Missing takes on a streamer?

I had my introduction to warm water fishing this past week. We were on Grand Isle in Vermont on Lake Champlain for family vacation and I built my first rod on Monday - a nice little two weight - which I fished on and off between thunderstorms the rest of the week. Overall I had a great time catching innumerous yellow perch, rock bass and smallmouth. What they lacked in size they made up for in sheer numbers.

Anyway, some of my fishing was on the surface with mayflies (incredible numbers of naturals by the way) and small panfish poppers, but most was subsurface with streamers. Most of the time I used clouser minnows and dark wooly buggers. As I fished the streamers I would strip them in short quick strips with about a one second pause between strips. I would note a take when I felt resistance during the strip, but often as the streamer would get close and visible I noticed that fish would take the fly during the "rest" between strips when the fly was sinking. However, since the line was slack at that point I couldn't feel anything and didn't notice a particular movement of the fly line. Many of the takes were very very quick with the fish spitting the fly almost immediately after taking it.

Sooooooo....

I'm left wondering if I possibly missed more fish than I actually caught. Has anyone else noticed this? If so, how do you compensate for it if at all? As a warm water (lake/pond) newbie I'm still learning. I've used streamers in moving water for years, but the movement of the water usually keeps me in contact with the fly at all times. I'm sure I'm missing something on still water.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Gracias.

Ed

Ed,

I suspect that we all miss many more fish than we realize, especially when fishing subsurface. I fish a lot or warm water. When the conditions are right, I can often see the bass take the streamer. Just like you mentioned, when the fly stops forward movement and starts to slowly sink, they slide up to the fly and inhale it. Unfortunately, all to often they exhale it again just as quickly. It would take amazing reflexes to catch these fish as it's usually over before you've actually registered what happened. I use an un-weighted chartreuse over white pattern that I can see fairly well in the water. I can't count the number of times I've seen the fly simply disappear almost like a light that has been switched off. I can't see the fish, but I know that it's there and that it has inhaled the fly. I've trained myself to immediately strip strike when the fly suddenly disappears. The number of fish I catch has dramatically increased. If I were to hazard a guess, I'll bet we are unaware of at least 50% of the takes when we fish subsurface.

Jim Smith

I agree with Jim there. Just ain't nothing you can do about sometimes. Best bet is to move the fly with extremely slow and long strips. As slow as you can stand it without hanging up on the bottom. Slow and steady. You will either feel heaviness or pecking on the line and there they are, but you'll still miss a lot. Depending on how deep the place is you can even count to about 5-10 then as you retrieve it it will rise slowly as you pull it. Bass like to chase but gills love to hit it on the pause. Hope that helps.
HOSS

Sharpen your hook, shorten your pause, and sharpen your hook.

Amen to the hook sharpening.

Sometimes, in the course of trying to outwit the fisheys, those scoundrelly critters will come along and just "bump" your streamer ... kind of just testing your patience; and maybe extracting a little revenge for some of their friends that you've caught in the past.:D

Tis true tis true. Well said sir.

Has anybody mentioned sharpening the hook? Can't overemphasize having a sharp hook. Sharp.

Seems like I read somewhere to sharpen your hook - is that even for a new hook? Are they not as sharp as they could be right out of the package? Or just every now and then after you've been fishing?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by herefishy

Seems like I read somewhere to sharpen your hook - is that even for a new hook? Are they not as sharp as they could be right out of the package? Or just every now and then after you've been fishing?

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Harry Murray is a big proponent of hook sharpening, he recommends sharpening every 15 minutes of fishing. He sells a small triangular file on his site. I found one in a local hardware store also, I think it was $9. I keep it in my sling pack and if I am missing strikes that is the first thing I do. Harry says to slide the file over the hook on three sides, the bottom, and the two sides as close to the fly as possible to give it a triangular point. I have a metal file on my leatherman, but it doesn't do the trick like this little file, it really cuts the metal and gives a sharp point fast. I stuck a wine cork over the end so when (not if) I drop it I may be able to save it. It just takes a couple seconds... http://catalog.murraysflyshop.com/co...harpening-file

Quote:

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Originally Posted by herefishy

Seems like I read somewhere to sharpen your hook - is that even for a new hook? Are they not as sharp as they could be right out of the package? Or just every now and then after you've been fishing?

