Friday, 12 April 2013
Perhaps like me you have your own rituals and tricks that give you that slight edge to catch more fish than others. For some, this is as simple as wearing your lucky shirt, or having the right fly, or the right tippet, or the right rod, etc, etc, etc.
Please allow me to share a few of my tricks on the saltwater and freshwater side. I will cover the saltwater tricks today, and the freshwater tricks in my article next week. My intention to share these with you to:
- Give you additional ideas to add to your arsenal of tricks
- Provoke your thinking to remember the tricks that you have, which you will in turn share with us all some time to boost our personal arsenals
From a saltwater perspective a few “tricks” which have worked well for me, apart from having the right tackle are:
- ALWAYS respect the sea
- Fish with multiple flies – often two, but sometimes three. I also differ from the norm of making the big fly chase the small fly, by reversing this order of flies.
- When searching a new venue for fish, fish around the rocks first
- Impart as much erratic action to the fly as possible
- Fish between the wave sets to always maintain contact with the fly
- Identify strike zones or feeding zones for fish and focus efforts on those areas
- When searching in rocky gullies, position searching casts 1m apart when covering the area. I have noticed while fishing and diving that fish sometime will not eat a fly when they are sitting in a current and the fly lands 1m away from them
- If fish are frequently following a popper and you cannot get a hook-up, then tie in a small baitfish pattern behind the popper about 30cm behind it, and almost always, that induces a hook-up
- When searching for fish in the surf zone, look area where waves are breaking. We know that waves break when the water become shallow. Often, there is a shoal of fish that is creating this shallowness
- Always wear rain pants when fishing in areas with blue bottles and jelly fish
- If wading, then as far as possible, I ensure that my stripping basket remains just above the water level. Occasional waves breaking into the basket is not a problem
- Knowing how to reverse casting is critical to ensure that you don’t hook yourself. Being a right handed caster, as a rigid rule I always ensure that I keep the wind on my left shoulder
- When fishing off a point into deep water, always let the fly just wash around the surface before you start the next cast. Often, a fish that was following deep and out of your site will hit it right there
- Always use a stripping basket
- Always protect your feet with good shoes on the rocks
- Last but not least, don’t laugh at your fishing mate when they hook themselves – its dangerous for your own health.
I am keen to hear some of your “tricks”, so please feel free to share as well and add to mine.
Tight lines and screaming reels.
Sudesh
