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