothing all day.

Daroxtar

Dont strike too hard either or you'll just whip the fly straight out of the fishes mouth.

BoarHunter

are you fishing upstream or downstream ? the only fish i miss when dry fly fishing is when i fish the odd downstream cast.

davidk11811

BoarHunter wrote: »

are you fishing upstream or downstream ? the only fish i miss when dry fly fishing is when i fish the odd downstream cast.

Upstream in this situation.

premiercad

when i miss trout it tends to be one of two things

(A) striking too fast

Solution: Put in a deliberate pause after the take which as every fisherman knows is so hard to do.

(B) striking ok but with too much slack between trout and me which actually turns into striking too slow. By the time ive taken the slack up trout has spit the fly.

Solution: strip the slack line faster as the fly comes down to you and keep your rod tip high while the fly is covering the trout back to you this helps to cushion the strike.

bigger fish/slow/deep water = longer pause before strike.

smaller fish /shallow/fast water = less pause & faster strike

davidk11811

premiercad wrote: »

when i miss trout it tends to be one of two things

(A) striking too fast

Solution: Put in a deliberate pause after the take which as every fisherman knows is so hard to do.

(B) striking ok but with too much slack between trout and me which actually turns into striking too slow. By the time ive taken the slack up trout has spit the fly.

Solution: strip the slack line faster as the fly comes down to you and keep your rod tip high while the fly is covering the trout back to you this helps to cushion the strike.

bigger fish/slow/deep water = longer pause before strike.

smaller fish /shallow/fast water = less pause & faster strike

What you said about slack line makes alot of sense. I'll spend more time using the dry next time I'm out and I'll let ye know how I get on.

dvae

Sometimes a trout will tail a fly. This means the fish will come up and drown a fly with its tail or body before it actually takes the fly.
Sometimes its almost imposable to see if the fish has done this, so the general rule is to wait about two seconds before striking or lifting.
It seems a bit funny but, some anglers will time this by saying "God bless you" after they see the fly disappearing, before they strike.

BoarHunter

I usually have no problem hooking the fish and i strike straight away.

what hook size do you use ? I reckon if you use no bigger than 14 you shouldn't have any worry.

mind ( and you already know it ) you just need to lift the rod to hook the fish.

premiercad

Ya most wild brownies have probally been caught before so when they grab a fly and it dosent crunch they spit straight away. you should retreive the line as fast as you dare just shy of making it drag basically a move of your rod tip would move the fly. when you were wet fly fishing the line under the water would have naturally straightened and you woulld have had better contact with the fly.

davidk11811

Thanks for all the help guys! Only problem is some of ye are saying wait and others are saying strike immediately! Ah it's not an easy subject I suppose

experimenter

What I would do is head off to some stockie fishery and practice there, prior to hitting the rivers..

You will for sure catch more fish once you have mastered the timing.

Maybe allot of these fish take are actually the trout refusing to take your fly, and you think that you are actually missing them...

When you strike are you feeling resistance on the hook from the fish?

If you are having these problem, I would advise changing to a smaller size fly.

There are different types of takes, with a fast take I would strike immediately, if the take was a slow or a sip then I would pause and then strike.

Daroxtar

+1 on the small flies, trout in my experience often just suck them straight in and hook themselves for you. Stick on a size 16 or 18 on 2lb tippet and see what happens.

okedoke

premiercad wrote: »

bigger fish/slow/deep water = longer pause before strike.

smaller fish /shallow/fast water = less pause & faster strike

^ that's excatly what I try to do to.

davidk11811

That might be it, I never feel any resistance so maybe I've never hooked them in the first place. This was a size 16 fly I think. But on one occasion I saw the trout 6 foot in front of me come and take the fly into his mouth, I could see very clearly which made me think it was my striking that was off. I don't ever have any problem hooking rudd though! :rolleyes: