George Cleveland wrote:

If you're fishing wets the answer is counter-intuitive. Learn to do a
slip strike. You're pulling the fly out of the fishes mouth.

Hi George,

This presumes I can feel the strike. I can not. It also
presumes the trout likes what it tastes and doesn't instantly
spit it out.

I have about 4 feet of slack and a bad ass current to contend
with. When I can get my dead drift to the point where I an
feel a strike, I have no problems with a fly -- the fish kind
of set the hook themselves. (Total fun, by the way.)

Bearing in mind, I only have about a half a second to respond
before my nasty tasting fly gets spit out. You should see Ozzie's
videos. Watching underwater video of trout operating from a
feeding lie will really open your eyes. I love the part where
a trout will test a leaf or a twig. If it don't taste right, it
gets spit out real fast. Ozzie makes the point: if this had been
your fly, would you have even know?

OTOH, if salmon eggs work for you, then why bother with flies?

A little background. If I get off early, I jump over to my
favorite hole for about and hour before sundown. Last Wednesday,
in the space of and hour and a half, I caught about twenty
Rainbows, about eight to nine inches each. I sent them all
back to their mothers. My heart is still in my chest - I am
happy to catch any size fish. (These were all wild trout by the
way: excellent fins, par marks on their sides, no spots on
their tummies, fought like hell.)

So to answer your question:

1) it is more fun to use a fly. My fish fight much harder
when hooked with a fly in the lip than gut hooked with bait

2) I have NEVER gut hooked a fish with a fly (if not set quickly,
they get spit out real fast)

3) I get tired of tying new hooks to my leader after cutting
off a gut hooked fish (I wonder if this eventually kills
the fish?)

4) I get tired of having to bait my hooks all the time

5) eggs are messy

-T