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You have been waiting for this for a long time. You have tied the fly carefully,
the leader is fine, your cast is just above the diminishing rings. Your dry fly floats
on it's toes over the exact spot, you lean a bit forward in anticipation of the rise.
Muscles tense, eyes focused, every fiber of your attention is riveted to the drift.
Then . . . Nothing. No rise, it just floats gently back toward you. With measured
precision the rod is lifted and redeployed, and again, nothing. No hits, no runs,
no errors.
In your mind you can visualize the trout may have moved a bit toward the bank,
or up-stream, or out a little, perhaps a bit back toward you. You re-cast, covering
all of the possible places. When without any warning 'splat,' the fish has hit and you
do the only natural thing. You rip it away from him!
You have to be really fast to jerk the fly from a trout that takes on a up-stream
cast; but you just did it . . . again. Hey, I've been there, we all have. I don't think
it is so much that I let my mind wander, it's more that I was all keyed-up and tense.
Reflexes did the rest. Kinda like when you put your hand up when a ball comes at
your face. Act now; think later stuff.
I use a little thing that works for me most of the time (if I remember to use it.) I talk
to myself, some thing like this. "Wait for the turn, wait for the turn, wait for the turn."
I do this all the time the fly is in the target area.
When a fish does 'take' and turns (down) I then just put some tension on the line.
The turn has set the hook in the corner of the mouth and rarely do I lose one. I did
this many times in S.D. on the recent trip. Especially when Al Campbell invited me
to come up to the top of a pool he and the Ladyfisher had been fishing because
there were two nice trout still rising. I sure wanted to catch them and not look silly
in the process; you know how that is.
By the way, this too. If you are letting your dry fly drift across and down, this really
works. Nothing worse than taking the fly out of the mouth of a trout that comes up
from down-stream and opens his mouth and you rip it right back before he can
even clamp down on it.
Anyhow, it looked easy. A few casts and I had released both; carried it off just
like I knew what I was doing. Al will never know I was using a little trick like
'Wait for the turn'. Heck, we all need a little 'edge' once in a while.
I want to also, with a bit of pride and a whole lot of honor, welcome our newest sponsor here on FAOL, Royal Wulff. They are a fine quality company, and the producers of the 'Triangle-Taper' fly lines, and several other products. If you have
not yet used, or purchased any of these, remember, 'Royal Wulff,' is supporting us; I am sure they would appreciate your support in return. Many of you know that for several years we have been using their lines for our demonstration casting
. For more information, go to the sponsors page and select
'Royal Wulff.' ~ JC
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