Setting The Hook (11 of 14)

A lot of newcomers to fly fishing have problems setting the hook. There are many times when trout refuse a fly because they change their minds at the last minute, which is called a refusal and looks like you missed a strike. There's nothing you can do in a case like that but try again. You want to reach a happy medium when you strike a trout. You want to be quick. Trout won't keep the fly in their mouth very long. You don't want to jerk the rod way over your head. You don't want to lift up like this. It's only enough to tighten the line. So think of a strike to a trout as just picking up to make another cast. It's really just enough to make that fly move, so about that much. When you set the hook, don't forget to pinch the line against the rod with your fingers to keep the line tight. Make sure that you don't have a lot of slack in your line. Otherwise you'll never be able to move the rod quick enough to set the hook. A trout can spit out a fly pretty quickly. When you do it just right, there's nothing like that feeling of a fish on the hook.