I've been frustrated recently with the amount of takes I've been missing on the dry fly,
I have no problem getting rises to my fly (the hard bit!) but somehow I keep failing to connect to any fish.I think that I may be striking to quickly,sometimes almost instantaneously.I know there is no solid rule concerning when to strike because it depends on many variables such as flow etc but when do you more successful anglers strike?How do you strike?When?When?


Any help would be greatly appreciated because it's maddening to miss so many takes!


Regards
Morgan

I could give you lessons in how to miss

Persevere, you will always miss some. Try delaying, try speeding up, eventually you will find what works. Bear in mind fish won't take the same way each time... Zoomer keeps telling me to slow down and smooth it out rather than a faster jerk, combine this along with a pull on the line with the left hand. I've yet to test this fairly, i get caught up in the moment and strike my way!

lift is a better word i think, i do it very gently, just tighten, its strange but you instinctively learn when, with a longer line it gets tricky because there is more slack in the line so when you lift your just taking up slack, got to illiminate pesky slack.

You have probably diagnosed your own problem, Morgan.

And it happens as you say, you miss a few takes, you get frustrated and start striking faster and harder. Then you miss more, so you redouble your efforts. . . It's far more difficult to sloooooow down, but IME that has almost always produce better results than trying to strike faster and harder.

This is an ironic bit of advice coming from an American, but a way to force yourself to slow down is to say, "God save the queen," before striking. Or you can count out loud, say "one, two, three," and add or subtract a number to get the timing right. I think the out loud part is important because saying it rather than thinking it really does force you to slow down.

Good advice from Zoomer, "lift" is almost certainly a better description than "strike" when we're talking about dries. Or wets or nymphs for that matter. Good advice.

Grouse

i have seen some real rod snapping strikes where 3piece rods become 4 and 5 piece rods and swimming fish become flying fish.

try and relax and just simply lift into the fish to set the hook.(not often I agree with you zoomer)

every day in fly fishing is different so some times a wait is required sometimes instant but not that the rod bends double.

main thing is chill and take it easy.

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Kevin

Ive found you have to wait for a few seconds on stillwaters and strike quite quick on my local river this took me a long time to figure out. lol

Faster than lightening is how i usually am............. and i'll be honest i rarely miss fish on the dry............ that applies for both Stillwaters and rivers............. now very very rarely i am faced with fish ' sinking ' the dry to take them subsurface, don't bother striking these just keep everything nice and tight, if your on hoppers/ daddies let the fish knock the fly under , leave it static, and if not then figure of 8 away or failing that try a long draw.

Thanks for all the help guys,really appreciate it!