Hit 'Em Down Hill

 



If I hear another guide telling a client to use a downstream hook set I think I'm going to sink his boat.

(It's been a while since I've talked much fishing but today I'm actually going to be hitting the Madison--not to hunt ducks but to fish. The duck hunting has been pretty abysmal with the warm temps and lack of public land to hunt on so trout, here we come. As for the topic of discussion for the blog, it comes from a conversation I had with one of my guys who asked me what I thought about this theory. Apparently, a guide out here was boasting about how revolutionary he was because he was teaching his clients this...)

I get it all the time; a client's bobber goes down and he jerks it sideways and not only does he not hook the fish, but now he has to strip all his line back in and re-set--that is if he hasn't jerked his gear right into his buddy and now I have to pull hooks out of someone. I tell him, "Just throw it straight up. If there's a fish, you'll hook him and if not, you're into your back cast and back in the water fishing."

"But I was told if I use a downstream hook set, I'll catch more fish..."

That usually leads to a ten minute discussion on why that's bullshit and why you should just hit it straight up and not worry about which way the fish is facing when he eats your bug.

First of all, clients shouldn't have to think too much when the indicator moves. They get confused about which way to set the hook based on what is downstream and what is upstream depending on which side of the boat they're on...I know, it seems pretty simple but when you're just starting out, every time you switch sides of the boat you actually have to think a little bit. When a fish eats your bug, you want to be impulsive and react. You just want to hit him and hit him hard the second that indicator moves so if you keep hammering on people to set downstream, they actually have to think first and then they're so afraid that they're going to do it wrong they hesitate.

The other thing is you don't always know which way the fish is facing when he eats and if you think you do, you know nothing about fishing. It is true that when a fish is actively feeding he is almost always looking up stream but that doesn't mean anything when it comes to eating your nymph. Most often and especially in soft water, a fish sees something interesting that they want to check out and they turn to follow it downstream before tasting it. They suck it in and when they don't taste anything, they spit it out. They may do that several times before your indicator ever moves.

I don't think I've ever seen the video but I've heard plenty about it and I think RIO put it out. There's a split screen with an underwater shot of a nymph rig on one side and the indicator floating down stream on the other. It shows a fish eating the guys nymph 7 or 8 times before the bobber moves once. The point was to show the feeding habits of a trout and how subtle the takes can be. If a fish was always facing up stream when they ate your bug, it would almost always look like he hammered it. The current is moving everything downstream so if your indicator stops suddenly with a fish eating your fly looking up stream, it would look like the indicator is being jerked upstream. But it doesn't do that most of the time. Most of the time on a fish, the indicator just pops straight down a little meaning the fish was following it when he ate it facing downstream.

If in fact, the fish is facing downstream and you use a downstream hook set, you're doing the opposite of what the intended goal was. Then in theory, you're pulling the hooks out of the fish's mouth. If you just hit it straight up, it doesn't matter which way he's facing; you're still going to hook him.

Everyone has their style and theory on best practices. It's one thing to try to help someone out by giving pointers but it's an entirely different thing if you're over-teaching just to try to come across as being the "shit." Sometimes keeping it simple is the best practice and for those guides out there faced with the challenge of teaching newcomers to the sport; think before you teach. It's much easier to teach good habits than to break bad ones.

Keep 'em where they live...

BTW, the picture is MDFO's new logo. Tell me what you think.