When should I strike when fishing for wild brown trout on stillwater ? somebody told me you should say wild brown trout before you strike ? what advice can you give me?

best advice is dont ask them any more questions

with dries quick is not fast enough, wets, lift when you feel it.

HI', Liath, and welcome to FFF.
If you see a trout roll forward and take the dry fly, just lift into it as soon as it disappears. You shouldn't miss a head and tail rise. TC

thanks for the advice , its amazing what advice you get on line! I got 2 fish the other day but lost 2 also and wondered if I am doing something wrong I am fairly new to the fishing,

I don't think there's a single answer to the question. It's easy to always assume you're too slow and resort to snap-striking, but IMO this isn't always the fix. Sometimes snap striking is too fast and you just end up pulling the fly away before the fish has a chance to turn.

When I find I'm missing fish that I think I should have had, I start by counting to two when I see or feel the strike. From there, add another number to the count until you get it dialed in.

It is possible you're behind them, but it's as likely you're too fast as it is too slow.

Grouse

I do not fish still waters so this may be irrelevant but...

When i first started, a chap i work with told me that when a trout rises to your fly you should say "god save the queen" before you lift... my experience dictates otherwise...

my reactions are much faster than my fishing buddys.... this manifests itself in me bringing to hand between 5 and 10 fish to his one.

This is in a river environment so it may be that the situation is different

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I have very limited experience compared to most on here, but here is my two pennies worth anyway.

On wets i have found after a few frustrating early sessions just to lift firmly into the fish as soon as the line starts to straighten or dart away.

Dries are the more problematic and it very much depends on the nature of the take. If the dry disappears out of sight without you actually seeing the fish, treat it as a wet and lift in. I am assuming this take is a "sip" from underneath and by the time the dry is out of sight the fish should be turning and either self hook or a lift will largely set the hook.

i think the hardest to hit are those where you actually see the fish break the surface to take the fly, as the temptation in the excitement is to strike. I found invariable this pulled the fly away from the fish, so i started watching my leader instead and striking when this straightened. More explosive takes lift immediately and hang on for dear life.

You won't hit them all but since i started doing the above I have converted far more takes.

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Around the steel no tortur'd worm shall twine,
No blood of living insect stain my line;
Let me, less cruel, cast feather'd hook,
With pliant rod athwart the pebbled brook,
Silent along the mazy margin stray,
And with fur-wrought fly delude the prey

You've go to remember that since you're fishing dries, you generally see all the offers you get an it can be frustrating that you only hook a certain percentage of them. When you fish sub surface, you can't see or feel all the offers so you don't know how good (or bad) your strike rate is compared to dries.

As other have already said, there's no hard and fast rule for this, but I find that if I strike and don't feel any resistance at all, I've probably struck too soon, if I do feel something then I've probably been too slow.

[QUOTE=ickypimp;442056]When i first started, a chap i work with told me that when a trout rises to your fly you should say "god save the queen" before you lift... my experience dictates otherwise...

sorry to hear that Mr.Pimp! if I had been at your side when you were a novice I would have adviced exactly this I fished for five years or so exclusively on welsh borders rivers and for the dry fly there is far more likelyhood of failure by striking too fast....so I appologise with hindsight

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an interesting mix of apathy and panic

Clive M

Liath, Wiremill's reply is about as brief as you can get and still say the important bits. I would add, more often than not, little wild trout in streams are fast on the take -- you don't usually get time to count; bigger trout, especially in slower water, take a little more time, and you may find that you will miss relatively few. The worst thing that can happen regarding upset timimg is when you see a trout come up through the water to take the fly --- hoooold on! It's worse when fishing a dry downstream to a visible trout, you usually just have to wait longer than when casting up. No rules carved in stone. TC