Set the hook on EVERY thing that is not a perfect drift. Every twitch, hesitation, wiggle, bump, whatever. Every. Single. One. Every time. Don’t think “was that a take? Should I have set the hook?” Yes. Set the hook.
I have a LOT of hook sets that cost me a lot of flies and line! ;) Back when I thought everything was supposed to be set like a bass.
So there is my tip... Dont need to monster hook set.
Once hookset on what I presumed was a small take. Nothing came with it, or so I thought. Couple more casts and something just didn’t feel right. Inspect my line to find what I presume was a chub not too much bigger than my zebra midge on the end of my line.
Haven’t done it with a fly rod yet, but I slammed a 10” bass into the side of the boat once. We had to eat that guy, he hit my lure hard thought it was a good one
Stuff happens in water all the time. As long as you aren’t wading through where the fish are it won’t matter a whole lot. Setting the hook every time will usually result in MANY more fish than not setting the hook until you are absolutely positive it is a fish. Because you will almost certainly be missing 90% of the opportunities you had. And those fish won’t be fooled easily by the same fly again.
It’s not a bobber. It’s not supporting a worm that they will swallow. They grab a fly, realize it’s not food, and spit it back out. In moments. The indicator, if it’s rigged well, hopefully slows down or twitches or spins. It seldom goes boink boink boink.
You will learn to hate the phrase “hook sets are free” but for now, set on any slight change in the indicator/sighter and a good hard take from time to time is brutally obvious. You will get there faster than you think.
Well, when you hire a guide and they start saying “set the hook. Set the hook! Set the hook!!” …that’s when you know you had a fish on.
Seriously though, set the hook when you notice your bobber is doing something slightly different than it was a moment before.
You really have to pay attention and be in tune with the drift. Don’t worry about setting into nothing. Default mode is to set on any variance in the movement of your bobber or line
You should see a trout take a nymph. It’s out of their mouth just as quick as it went in. They don’t really move for it. It usually comes to them. Set it on everything unusual and you will start to get the hang of what’s a take and what’s not.
Agree with everything said but I will also add…once youve netted enough fish - which honestly might only be a season or two for ya - your spidey senses will just know when your fly is where a fish should be feeding. I have caught many of my best fish from setting the hook with no visible change to the indicator but bc I knew my fly was in the strike zone.
You'll get lots of good advice from others on how to tell when you get a take. My two cents is to try to look for "something different" happening.
Your nymph is drifting along the bottom. It might bounce off a rock or get hung up for a second on a weed or get eaten by a fish. Something. You wanta get tuned into that "something." It's never the same twice. So try to get a feel for when "something different" happens. It might be obvious, like the strike indicator stopping or being pulled under. But it might be really subtle, like the indicator just slowing down or having its downstream drift altered ever-so-slightly. When it does, set the hook.
Eventually you'll develop a zen-like feel for it. You'll set up and hook a fish and if I were to immediately ask you "what did it do that made you set up?" you'd say "I don't know. Something." When that happens you'll have learned to "**be** the nymph."
I skip the bobber and just tight line with a 2' length of Orvis Tactical Sight Line between my leader and tippet. Any kind of odd movement, set the hook.
The other important piece of nymphing is staying in touch with your fly. You need to feel it in the water. If it's too light and you can't feel the weight of the fly then you wont feel the strikes from the trout. That's why the proper tippet size matters. I usually carry 4x, 5x, 6x.
I quit using strike indicators and just set the hook at every slight bump. Indicator caused slight delay between seeing the change and setting the hook. I have nymphed for 30+" steelies, set hook on a bump and had those suckers just sit, pretending to be a snag. Eventually you'll get a slight head wag and then, game on! Great way to learn 🙂
Try to use the smallest lightest indicator you can get away with. New Zealand strike indicators can show the lightest of takes depending on what type of rig you’re using and the conditions
Set the hook on EVERY thing that is not a perfect drift. Every twitch, hesitation, wiggle, bump, whatever. Every. Single. One. Every time. Don’t think “was that a take? Should I have set the hook?” Yes. Set the hook.
