Today we present you with a simple tip that we’ve seen learned the hard way on, not one, but many heartbreaking occasions. When fishing for trout, particularly when fishing sub-surface flies from a drifting boat, most successful anglers agree that the most effective method of hooking fish on flies you can’t see is by setting…
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setting the hook
When Retrieving your Fly, Keep your Rod Pointed at the Fish.
One of my favorite parts about fishing with different guides is that they all teach you something unique. The end goal of catching the fish remains the same, but each guide has a different way of explaining something or a specific point that he feels is worth mentioning. On a recent trip to Bonefishing Paradise,…
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Timeless Tips: Swinging Flies – Don’t Block Your Hookset
In any avenue of fly fishing, one thing that separates successful anglers from not-so-successful anglers is complete, undivided, fully engaged, focus whenever your fly is in the water. Many fish are lost (or perhaps never hooked at all) from anglers who’s minds were wandering or whom were not expecting a fish to eat the fly in…
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Setting the Hook: No Windups
We’ve written a lot of posts on our blog over the years on properly setting the hook on everything from bonefish and permit to king salmon, steelhead, and trout. That’s because the brief moment following the instant a fish grabs a fly is arguably the most critical to eventually bringing the fish to hand. Depending…
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Set Towards the Tail
Today we address one of the most common mistakes we see made on the river; setting the hook in the wrong direction. When fishing in moving water, the direction in which your rod tip moves when lifting the rod to set the hook can be the difference between a fish that makes it to the…
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Timeless Tips: Point Your Rod at That Bonefish
We’ve gone on a few diatribes over the years about how to set the hook on a bonefish – here’s our most thorough post on the topic. One of the points that we stress the most (partly because we’re all guilty of screwing it up from time to time) is the importance of keeping your…
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8 Tips to a Better Strip Set
Executing a proper strip set is critical to success on the flats. However, contrary to popular belief, there’s more to an effective strip set than simply pulling on the fly line once the fish has taken the fly. Our good friend, Kyle Schaefer of Soul Fly Outfitters, spends his summers on the poling platform targeting…
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Setting the Hook: Strip Long, Not Hard
One the biggest hurdles most anglers encounter when making the jump from freshwater to saltwater fly fishing is how to set the hook. A strip-set gets the job done on the flats. Raising the rod in ‘trout-like’ fashion doesn’t. If you’re not quite sure what we’re talking about, not to worry, check out this post…
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Swinging Flies: How to Set the Hook – OPST Video
When swinging flies for king salmon and steelhead, we’d argue that more fish are lost due to a poor hook-set than at any other point during the fight. Unlike techniques associated with traditional upstream dry fly, nymphing, or even streamer fishing, swinging flies requires a different technique to effectively drive the hook home. How so…
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Trout Fishing: Hold On To Your Hook Set
Today we present you with a simple tip that we’ve seen learned the hard way on, not one, but many heartbreaking occasions. When fishing for trout, particularly when fishing sub-surface flies from a drifting boat, most successful anglers agree that the most effective method of hooking fish on flies you can’t see is by setting…
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