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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.
There are several reasons the two hand strip is very effective in salt water:
- Even though you can vary your speed with both methods, the two hand strip can really speed up the fly. It is an excellent method to use when speed is essential.
- The short strips, at a higher speed, look more natural. An injured baitfish does not make long runs, with a long pause, as a fast one handed retrieve would do, but rather short jerky runs.
- Most saltwater game fish hit the fly so hard; they set the hook themselves, but only if there is a reasonably tight line. With the two hand strip, one hand is on the line at all times and the rod is pointed directly at the fly; keeping an efficient straight line connection.
- With the rod pointed at the fly, and tucked under the arm, you will not have a tendency to “high stick” the fish as you would with trout. A full 2/3 of a fly rod is used for casting, with only the lower butt section of a rod used for fighting a large game fish. Keep the rod pointed right at the fish, and never let the rod get higher than your head. This will exert maximum pressure on the fish, shorten the fight, and lessen the chance of a lost fish. With an almost straight line between the reel and the fish, the drag is working at its most efficient configuration. You will be letting the drag efficiently do what it is designed to do.
Hooking and fighting your salt water game fish differs tremendously from hooking and fighting a trout. As mentioned in the previous paragraph, the fight should never see the rod above your head…but why? The larger the bend in the rod, the more energy is being absorbed by the rod.
By keeping the rod low and pointed right at the fish, you are utilizing the butt section of the rod to put pressure on the fish. You are now applying 6 to 7 pounds of pressure, which will wear out a fish a lot faster than ½ pound. And, for the hook set, your strip set can be as hard as you want. However, I have seen a good fly fishermen get a bit over zealous and break a quality 20 pound leader on a sailfish hook set. It sounded like a .22 rifle going off.
No single method for setting the hook for salt water game fish is cast in stone, because a lot depends on your comfort level and experience with different methods, and also on the type of fish or how he takes the fly, however the two above methods will work most of the time.
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