On 08/09/2010 08:26 AM, Don Phillipson wrote:
wrote in message
...

These trout must have been caught several times before.
About every third drift, I would tangle with one. It
seemed like I would play with them for about two feet
and then they got loose. Over and over again too!
I checked my hook points constantly and they were
not broken off and were plenty sharp.

When trout are non-hooked on dries, it might be worth
trying an English-style delayed strike i.e. a pause before
setting the hook. The theory is that, after waiting until
the fish turns his head downwards, the hook point pulls
into the corner of the jaw, where it catches better
than up at the bony front tip of the mouth.


I was definitely not doing that. I was just letting them
have it the second they struck. This resulted in dragging
them a few feet before they took off for parts unknown.

My thought was that I only have a fraction of a second
before the trout tastes the thing and determines it to
be debris. This has always done me well in the past, but
since I can't seem to hook them now, I will definitely
give this a try.

Thank you!

-T