Striking Saltwater Fish (17 of 21)
Video Transcript:
Speaker 1: In saltwater, it's important to avoid raising the rod tip to
strike. This gives you a bad hooking angle plus if the fish
misses the fly, you don't want to launch your fly into the air.
Instead, try to always strip strike. Which is basically, just
making a long strip. If you miss the fish, it might jump on the
fly again and if you hook the fish, once it's tight to the fly,
then you can raise your rod too. A good rule of thumb is to
never strike until you feel the weight of the fish. Give it a
long strip and then raise the rod tip. Let's hear how my friend,
veteran bone fish guy, Jason Franklin of H2O Outfitters
describes it.
Jason: One of the reasons that you need to always have the rod tip in the water and your arms extended is firstly, you want to cut down on line noise. Secondly, if you have it up, it's going to be blowing in the wind and also it puts a slack in the line. And what you really don't want is slack. You want to be able to feel that fish when it eats the fly. One of the other things, certainly, with bone fishing, is not only is the strip important, the strips as much about how the guide wants you to strip but the way your rod trip is when you are striping.
One of the things a lot of people do, certainly from a trouting background, is when they strip, they strip to the side. And what happens is again if the fish eats the fly, it's just going to bend the rod and pull the fly out of his mouth. So, it's always very important. Certainly in bone fishing and in saltwater is to always keep the rod tip pointing exactly at the fly all of the time. One of the key things to presenting to saltwater fish, specifically bone fishing, is that when you strip, what a lot of people do and in saltwater we call this trouting is that when they feel the fish, they lift.
In saltwater, you don't want to do that. It's pretty much guarantees that you're not going to catch the fish. What you need to do in saltwater is what we call a strip strike. So you present the fish. Strip. Strip. Notice the rod tip's in the water. Strip. Feel the fish, once you feel the fish, then you lift; and by the strip, you're normally setting the hook.
Jason: One of the reasons that you need to always have the rod tip in the water and your arms extended is firstly, you want to cut down on line noise. Secondly, if you have it up, it's going to be blowing in the wind and also it puts a slack in the line. And what you really don't want is slack. You want to be able to feel that fish when it eats the fly. One of the other things, certainly, with bone fishing, is not only is the strip important, the strips as much about how the guide wants you to strip but the way your rod trip is when you are striping.
One of the things a lot of people do, certainly from a trouting background, is when they strip, they strip to the side. And what happens is again if the fish eats the fly, it's just going to bend the rod and pull the fly out of his mouth. So, it's always very important. Certainly in bone fishing and in saltwater is to always keep the rod tip pointing exactly at the fly all of the time. One of the key things to presenting to saltwater fish, specifically bone fishing, is that when you strip, what a lot of people do and in saltwater we call this trouting is that when they feel the fish, they lift.
In saltwater, you don't want to do that. It's pretty much guarantees that you're not going to catch the fish. What you need to do in saltwater is what we call a strip strike. So you present the fish. Strip. Strip. Notice the rod tip's in the water. Strip. Feel the fish, once you feel the fish, then you lift; and by the strip, you're normally setting the hook.
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