Check your fly

[jsmartt]

In a recent topic Castwell confessed to having fished for a great while with a white fly that produced no fish and then discovering that the end of the hook had been broke off earlier. This confirms the notion of check your fly. I, like all experienced fly fishermen can verify the value of this addage. When I find The fish have suddenly stopped biting or I just can't seem to hook them I've learned to check the fly. Almost invariably there is something wrong with the fly - its been wound up in a knot, missing, the hooks end is broken, or its just mangled beyond recognition. I'm sure most of you figured this out more quickly than I did but eventually I did catch on.

[Big Bad Wulff]

Been there, done that.
Had many hits on a fly and didn't get any fish hooked up. I took a look at the fly and the tippet had wrapped around the barb(one I didn't mash down), effectively making a "weedless loop".

[jimsnarocks]

I once fished an elk hair caddis in the lower Owens missing fish after fish. Yep. When I checked it the hook was gone. Probably left it in a branch. Jim

[featherbender32]

I have a funny story about this.

My dad and I were fishing a lake in Colorado one day, and after a few minutes of fishing, my dad realized that he no longer had a fly on the his leader. Tied a new one on and didn't think about it. Then later that night around that camp fire he took his hat off and to his surprise found they fly he lost hooked into the back of the hat, just above the opening.

[fcch]

Had a friend NOT check his fly once and probably still regrets it !!

http://www.flyanglersonline.com/feat...ada/can386.php

[SteveGibson]

I was fishing bedding bluegill on a lake near my house, catching fish on most every cast. I was using a No. 10 white popper and all you had to do was cast it out, pop it once and you'd have a fish.

But I started missing fish. I missed 12 in row before it dawned on me to check the fly. The hook had broken off.

[FishnDave]

A buddy of mine was in a boat spin-fishing with 2 other guys for bass. My buddy loaned a lure to the guy in the middle of the boat. He had a number of good hits, but couldn't hook up with any of them. At the end of the day, the guy took the lure off his line and handed it back to my buddy.
When my buddy looked down at the lure now in his hand, he saw that there was a chunk of wood firmly planted on the point of the hook.

[rockthief]

get lazy about checking my fly and knots. Of course that is when THE fish of the day...
Paul



"aka gardenfish"

[dudley]

On a local river there's a concrete wheelchair ramp that leads down to a very popular, heavily stocked, "fly fish only" pool
Along the ramp there's some low wooden 'guardrails' to keep wheelchairs upright.
On any given day, you can run your hand along these 'guardrails' and find yourself a half-a-dozen flies

[Mato Kuwapi]

Then there's cheap hooks. I had a whole series of flies tied on a particular brand hook I was testing. A couple of shops here had been selling them in place of my favorite Mustads.

Some broke in the vice. (first clue). On the river, the hooks would break just casting them. Some on fish. Tap a rock and kiss it good bye. The whole hook bend would break off or the eye would break off. Talk about crrrrrrap.

Needless to say I stick with the name brands I know and love. No more "try our new economy hooks".