FLYMPH FORUM

Gentlemen,
A curious thought occured to me this past season. It has to do with intuition or instintively knowing when a strike has occured (or will occur) aside from the obvious signs such as the sight of our flylines going the opposite direction or the crinkle (or boil) where your fly is suppose to be or the feel of a sullen thud under your rod hand. It happens to me once in a great while and it takes me by surprise when it does. It's a hard thing to explain to others. It comes out of some hidden instinct inside some of us and not in others. My question this evening is this.....
Do you feel you posess this intuition above and beyond what your senses tell you and has it gained you a fish because of it? If you don't think you have it, tell us anyway. Your other senses may be enhanced because of it. Humorous stories are always appreciated!
Dougsden

(Intuition when looking out over a body of water and knowing where fish are is almost a whole different matter. Let's cover this subject another night. It ought to be a good one too!)

A good one Doug. It happens to me a lot with clients. They will be dead drift a nymph and I will say 'lift now' and they are right into a fish. I think it is probably instinct coming from fishing a lot. I am not sure that someone new to the sport would have it. It is built with experience.
But I can recall an incident where I caught a huge brown trout while fishing in a private pond. When I approached the water I notice quite a lot of reeds around the edge so I selected a 'stick caddis' pattern and started to fish along side a stretch where the reeds protruded out into the water. My intention was to cast out and let the fly settle and then gently and slowly retrieve. While I was waiting I noticed one of the reeds quite near to where I thought my fly was move ever so slightly. Instinct kicked in and I lifted into a fish that was a tad over 8lbs. I had only been fly fishing a short time when this happened and I thought I was a 'pro' i was that excited. 25 years on and I have never repeated it despite fishing that particular water a lot.

I have thought long and hard about this for many years and I know this happens for me and this is how best I can explain it though I cannot prove it so.

When you are concentrating to the limits of your ability, you get that feeling that you are in tune with the river, your casting is automatic. Your thought processes are a few casts ahead of the current one, and whilst it would appear that your focus is elsewhere there is a small but very powerful focus on the current cast - kinda tuning into that miniscule ability a male has to multiplex - some signals are recognised and reacted to before the brain gets a chance to analyse. Instintive apparently yes, but I believe this to be a male explanation, a female angler I suspect would have reacted normally to whatever signals suggested a take.

The more bizaare version of this is walking to a precise piece of water that would not normally be a starting point, knowing that you are about to catch a fish. This has happened to me twice in twenty odd years of Salmon Fishing and I can offer no explanation. I recall Hugh Faukus dicussing this in one of his books. Its quite uncanny an event as you actually have a feeling of watching yourself in action - you are totally and utterally compelled to go to that spot and cast. The last time it happened to me is over 25 years ago yet I can recall the weird sensation of the whole experience - apart from these 2 instances I have never in any aspect of my life felt so compelled and driven to do something.

I too experience this phenomenon from time to time, more frequently while fishing dries than wets. This usually happens when I have located a feeding fish and executed a well-placed cast with minimal drag. I suppose there's nothing really odd about it, as the conditions for a strike are optimized in this scenario. Nevertheless, it still gives me a "tuned in" feeling when it happens. It's probably just anticipation, though, since I'm often a little surprised when I don't get a strike on a particular drift.

Gentlemen,
These are great!! I really like reading these "situations". They provide alot of insight into that fine line between instinct and experience. Anyone else? Please keep them coming!
Dougsden

It's called "Zen". Being one with nature. Letting the current of ones being travel down your fly rod, through the fly line, down the leader to the fly. Letting the Ying/Yang telegraph to your senses that a fish is willing to take the lure that you are offering.

NOT! It's experience you silly sap!

Ladies and Gentlemen,
First, I am new to this forum and have never fished a Wet fly. I know it is blasphemy, but here on the waters of California's smaller rivers and streams we spend most of our time setting Adams and midges in the path of our prey. Now is the time for me to step out of the dark and into the light. Having already initiate on Wet Fly swap on flyfishingaddicts.com and only getting two other to join, I find myself here. Thank you. Please be patient with my questions... there will be a lot.

I must agree with Dubbn. Zen. The art of not only becoming balanced with your surroundings, but becoming part of it. IMHO I believe that you actually do perceive the line change because you have become part of that experience. You are so familiar with the usual 'action' of the line that now, with even the imperceptible change, you understand there is a fish. Cause and effect. Ying/Yang. It's all the same. You're in the Zone.

Within my small clutch of women fly fishers we often reflect on such questions, believing that fly fishing is as much philosophical as skill. Many of us are guides, a few beginners, regardless we all want to understand how these different species react. Here in California we have many freestone rivers and I hope these flies will become a main stay, something I can share with my friends and turn them from mere auto-bots who tie on the same flies with each outing, into the explorers we all should be.

Ariel

I just love this description, thanks Otter
...you get that feeling that you are in tune with the river, your casting is automatic. Your thought processes are a few casts ahead of the current one, and whilst it would appear that your focus is elsewhere there is a small but very powerful focus on the current cast...
you, sir are seriously tuned in to your art.

but to the point -
I grew up fishing a tiny river where the fish were usually like lightning on the take.
Those little guys would -
inspect the fly visually;
suck it to see if it was good;
spit it out since it wasn't - this process would take about a second, tops,
then a while later (0.0000000001 nanoseconds) I would strike at nothing despite thinking I was at the top of my game. I was sharp
You would always see that boil, sometimes even feel the prick-slack of a missed fish.

I learned to strike when the fly was in the right place.
Since that place - being a particular point of the drift, at a suitable depth - had to coincide with the fish having the imitation in his mouth, this proved tricky.
I did have the benefit of education from these guys in that they would always take the fly at the same point as it passed, it was simply a matter of timing. If I missed him when I saw him, I would strike earlier on the next pass - before I saw him.
This work was at close range, upstream, maybe fifteen feet, to feeding fish.

Next, casting into the neck of the pool with no slack - when the fly arrived where I expected the trout to take, I struck gently. Fish on !!
I learned to calculate whether to strike early or late.
Striking early, without any sign of a take is eerie but it turned out that I was hooking four out of five rises, where previously I was frustrated; connecting with none, pricking one in ten.
The notable thing about this was that I had very few foul-hooked fish, maybe one in a hundred.

I only wish I were that sharp now, my friend Matt has it but then he fishes every day, clever man.

Strike when the iron is hot - but remember to strike gently,
NinjaRoy

fflutterffly wrote:Ladies and Gentlemen,
First, I am new to this forum and have never fished a Wet fly. I know it is blasphemy, but here on the waters of California's smaller rivers and streams we spend most of our time setting Adams and midges in the path of our prey. Now is the time for me to step out of the dark and into the light. Having already initiate on Wet Fly swap on flyfishingaddicts.com and only getting two other to join, I find myself here. Thank you. Please be patient with my questions... there will be a lot.

I must agree with Dubbn. Zen. The art of not only becoming balanced with your surroundings, but becoming part of it. IMHO I believe that you actually do perceive the line change because you have become part of that experience. You are so familiar with the usual 'action' of the line that now, with even the imperceptible change, you understand there is a fish. Cause and effect. Ying/Yang. It's all the same. You're in the Zone.

Within my small clutch of women fly fishers we often reflect on such questions, believing that fly fishing is as much philosophical as skill. Many of us are guides, a few beginners, regardless we all want to understand how these different species react. Here in California we have many freestone rivers and I hope these flies will become a main stay, something I can share with my friends and turn them from mere auto-bots who tie on the same flies with each outing, into the explorers we all should be.

Ariel

Read my last line ofmy post. I think zen is hog wash