“She leaks a little.” The woman on a fishing party told me. “It scares me
when I hear that pump come on.” I told her, “Lady, it scares me to death
when I don’t hear it come on!” --Anonymous Chesapeake Bay charter captain.
So it’s kind of like that for saltwater fly-fishing. Maybe you can cast ninety-plus
feet and into the backing. If you can’t retrieve you might as well go home.
Retrieving is everything in fly-fishing. It is more important than the cast, but the
cast is also important. Let’s assume you’ve picked out your target, made your
cast, and are now ready to strip (retrieve the line) and hook up a fish. How you
start the retrieve is the key to success. Remember we want to present the fly
as quietly as possible.
After the fly lands on the water, wait a couple of seconds or longer. It doesn’t
matter if you are using a sinking or floating pattern. Allow the fly to settle on the
water before you start the first strip. A fly’s movement can be more significant
than the pattern itself. You can make a fly come alive, look injured, or dead
depending on the rate of retrieve. Think about what bait the fly is imitating
and adjust your retrieve for it.
Baitfish move quickly, pause, shoot forward, then spin around in a darting motion.
Their movements are erratic. For most baitfish patterns use a stop and go action,
pausing between strips and allowing the fly to sink, or in the case of a top-water
fly allowing it to settle again.
Try strips of different lengths. My favorite strip method is doing constant but
short three-inch strips. I achieve this by putting the butt of the rod into my gut
and stripping the line in a downward motion. If a large predator hits the fly I can
set the hook by moving the rod to the side. This stripping action works well for
bottom feeding fish like Redfish, Black Drum, Flounder or Spotted Sea Trout.
The action emulates a short hopping motion, similar to a shrimp moving along
the bottom. I would work a crab fly in the same way. Crabs move at angle
off the bottom and then settle back to the bottom. Pull the crab fly off the
bottom and then let it settle back down again.
A slow retrieve usually works well at night, in fast water, in colder water, and in
discolored water. Use a faster retrieve in daylight or in slow moving water or
clear water. If you are in a situation were baitfish are being pushed hard, usually
reminiscent of a school of Jacks, the retrieve needs to be fast and furious. Again,
with the butt of the rod against your stomach or under your arm, you can double
strip with both hands. Jacks like fast moving bait.
So another way to think about the retrieve is to understand what fish are eating.
Those fish that eat shrimp, crabs and sea worms are after bait that waits for them.
You need to get their attention and a short stripping action will do this nicely. Faster
stripping action, strips of up to 24-inches at a time, would be good for predators like
blues, mackerel, kings, wahoo, cobia, albacore, jacks, sharks, and other game fish
higher on the food chain. You’ll hear guides saying, “strip, strip, strip, strip, faster,
strip, strip.”
Let’s take a look at the Florida fish groups and discuss the stripping action for each
group. Here’s another addition for your library. Pick up a copy of Vic Dunaway’s
book on Sport Fish of Florida.
Originally published c. 2004 on Fly Anglers Online by Capt. Douglas Sinclair.