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**Ken Fortenberry[_2_]** · August 18th, 2007, 03:39 PM posted to rec.outdoors.fishing.fly

wrote:
Ken Fortenberry wrote:
rw wrote:
daytripper wrote:
If you have the presence of mind, keep the rod tip low and use a
line-hand
set. This has the added advantage of keeping the fly in the immediate
neighborhood of the fish, should you miss the initial set...

/daytripper (highly useful when bonefeeshing)
I call it a strip-strike -- very useful in sal****er flyfishing, but
difficult to break that years-old trout-fishing habit of using the rod
to set the hook.
We're all describing the same thing and yeah, it's real hard
not to lift the rod tip when you see your fly get hit. By now
it's instinctive. I missed my first shot at a muskie and I
imagine I'd do the same fool thing the first few times I ever
tried to catch a bonefish.

Have either of you tried long-shank circle hooks? They are essentially
"self-setting" (keep tension on the line rather than "setting" the hook)
and while they aren't appropriate (or necessary) for all quarry, they
are useful for many of the "hard mouth" species. And if you intend to C
& R, they greatly reduce gut- and deep-hooking. A Google search should
turn up quite a bit of info on them - probably much of the info will be
on the standard-shank "bait" models (for tuna, snapper, etc.), but the
theory of operation is the same and Mustad, etc., makes 2X for flies.

I've never tried circle hooks but from what I understand they're
designed to embed in the roof of the mouth. That wouldn't work
on a muskie because the roof of a muskie's mouth is all bone and
damn near impossible to stick a hook in.

As to "muscle memory" and trying to set with the rod rather than the
line, you might try simply spending some time "practice setting"
immediately before you actually try to fish.

Yeah, it sounds so simple but after 40 years of bluegill, bass
and trout fishing lifting the rod tip to set the hook is a reflex.

--
Ken Fortenberry