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In answer to your question: yes.

I sold Cutco for about 15 minutes and got a knife called the "Fishermen's Solution" that has a hook whetstone on it. I saw a Lefty Kreh video once that said if you try to drag the hook across your thumbnail and it doesn't stick, it's not sharp enough. Quick and easy test. Sharpening takes all of three passes from three angles, like pill mentioned.

Thanks all. Lots of good information there. I get the impression that sharpening the hook would be a good idea. :)

Sometimes a fish will hit the tail to immobilize the bait fish. adding a small stinger hook at the tail of the fly helps. Just look at the New England patterns with double hooks. The old ones knew.

It also helps to keep your rod tip pointed at the fly and low...even just breaking the surface of the water! Keep you stripping hand in contact with the flyline at ALL times and learn to "slip-(or strip) strike" with a sharp, quick pull of the line toward you. When the line tightens or straightens, slip strike, then raise the rod swiftly in the horizontal plane. Do this, and you will have more hook-ups! Oh, yeah, and keep your hooks sharp:D

aa

Quote:

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Originally Posted by appalachian angler

It also helps to keep your rod tip pointed at the fly and low...even just breaking the surface of the water! Keep you stripping hand in contact with the flyline at ALL times and learn to "slip-(or strip) strike" with a sharp, quick pull of the line toward you. When the line tightens or straightens, slip strike, then raise the rod swiftly in the horizontal plane. Do this, and you will have more hook-ups! Oh, yeah, and keep your hooks sharp:D

aa

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I fish streamers a lot. You are never going to hook or feel every pick up but you can get pretty good at detecting and hooking most of them.

I second the above quote as well as keeping your hooks razor sharp.

The key is to keep tight with your fly even if you aren't actively stripping and trying to retrieve it in. Use the tip of the rod to keep tension on the line when you are in between strips. Don't just hold the rod still; think of it as an extension of you arm that you use to follow and tend your fly and flyline with. While following the fly/ flyline with the rod tip try and keep the tip of the rod right at the surface of the water. Keeping the rod tip even an inch above the water will create a small belly in the line in between strips that is actually slack and preventing you from keeping tight and feeling your fly. Once you get the hang of it you can learn how to keep tension and feel on a streamer while you are dead drifting it like a nymph.

Watch your line like a hawk. Any twitches, movements, or pauses where there shouldn't be any are most likely a fish picking up your fly. Strip strike at everything that could be potentially be a fish. You will be surprised at how many times it is versus it isn't.

If I leave to go fishing without a file I will turn around to get it or buy a new one before I get to the water. When I am fishing hard my thumbnails are usually chewed up because I am always testing my hooks on it. The bones in a fishes mouth are made from the same material you fingernails are. If your hook won't grab your nail then there is a good chance it won't grab into a fishes mouth. If it grabs and sinks into the thumbnail with only the weight of the hook then it is sharp, if It doesn't get the file out. Every time you catch a fish check the point, every time you grab bottom check the point, every time you suspect you fly has touched anything other than water or air check the point. It doesn't take much to fold over a really sharp point. When you take new hooks out of the package, check the point. Some are sharp and some aren't. I have had different hooks from the same package where some needed sharpening and some didn't. I like a long four sided point versus a short three sided one. For me it is a little easier to do on the water and it takes away more metal from the hook shaft keeping the point thinner and easier to sink into harder parts of the fishes mouth.

I can go on and on about this but I will leave it at this. Learning to really fish and get the most out of a streamer can be a lot of fun.

I learned a little trick that works for me that helps to detect those strikes you can't feel. When I was fishing for crappies using sinking and retrieving the line using the hand twist method I was noticing how the line would tighten when I took in some line and then go slack as the fly moved forward so the rhythm was tighten, slack, tighten, slack, etc. Whenever the line didn't go slack as usual I did a strip strike and usually it was because a crappie took the fly.
But really it seems like some people have ESP when it comes to detecting strikes probably as a result of having much sharper vision, more sensitive touch and quicker reflexes than I have.