Dry fly fishing

[Deleted]

Hi All,

Had a great day on the Dee yesterday plenty of takes but missed more fish than I hooked. I have a Iwana 12ft 6:4 fishing a klinkhammer size 14. Not really complaining as one fish landed was around the 2lb mark.Could anyone advise as to the best way to strike into a fish to improve my catch rate or would a 7:3 rod help.

[paul1966]

Hello Redtag, I wouldn't lose too much sleep over it, I had a couple of outings last week were I seemed to miss 90% of the fish that came to the fly. I went through the fly box tried fluoro, delayed the strike speed ed up the strike, it was driving me insane.

The last trip out I landed 15 plus wild brownies on the river using 4lb mono and didn't change the fly all day. I think a lot depends on how aggressive the fish are on a particular day. Due to who knows what. That's why we keep coming back for more, we'd get board if it got too easy.

[custheyder]

Give the fish a chance to turn back down with the fly. That's the only advise I can give. There are times when a fish will splash at a fly to sink it before they takes it properly. When the fish are playing that game you'll feel you miss a lot of takes, but in actual fact they never actually took it.... that's how I console my ineptitude with a dry fly on occasion!

The last session on Laxey was a bit like that. Splash at the fly, but no connection.

[leckie]

redtag,

The Dee has a fantastic reputation for trout fishing...how lucky are you I have both the Iwana and the Yamame rods and I think I would fish with the Yamame on the Dee just because of the size of the fish that are in it...as far as hook ups are concerned..I've had the same type of day with both rods...one day you can have seven rises to your fly and catch seven fish (I've a long memory) and other days you might just land the one. Keep plugging away with the Iwana...rather than a 7:3 action you might consider trying a longer 14' rod.... I'm not suggesting that you go and spend more money on another rod...but the Dee is a big river and a longer rod might improve hook ups...it's something I'm considering for the future.

tight lines

Alex

[Deleted]

thanks for replies was hoping there was a simple solution with the Tenkara rods.Will keep trying. With regard to Dee trout try Llanderfell it is stocked by the local angling club Well worth a visit.

[Deleted]

One of the reasons I switched to barbless hooks was that I found with a light strike quite often the hook wouldn't penetrate past the barb and I'd lose the fish, this is more evident with small fish that don't carry self hooking weight. Since making this change I've missed far fewer strikes, I can strike light even on smaller fish and I don't lose any more through the use of barbless....fine wire hooks are alse better I find.

If you're using barbed hooks it might we worth trying barbless fine wire hooks and compare results.

I've never use a tenkara rod yet but from what I hear they are very light and flexible, perhaps they don't have the same strike power, I don't know

All just guess work

[Deleted]

It's early days for me with the T rod, but so far so good. I've had two sessions on dries and have connected with every fish. No fish bumped. I use barbless hooks and never strike. I just lift the rod. I think the long rod and short(ish) line will give all the power you need to set the hook without having to pull the fly out of it's mouth.

Are you feeling the fish at all when you strike ? If not, the fish may just be slapping at the flies.

Keep at it and good luck !

[Deleted]

Hi Red Tag I used to have the same trouble that you experienced, missing seemingly good rises, but by experimenting I found that fish willmcome up for a fly and just splash at it with no intention of taking properly.
I have found out that by going down a size or two can solve this problem, so if you start on a 14 go down to a 16 or 18, also take into account that fish seem to like smaller flies than bigger, except in early season when the LDO are hatching.
Regards Ian.R