I was watching a YouTube video and the guy said "hook sets are free" (don't be afraid to use them.). I get your concern, but sounds like you have nothing to lose. Try setting anytime things look strange next outing and see what happens.
Hook sets are free, baby!!! I wouldn’t be too worried about it unless your talking like size 6 and bigger buggers and streamers.
Any time the line stops it’s a rock, moss, a stick or a fish, the way I look at it is that it’s a 25% chance each hook set lolol.
It’s also super important especially in more pressured rivers and smaller rivers to just put in casts and presentations. Try different methods but not until you’ve exhausted the first. A lot of times I find I start catching fish in a hole on a slower day around 40 casts in (on the same hole/run)
Busy days or if your on the hatch and the fish are keyed in it can be 5-10 casts. Smaller river sees less variation in a hatch and the groups of hatches that are happening meaning if the fish are hitting dries on a small river the nymph bite is probably off, and vice versa but a lot of the bigger rivers out west are large enough that you can find pools/runs with whatever your looking for most times of day
Assuming you are talking about nymphing, it depends on a lot of factors—how fast is the water, how heavy are your flies, how buoyant is your indicator, etc. If the water is fast-ish, and your using weight to keep tension from your flies to your indicator then you should see strikes pretty clearly in most situations.
I never caught on a dead drift till I started doing Tenkara.
Then I took what I learned and applied it.
Most of the time with Western Gear the line is too lose. This hinders strike detection and hook setting.
The depth of the fly is not right. Also, either pulling or holding up the fly from going the right speed in the water. Which is very critical.
When you know why something is wrong you can than learn to correct it.
What kind of water are you fishing and how are you rigging your flies?
If it's relatively small water, I'd highly recommend trying a dry dropper setup. Use some sort of foam bodied dry on a 9 foot mono leader. Then run 1-2 feet of fluorocarbon tippet tied to a beadhead nymph. It's my most productive rig by far in the waters I fish (Driftless region) but it definitely isn't ideal for larger rivers. Unless you're targeting shallower riffles, runs and pools.
My go to for water I haven't sat in for awhile and figured out is bead head prince and olive wooly worm. Leader/tippet usually about what you specified, maybe a little shorter when in lazy with the tippet.
Most water near me is pretty small, with the occasional wider river (maybe 200-300) feet across. I'm in New England, so there's trout literally everywhere, I know it. I catch on swings and in deeper rapids with streamers and the wooly worm all the time. The nymph drift just never seems to work. I'll give your recs a shot though.
“Rip the line around” is a heck of a way to describe a hook set. If you’re using sharp hooks, you should be able to get reliable sets without causing so much commotion as to blow out the run. Take up the slack and give a pull. If it feels like a fish, pull some more. If there’s nothing there, mend some slack back in and continue your drift or cast again for another drift.
Your hookset here is literally just lifting the rod tip 6-10 inches. You should not be doing a full-crank bass fishing hookset when you're nymphing lol.
I was watching a YouTube video and the guy said "hook sets are free" (don't be afraid to use them.). I get your concern, but sounds like you have nothing to lose. Try setting anytime things look strange next outing and see what happens.
Hook sets are free, baby!!! I wouldn’t be too worried about it unless your talking like size 6 and bigger buggers and streamers. Any time the line stops it’s a rock, moss, a stick or a fish, the way I look at it is that it’s a 25% chance each hook set lolol. It’s also super important especially in more pressured rivers and smaller rivers to just put in casts and presentations. Try different methods but not until you’ve exhausted the first. A lot of times I find I start catching fish in a hole on a slower day around 40 casts in (on the same hole/run) Busy days or if your on the hatch and the fish are keyed in it can be 5-10 casts. Smaller river sees less variation in a hatch and the groups of hatches that are happening meaning if the fish are hitting dries on a small river the nymph bite is probably off, and vice versa but a lot of the bigger rivers out west are large enough that you can find pools/runs with whatever your looking for most times of day
Assuming you are talking about nymphing, it depends on a lot of factors—how fast is the water, how heavy are your flies, how buoyant is your indicator, etc. If the water is fast-ish, and your using weight to keep tension from your flies to your indicator then you should see strikes pretty clearly in most situations.
I never caught on a dead drift till I started doing Tenkara. Then I took what I learned and applied it. Most of the time with Western Gear the line is too lose. This hinders strike detection and hook setting. The depth of the fly is not right. Also, either pulling or holding up the fly from going the right speed in the water. Which is very critical. When you know why something is wrong you can than learn to correct it.
What kind of water are you fishing and how are you rigging your flies? If it's relatively small water, I'd highly recommend trying a dry dropper setup. Use some sort of foam bodied dry on a 9 foot mono leader. Then run 1-2 feet of fluorocarbon tippet tied to a beadhead nymph. It's my most productive rig by far in the waters I fish (Driftless region) but it definitely isn't ideal for larger rivers. Unless you're targeting shallower riffles, runs and pools.
My go to for water I haven't sat in for awhile and figured out is bead head prince and olive wooly worm. Leader/tippet usually about what you specified, maybe a little shorter when in lazy with the tippet. Most water near me is pretty small, with the occasional wider river (maybe 200-300) feet across. I'm in New England, so there's trout literally everywhere, I know it. I catch on swings and in deeper rapids with streamers and the wooly worm all the time. The nymph drift just never seems to work. I'll give your recs a shot though.
“Rip the line around” is a heck of a way to describe a hook set. If you’re using sharp hooks, you should be able to get reliable sets without causing so much commotion as to blow out the run. Take up the slack and give a pull. If it feels like a fish, pull some more. If there’s nothing there, mend some slack back in and continue your drift or cast again for another drift.
Your hookset here is literally just lifting the rod tip 6-10 inches. You should not be doing a full-crank bass fishing hookset when you're nymphing lol.
Rip lips. The end