14. How to swing a soft hackle. (14 of 16)

- [Tom] One of the best ways to cover a lot of water is to swing a wet fly or a soft tackle. I had always just cast the wet fly across and down, mend it a couple times and then let it swing across the current. But there is a much better way to fish soft tackles. Here, guide BJ Gerhart of Three Rivers Ranch, teaches me how he fishes soft tackles.
I started out swinging soft tackles the way I usually do, swinging all the way across the current and just got a small fish. Then he taught me a much better way that presents the fly in a more natural manner.
- [BJ] So I do a lot of mending to keep it on the same line. I pick a specific water current. With constant mending, and then at the end I almost do a reverse roll cast, like flick line and I throw slack to where everything is now up river in that same lane.
And then, she runs perfectly straight, and then when actually you hold tight and point your rod that way, the line stays static in that current and raises everything up, and then will hold it. So to do the swing, is a roll cast to snap T, roll cast out to where it's straight out in front of you.
Give it a slight mend, wait until it gets 45 degrees, then throw line and mend out to keep it on the same line. Hold the rod out following the line and the leader, pointing the rod and holding tight. And then, once it goes down, mend it a little bit to the left, let it come down and hold the rod up slowly.
Drop it, another left and hold the rod up tight again. Oh, there's a better fish, I think.
- Yeah,
[crosstalk] line, there's good ones in here, big ones.
- Whoa.
- Yeah.
- Yeah. Hey, it works. Didn't look that big when he rolled there.
- They're hot. They are feisty...and fat. They're going to be, like, footballs right now.
- Okay. I think now, of course now he's out here.
- That's all right. I'll just chase him up.
- Here he comes.
- Pretty rainbow.
- Yeah.
- Purple haze.
- Purple haze. ♪ [music] ♪ - Whoa.