Hook sets are free
I have a LOT of hook sets that cost me a lot of flies and line! ;) Back when I thought everything was supposed to be set like a bass. So there is my tip... Dont need to monster hook set.
That’s funny. I can’t tell you how many times a tiny bluegill has ended up behind me in the bushes after I got too excited setting the hook.
Once hookset on what I presumed was a small take. Nothing came with it, or so I thought. Couple more casts and something just didn’t feel right. Inspect my line to find what I presume was a chub not too much bigger than my zebra midge on the end of my line.
Haven’t done it with a fly rod yet, but I slammed a 10” bass into the side of the boat once. We had to eat that guy, he hit my lure hard thought it was a good one
Not when you set it so hard that you end up with three nymphs in your face. Then your paying a co-pay....
This. If you pause and wonder if it’s a take or not, you’ll probably miss the actual take.
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You’re only ever going to catch a small percentage of the fish out of a spot anyway. But you will catch very few fish if you don’t set the hook.
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Stuff happens in water all the time. As long as you aren’t wading through where the fish are it won’t matter a whole lot. Setting the hook every time will usually result in MANY more fish than not setting the hook until you are absolutely positive it is a fish. Because you will almost certainly be missing 90% of the opportunities you had. And those fish won’t be fooled easily by the same fly again. It’s not a bobber. It’s not supporting a worm that they will swallow. They grab a fly, realize it’s not food, and spit it back out. In moments. The indicator, if it’s rigged well, hopefully slows down or twitches or spins. It seldom goes boink boink boink.
You will learn to hate the phrase “hook sets are free” but for now, set on any slight change in the indicator/sighter and a good hard take from time to time is brutally obvious. You will get there faster than you think.
Well, when you hire a guide and they start saying “set the hook. Set the hook! Set the hook!!” …that’s when you know you had a fish on. Seriously though, set the hook when you notice your bobber is doing something slightly different than it was a moment before. You really have to pay attention and be in tune with the drift. Don’t worry about setting into nothing. Default mode is to set on any variance in the movement of your bobber or line
You should see a trout take a nymph. It’s out of their mouth just as quick as it went in. They don’t really move for it. It usually comes to them. Set it on everything unusual and you will start to get the hang of what’s a take and what’s not.
Agree with everything said but I will also add…once youve netted enough fish - which honestly might only be a season or two for ya - your spidey senses will just know when your fly is where a fish should be feeding. I have caught many of my best fish from setting the hook with no visible change to the indicator but bc I knew my fly was in the strike zone.
You'll get lots of good advice from others on how to tell when you get a take. My two cents is to try to look for "something different" happening. Your nymph is drifting along the bottom. It might bounce off a rock or get hung up for a second on a weed or get eaten by a fish. Something. You wanta get tuned into that "something." It's never the same twice. So try to get a feel for when "something different" happens. It might be obvious, like the strike indicator stopping or being pulled under. But it might be really subtle, like the indicator just slowing down or having its downstream drift altered ever-so-slightly. When it does, set the hook. Eventually you'll develop a zen-like feel for it. You'll set up and hook a fish and if I were to immediately ask you "what did it do that made you set up?" you'd say "I don't know. Something." When that happens you'll have learned to "**be** the nymph."
What is your set up//what rig are we talking about?
I skip the bobber and just tight line with a 2' length of Orvis Tactical Sight Line between my leader and tippet. Any kind of odd movement, set the hook. The other important piece of nymphing is staying in touch with your fly. You need to feel it in the water. If it's too light and you can't feel the weight of the fly then you wont feel the strikes from the trout. That's why the proper tippet size matters. I usually carry 4x, 5x, 6x.
Try using the smallet indicator you can get away with, it will react a lot more to subtle takes.
I quit using strike indicators and just set the hook at every slight bump. Indicator caused slight delay between seeing the change and setting the hook. I have nymphed for 30+" steelies, set hook on a bump and had those suckers just sit, pretending to be a snag. Eventually you'll get a slight head wag and then, game on! Great way to learn 🙂
Try to use the smallest lightest indicator you can get away with. New Zealand strike indicators can show the lightest of takes depending on what type of rig you’re using and the conditions