Swattie87 wrote:
ihrtffishing wrote:
what do you mean by stripping the fly? (again new to this)
I'm pretty new to the game too, but I just had my first what I'd call successful day (10 trout in about 3 hours) this past weekend...all were caught on small BH Buggers. I think what is meant by stripping the fly is imparting motion to the fly by "stripping" or pulling the line/fly in with your line hand. This helps keep slack out of the line and makes it easier to detect strikes. Line slack and poor line control was the main obstacle for me I think that was keeping me from catching fish. If you use the rod tip to twitch or move the fly, every time you do so slack is left in the line and since most times fish hit on the pause, you may be getting strikes but are unable to detect them because of the line slack. I didn't pick up on this until I visually saw a few strikes while twitching the fly with the rod tip in the current but failed to set the hook due to the aforementioned line slack that is created by the twitching. If you're using buggers and you know there's fish there I'd say it's more just about practicing your presentation a bit.
Cast the bugger slightly upstream of your target area and try to let it dead drift with as little slack in the line as possible (as best you can) through the area where you think a fish most likely is. Once it gets downstream of you let the fly line tighten in the current - this will make the fly swing across the current toward you. Once it gets almost immediately downstream of you strip it in toward you with pauses in between the strips. Just keep at it, the fish will come, probably all at once once day...it will just click.
I should add...I think that is one of the main advantages of a Woolly Bugger for a beginner...you get three chances on every cast to catch a fish:
1. Drift
2. Swing
3. Strip
Depending on the conditions that day, where the fish are located, and how active they are will determine which one to focus on for that stream and that day.
