It often seems that one of the most difficult fly fishing skills for folks to accomplish is setting the hook after a fish has hit their fly. The article below is excerpted from the literature we use in our classes. It especially applies to fishing the types of streams and river we have here in Northern New Mexico.

So your flies are dead-drifting along perfectly under your strike indicator and you are watching it like a hawk. Here is (hopefully) what happens next. You notice that the indicator jerks ever so slightly. You set the hook and you have a nice fish on. You fight the fish until you can net it - well done!

Let’s go over the whole process of what just happened, step by step, detailing it as we go...

1) Strike indicators maybe should be called "fish-on" indicators. What this means is that as soon as you see the indicator move, a fish has already taken any slack out of the leader and swum far enough to make the indicator jerk. So what this tells you is that: A) you always need to keep your eyes on the indicator or you will miss the strike; B) you need to set the hook immediately and C) you need to set the hook whenever the indicator moves, twitches or even just stops.

2) You have detected a strike and need to set the hook immediately; how do you do it? Basically setting the hook is a quick jerk of your fly rod to get the point of the hook “set” into the fish’s mouth. The best way to do this is to snap your wrist, moving the rod in a downstream direction. You don’t want to make a giant vertical sweep as if you were making a cast (often referred to as a “Hail Mary Strike” or "Bass Set" - it doesn’t work well). If you look at the illustration to the right, you will see that the fisherman has detected a strike and set the hook downstream with the current, keeping the rod on a horizontal plane. Considering that most of the time fish are pointing upstream when they are feeding, setting the hook this way often produces a better hook-set into the corner of a fish’s jaw.

Try to remember to make the hook-set like a quick, hard snap but not too strongly. If you set too hard, you run the risk of pulling the flies out of the fish's mouth and, if you are using lighter tippet, you can break it instantly. Another benefit to setting this way is that you won’t yank your flies out of the drift and, if you miss the fish, you will still be fishing. If you can learn to master this style of hook-setting, you will catch lots more fish. It takes practice and it helps to try and stay relaxed and not over react. Needless to say, this is easier said than done. Note: All of the same general setting principles apply for dry fly fishing. The only real difference is that sometimes, when fish are feeding on the surface slowly, you don’t want to make the hook-set as quickly as you would when fishing wet flies with an indicator.