[Grampa Spey]

Last week on the Yuba, I was not able to set the hook on a couple of fairly good strikes with a dry fly and my floating Mid Spey with my 7141.

I'm not talking about skating or waking a fly where the fly is down stream. The fish were striking stones ( I think) about 90 degrees to 70 degrees out and 55-65 feet from me. I was knee deep in the water with secure footing.

Once I stopped trying too hard to get a Yellow Simulator out to these hungry fish. I was able to drop the fly right into the foam line and got some good drag free drifts. I missed a couple of really good strikes during these drag free drifts. One right after the fly dropped and my mend. A couple of strikes happend on down stream about 15 to 20 feet from where the fly landed.

The fish never really had the fly. They just struck it or at it. By the time that I saw the strike and tried to set the hook, they were gone. I had about 50' of line out from the tip of the rod and an 11 to 12 foot leader.

Is there some technique to be able to convert these long distance top water hits into hooked fish?

 

[wildgene]

Not a perfect answer, but sweeping your rod downstream & behind you will give you a better shot a hooking up W/ a lot of line out. Pulls the fly towards the side of their mouth, while a straight lift pulls it away from the fish.
Good drifts,
Gene

 

[roballen]

The simple simple answer.. That's simply too far away to expect to hook them.. Ever been casting to a trout with a single hander that was rising 50-60 feet away??? It is just simply rare to hook a fish that far away on a dead drifted dry.