After a recent fly-fishing trip one of our guys came up to me with concerns of his last outing on the water. He was trying to figure out why he had a poor day on the water catching and others were doing much better. Like all of us should do, he sat down, gathered his thoughts and wrote down what he felt were his mistakes. Becoming a good fly fisher takes more than basking in your success. It’s more about dissecting your failures and learning from them.  My next blog will be on this exact subject.  But for now, please read this short article and see if you see a little of yourself. 

 

My last trip to Maramec Spring was a pivotal learning experience.  I saw some guys catching a lot of fish and some of us catching relatively few.  I was part of the latter group.  I acknowledge I am still young in this sport.  But, upon self-reflection, I realized I had been making one mistake after another, even for a beginner.  The next morning, I began a self-critique with the goal of increasing my success going forward.  What follows is my summary.  Some of these mistakes I committed on that last trip, but then I began to recall mistakes from previous trips.   Do any of these sound familiar?

 

• Don’t be lazy with your leaders, tippets, or knots.
  • You know that feeling. You get the pull, the fight begins, then suddenly…nothing.  No, seriously, nothing because your fly is gone.  Maybe your whole nymph rig is gone including the tippet ring.  Worst of all, you lost the fish you worked so hard to trick.  But why?  Then you remember.  You had one of those doubts that flashed through your mind when you tied that last knot or when you noticed your leader didn’t look right on the last cast.  It is difficult to tie those little knots, especially when it is cold.  On those days it is easy to fall prey to the “Close enough for government work” rationalization.  (It’s ok for me to say that; I worked for the government.)  Well, I have learned too often (just yesterday, in fact) that I should have heeded those doubts at the time they flashed in my mind.  Case in point, there were only 20 minutes before the siren would send me off for pizza in St. James.  As I walked to the last piece of water I would fish that day, I got a tangle in my tippet.  It took me about five precious minutes to untangle it. Once all the loops and twists finally unwound, I was ready to fish.  But wait, there was one more knot.  Just a tiny little overhand knot in my 5x tippet.  It was too tight to untie.  I thought, “What the heck, I am down to the last few minutes.  If I do catch a fish I will play it softly.”  You guessed it.  I paid the price for being lazy.  It would have only taken two minutes to tie on fresh tippet.  On the second drift, a fish slammed my fly and instantly broke the tippet precisely at the tiny little knot.  Dah!
  • And what about those poorly tied knots. There are times when you are tired, cold, or just feeling impatient because everyone else is fishing and you are still standing on the shore tying knots.  You scold yourself by asking, “Are you here to fish or tie knots?”  Been there.  So, you finish that knot and you think, “That knot doesn’t look quite right, but I think it’s OK.”  You let it slide because you are cold or just want to get your line back in the water ASAP.   Then you finally get a take.  But, all you get to reel in is a little curly at the end of your line and a whole net full of nothing.   If you are going to tie a knot, make sure it is a good one.  Questionable knots are bad knots.

 

• First Cast Whether you just tied on a new fly or are adjusting to target a new lie, make the first cast count.  Let me explain.
  • It seems if a fish is going to take your presentation, it will be in the first few casts. In my experience, the odds of a take decline with every subsequent cast.  The more you work an area, the more likely you are to spook fish with your line, indicator, or just your presence.  So, on that first cast, be sure you have enough line out to get a good drift or make the distance to hit your target.  Too often I catch myself making a sloppy first cast just to get some line off my reel in preparation for my next cast.  That results in a drift with significant drag or it drifts/swings nowhere near my target.  At that point I am just spooking fish and now I have little likelihood of a take.
  • When I do remember to make the first cast count, I also try to remember this. If I want my fly to pass through a specific spot I think holds fish, I have to ensure my cast is well up stream of my target.   This avoids spooking a fish with my line or indicator, and it allows the fly to attain my planned depth or swing.  Plan ahead.
  • I have one more mistake that I usually make on my first cast. I fail to mentally create an attack strategy for the water I am about to work.  Here’s what I mean.
  • I will walk up to a new stretch of water and immediately pick out what I think is the prime target for that area. More often than not, it is midstream or along the distant shoreline.  So, what is wrong with working the prime spot first?  That causes me to overlook perfectly good secondary target water between that prime target and me.  That secondary target could be the tail-out riffle from a deep pool or a medium-to-small boulder creating a current break for a feeding trout.  These are all places you would fish if the “prime” target wasn’t there, right?  Well, if my first cast to the “prime” target is over these secondary potential spots, I probably just spooked any fish in those secondary spots.  I should have strategically fished those “secondary” spots first.

 

• Believe – This has been my biggest stumbling block.  Kenny always says, “Hook sets are free.”   I hate to think of how many fish I have lost on the last three trips because when my indicator had that “snagged” look I didn’t immediately react with a firm hook set.  Instead, I would give it a little tug to dislodge it from its “snag” only to feel that unmistakable pulsating shake of a trout trying to spit that hook.  After the shake, I might even get to see the flash of its silver belly before it returns to its lie.  If the indicator moves, BELIEVE.  Set the hook!

 

• Listen to your gut.
  • This last story proves that I was right, much to my chagrin. When a little voice tells you to do something, do it now!  I was standing across from Dave Beerbower as we were both dead drifting flies in the current between us.  As my indicator floated past from my upstream cast, I thought, “Jim, you have too much slack in that line.  If you get a take, the slack will prevent a good hook set.  Yep, I was right.  In the time it would have taken me to strip in the slack (maybe 2 seconds) I got a take.   He was gone as soon as I tried to set the hook.   I should have listened to my gut and acted.
  • And what about other times when your gut speaks to you. Has your gut ever asked you, “How close are those trees behind you?” “ Why are you fishing subsurface when you see fish sipping?” “Is my dead drift really a DEAD drift?” “Are you fishing deep enough?”  “If you take one more step into that strong current, can you safely get back to shore?” “Why don’t you ask that guy whose catching fish what he is using?”

 

So there you have it.  I shared my top faux pas, as I see them.  There are probably many more.   Sometimes improvement requires that we be our own best critic.  That is my hope for me and you.  See you on the water!