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By Ed Kunze
Most fresh water fly fishermen use a one hand strip to finesse the fly on the retrieve. When the strike occurs, the wrist is flicked up with the rod tip exerting enough pressure to bury the small hook in the trout’s jaw. This works for a couple of reasons; a) the “high sticking” of the rod will quickly take any slack out of the line, and b) the small diameter wire of the small hook penetrates easily and does not need much force to get a solid hook set.
In salt water, with much larger hooks, and often much tougher jaws, other hook setting methods must be used. A bent rod is just absorbing energy. The more direct the connection from your hand to the fly, the more pure the form of energy being transmitted.
If you are more comfortable using a one handed strip to retrieve the line and consequently move the fly, then continue using this method. But, instead of “high sticking,” use the simple variation of extending your arms a little, while keeping the rod low and pointed right at the fly. Once the fish takes the fly, do a hard strip set, pulling all the line possible, even to extent of having your stripping arm extended out behind your body. If the set has not yet occurred, while firmly holding the fly line at the point you stopped the strip, quickly pull the rod butt straight back, and by then it should be a done deal. This method can be very effective when there is a little slack in the line or the fish is swimming back at you. An average sized person can recover about 5 to 6 feet of line and easily make an effective hook set. I can think of many times this method had advantages over other methods when a huge roosterfish kept coming towards the boat, just before he made his turn and spit the fly.
Helpful Hint: When the fly is in the water is not usually necessary to strip in line for a sailfish to attack a conventional fly, especially if the boat, even though it is in neutral, is still gliding forward. However, you must have a tight line in order to “feel” the fish the instant he takes the fly. Even though it may “look” like he has the fly, set the hook only after you can “feel” him. And then, set it fast and set it hard.
The two hand strip is probably the most preferred method for salt water fishing. Utilized and made popular by striper fishermen on the Eastern Seaboard of the U.S., it is basically placing the rod under your arm and just below the arm pit, pointing the rod tip directly at the fly, and using both hands to strip the fly line back for the retrieve.
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