Swing Takes

'Swing Takes and Fighting a Fish'

by Jennifer Mitchell as written for the 2011 Sandy Spey Clave Presentation

Hi. I’m Jennifer and I am very glad to be here today! The topic that I am going to cover is “the Take & Fighting a Fish”.

First, before I start however, I would like to take a moment and ask to see a show of hands of how many people have hooked a fish on a swung fly? (Assuming someone raises their hands). Then ask “How did the fish take your fly?”

So today, I am going to start out by talking about the 3 general ways a steelhead will “take” your fly. I describe them like this: (use someone’s sleeve to demonstrate with)

1. The Kamakazie
2. The Pluck
3. The Long Slow Pull

First, the Kamakazie – is just that. This fish, at some point during the swing, just absolutely smashes the fly, leaving you no time at all whatsoever to react and it is AWESOME! It just completely rocks your world and it’s what we live for right!?! The tug is the drug as they say. I would say that this type of take does not happen very often, maybe only 20% of the time but it uneqoviqually addicting when it does.

Second, the Pluck – the pluck is really a light tap of the fly if you will. Some liken it to a “trout take”. It’s not at all obnoxious. It’s not a knock your socks off kind of take at all. I would say 40-50% of the time, my takes are of this variety.

Third, the Long Slow Pull – almost feels like you’re fly has hit bottom, especially when you feel the pull on the hang down. You think you’ve hit bottom. But, if you’re skating a dry or an unweighted wet fly on a dry line, this is definitely not bottom!

The most important thing to remember that no matter how the fish takes your fly – is to GIVE IT TO THEM!!! I cannot stress this enough. Trust your Guide! DO NOT set the hook – no matter how tempting it may be. And trust me, I’ve done it before and am right there with you. Especially if you’ve done any other kind of fly fishing like a lot of nymphing, streamer fishing, or even dry flying. I would say that the hardest thing to remember for fly fishers is that when swinging a fly, you don’t want to set the hook or “lift”. JUST LET THE FISH HOOK THEMSELVES! I know this seems counter-intuitive, but it’s the honest truth. This is one of the biggest mistakes anglers who are new to swinging the fly or spey fishing make.

So, how do we do that? How do we “give it to them” and let the fish hook themselves? Well, there are 3 most commonly used methods.

1. One of the more popularly used methods would be to “carry a loop.” Not too much of a loop, but say around ?. or so. So in essence, when the fish eats your fly, just drop your loop and let them hook themselves. In other words, you just give it to them. Then, after they are peeling line off the reel, you can give your rod a stout tug to further lodge the hook in and make sure it is “set”.

2. The second way to “give it to them” and let the fish hook themselves is to fish with a very loose drag and no loop. That way, when the fish takes your fly, there is virtually no resistance thereby hooking themselves. Once the fish starts to peel line off your reel, again, you can give your rod a stout tug to further lodge the hook in and make sure it is “set”. Also, I would recommend tightening up your drag is a good idea too so you can keep the fish on the ‘reel’ through the fight.

3. The third way to let the fish hook themselves would be to keep your rod tip up in the air so that when the fish takes your fly, you can drop the rod tip to the water, thereby creating some slack in the line and giving the fly to the fish and hence hooking themselves. Of the 3 methods, I would say that this is the least commonly used one but it does work.

Now, let’s talk about the “fight”. You’re fish has taken your fly in one of those 3 methods I described earlier, (the Kamakazie, the Pluck, or the Long Slow Pull”) and you’ve done your job by “giving the fly to them” right?

So now, you’re just starting the battle. Let’s say the fish is now screaming up river … what do you do? BOW to him! Don’t clamp down on the reel or line and try to slow him down or stop him! Why? Because you are going to break him off! Plus, as an angler, this is the best position to be in! If I could have my choice, I would always want to be down stream of a hooked fish. Why? Because they are already screaming up river and further lodging the hook in themselves! So, just go with them… bow to them! You don’t want to give a fish too much slack in the line in bowing to them, but you do want to keep a nice amount of tension on the line too. It’s a delicate balance.

So now, let’s say the fish is coming back at you, if you can get them on the reel and keep up with them great. If not, strip in the slack line to keep tension on them until you can get them on the reel. Eventually, you will get them on the reel.

So now, the fish is 90 degrees out from us or downstream, where do you want your rod tip? I always want my rod tip to be low and sideways towards the bank. Why? Because I have the most control here, I can turn the fish’s head if I need to, and I have the best angle for the hook to continue being lodged in the corner of the fish’s mouth. Where do you not want your rod tip? Way up here by the top of your head, where are you going to go with that? You have absolutely no control here!

Let’s say the fish does some aerial acrobatics out of the water. What do you do then? BOW to him! Let him take his leaps and cartwheels and tires himself out. Eventually he will. And then, it will be much easier to land him successfully on the bank in soft/slow water. And here’s the key….there is absolutely no rush when it comes to fighting your steelhead. Don’t ever rush it!

Feel free to email anytime with questions... jenn@theeveninghatch.com