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[David_R]

Over this weekend dismayed by my apparent inability to catch a salmon on a river I headed back to my sanctuary of lake fishing, I'm trying to learn how to fly fish as well so I brought my spinning rod and fly rod.

I trolled flies to start and found good success so stuck with it. From what I've seen in 'how to videos' you just kind of pull in the line to bring the fish in this worked fairly well as the fish didn't put up a huge fight, being just little guys, about a 1lb and under.

I had a good day on the water with a a few trout to the boat and decided to take a trip this morning to the capilano river to try casting there as well with some streamer flys. Saw lots of salmon jumping, though they looked fairly colored. Didn't hook up but the thought also occured to me that if I did actually hook a salmon I'd probably lose it with my sloppy technique. Is there a good technique used to keep tension on the line when you're bringing a fish in?

I'd grab the line and pull it in but then the line would go quite slack when I reached up to pull more line in. Any help would be appreciated

[Fish Assassin]

Strip the line in if you're fighting a small fish. I would fight the fish from the reel if I'm dealing with a larger fish such as a salmon.

[newsman]

Try to get in the habit of playing all fish from the reel. To keep the line tight on them: strip until the line is tight. Usually when a fish feels tention in one direction it will pull the opposite direction, like a dog on a leash. Let the fish pull the line through your fingers of your nondominant hand while you work at gaining line back on your reel with your dominant hand. Once you have the fish on the reel you are in control and there will be no slack line between strips.

[David_R]

thanks newsman

[Jamison Jay]

Like newsman said, you use the fingers of the other hand to pinch the line top control drag when stipping in. For the most part I strip in most fish in the 2lb and under class. Even when you get to some of the bigger guys stripping is needed to take up slack, sometimes reeling just isn't fast enough.

[BladeKid]

I would say about 90% of the time I pull the line in when fly fishing for trout instead of using the reel. I find it much quicker and usually when the fish takes your fly you  have slack/loose line already in. I recommend using the reel when fly fishing for salmon though.

[THE_ROE_SLINGER]

I would say about 90% of the time I pull the line in when fly fishing for trout instead of using the reel. I find it much quicker and usually when the fish takes your fly you  have slack/loose line already in. I recommend using the reel when fly fishing for salmon though.

how would u know...u have never caught a fish

[flyfisherman]

Good question, with using a small arbour reel it's next to impossible to keep up with any trout swimming to the boat so the strip in method is used to keep tension on the line, no tension= no fish. There are so many ways to get a fish in.
Use your rod to keep the  tension, small arbour reels if used and used to reel in one has to decide when to strip in and when to reel in, tension must be on the reel when reeling in, fish or not.
So you get a hit, the fish takes line out and your unable to stop it, only using your rod and palming the reel to slow it down, it stops, heads toward you, the small arbour can't keep up, this is when you start to strip the line in without stepping on it or getting it in your shoe laces .

A few years ago I switched to the large arbour reel, it's used for the trout that swim fast to the water craft or shoreline your at. One has to be more gentle when the big guy runs but it takes up line nicely.
So it's a balance or type of reel and arbour, rod, tippet strenght and expierience on putting them all together to make a successful.

Hope I helped

RB

[gheart008]

For you right handed people, do you prefer reeling/stripping in line with your left hand and holding the rod in the right, or vise versa?

[mastercaster]

I strip the fish in using my left hand.....the same when I'm stripping in the fly when ocean fishing. I do all my retrieves with my left hand.  If it's a large fish and it gets to my reel I'll switch the rod to my left hand to play it and reel with my right.  But even when I get the fish close at hand I finish playing the fish by stripping it in because I feel you have more control.  Besides I prefer to net fish using my left hand.

I don't mind  switching hands if I have to...gives my arm a break if I've had a long day playing tons of fish or several days in a row of fishing.

I agree with Michael in that it's so much faster to strip fish in and also... because the line is on the bottom of the boat you're already set to cast.  It's a pain in the butt to have to keep stripping the line off the reel to cast again if you play fish off the reel, epecially if you're hitting fish on almost every cast.

[mastercaster]

David...I forgot one thing...if you're getting slack between your strips it's because you're probably not holding the fly line between your thumb and index finger of your rod hand when doing another strip.  This is an absolute must when stripping in fish, as well as when you are casting and doing your mends and retrieves of the fly.

When you get a hit you've got to pinch the line with the thumb and that index finger of the rod hand and lift the rod....otherwise you won't have a good hook set.  Hopes this helps.

[newsman]

Yup I see it now. Line wrapped around the oar lock and around the dogs leg when he decides to go after those biting flies. And then there is the line under your shoe when you want to shoot that extra 20 feet of line. Yup it's all good!

[mastercaster]

I guess if that stuff happens to you I could definitely see your point  but I've been doing the way mentioned above since I was a little kid. My Dad who had fished all his life taught me it was the most effecient way to fish. It's the same way I taught my kids (todlers at the time) as well as other friends.  At this point in their fishing none of them run into the problems you've mentioned.

My daughter virtually refuses to play even the largest of trout off the reel because she finds it easier to strip them in.  I'm also a big component of learning from your mistakes.  I'm sure we've all step on a line or two but I'm doubley careful not to do it again.  And if you keep the bottom of the boat free of extra crap that obviously helps.

As far as the dog goes mine was trained to stay in the front of the boat.  The bottom line is fish the way you feel most confident and efficient.  If you feel that you lose fish by stripping them in then by all means get them to the reel.

[mastercaster]

When at all possible I try and play fish including small salmon by NOT using the reel. IMO it is much quicker and easier on smaller fish if you are bringing them in faster for release by stripping the line with your hands and it also provides me with maximum control of the drag and torque on the fish as my body is the drag system and the torque. I watched a lot of guys who would go to their fly reels to bring in Pink salmon this year and it took them a considerable amount of time more than us who were using the strip in method to bring in fish. As I fly fish from a boat the majority of time I will only play a fish off the reel if the fish has enough power to take up the slack line and the reels drag system needs to control fast running fish . In most cases anything other than Chum, Chinook or feisty coho never get played on my reel as they never take runs run far enough, fast enough or fight hard enough to warrant the use of it. If you are playing many fish a day it also starts to be a pain when you have to keep stripping out 80ft of line after release or loss of fish.

Couldn't agree more!  If you play fish this way, after ahile it becomes second nature.

[Xgolfman]

I play salmonoid or large fish off the reel but strip in at the end (when the fish is close to me) as on a spey rod it lets you get the fish to your feet a helluva lot easier then trying to land it off a big rod, a whole lot easier at the end..