How to get your fly out of a tree

[afishinado]

I never saw this tip before. I plan to give it a try next time I've snagged a tree branch.

 

[UncleShorty]

I was 36 years old before I figured out that getting your fly stuck in a tree WASN'T the object of fly fishin'...

 

[Bamboozle]

That tip works a lot better when you lazily snag your fly intentionally on a forward cast.

It's the same as accidentally throwing a lure in a tree in front of you. If you DON'T pull hard, you can almost always get it free.

The problem with fly fishing is you most often discover you are snagged when you try and pick-up or you get snagged on a backcast and discover your error when you attempt a foreword cast.

When that happens, you DO end up pulling your fly and leader tight and things get a whole lot more complicated than just shaking it free.

That's when a Swiss Army knife with a saw blade comes in handy. ;-)

 

[just_jon]

Orvis used to make a device for retrieving flies from trees. It consisted of a plastic coated metal hook velcroed to a 3 inch piece of hard plastic tubing closed on one end The tubing was attached to 10’ or so of paracord. Object was to put the tubing over the tip of your fly rod and catch the hook on the offending tree branch, then pull the rope to bring the branch into reach.

 

[Bamboozle]

There was one made way before that which was all metal with a cutting blade and a small protrusion you were supposed to put through the tip top of your rod to hold it.

I carried one around for years but hardly used it. The problem was it had a tendency to fall off your rod as you tried to get it up to the branch, the cord to pull the branch down or cut it was always a foot too short and the cutting edge sucked so it never cut.

Of course you also could break a rod tip trying to retrieve a fly...

I hate losing flies to my own stupidity so I get a bit obsessed and go out of my way to retrieve them. Sometimes what works best is instead of pulling on the leader, see if you can get your fly LINE over the offending branch and pull a loop of fly line and the branch down far enough to grab.

I've seen others turn the rod around and use the reel to pull a branch down.

I'm not kidding when I say I use the saw blade on my Swiss Army more than anything...

 

[Biggie]

I used to turn the rod around and use the reel to pull down the offending branch, then I broke the tip off my switch rod doing that and decided the fly wasn't worth it. :O

 

[Dave_W]

I have a makeshift hook on my wading staff I can use to pull down tree branches (see recent thread on wading staffs).

 

[troutbert]

You can easily make a "hook" from a tree branch.

Start with a tree branch that is long enough to reach the limb you want to pull down.

Break off all the twigs flush with the branch, except for the twig closest to the thick end of the branch. Break that off at a length of about 2 inches or so. That's the "hook."

You hold the branch by the skinny end and extend it up and hook the limb and pull it down. Usually you don't to pull it down very far, before you can grab the end of it with your hands, and pull it down further that way.

 

[salvelinusfontinalis]

Great video.
The guy sounds like Hank P.

Also the opening, the river some reason looks like the Casselman to me.

 

[JackM]

I looked for a video to demonstrate how to climb a tree, but could not find one to match my technique.

I learned to climb a tree to get away from bear. This also taught me how to jump from a tree.

 

[rrt]

Since I lose a whole lot of flies in trees, I think I'll give this a try next time. Even if it works only a few times out of ten, it's still better than losing the fly, which is what I often do.

 

[afishinado]

OR THIS >

 

[Baron]

hilarious