One of the major reasons why so many fly fishermen fail is that they don't realize the importance of how a fly approaches a fish. A crayfish doesn't attack a smallmouth bass; nor would a minnow pick a fight with an 18-inch brown trout. Yet that's exactly what we do so often when we present a fly to the fish. This applies to all kinds of fishing: trolling, using plugs, spinning, and fly fishing.

Let me cite one example. I fished with an experienced freshwater angler last year on Christmas Island, in the South Pacific. This is perhaps the best place in the world--at least of the places where I've fished--to learn how to catch bonefish. There are days when you'll see more than 1,000 bonefish, usually in singles, doubles, or small schools. Christmas Island also has some of the best wading flats anywhere. When you're wading in such shallow water you're able to closely observe the fish and their reactions.

Inching our way across one of the flats, my friend and I saw three bonefish approaching, swimming very close together. They were going to pass slightly to our right as they headed for a nearby channel. When they were about 35 feet away, my companion made a cast that dropped his fly four feet beyond and about six feet in front of them. He started to retrieve, when suddenly all three bonefish flushed wildly and tore off into the channel's safety.

What had happened was typical of what I see occurring so many times. Even after repeated failures, few anglers seem to know what they are doing wrong. They usually change fly patterns, assuming the fish didn't like their offering. After all, the cast was delivered so quietly that the fish didn't spook. The fly dropped exactly where the fisherman wanted it to land. And it's fairly evident that the fish didn't see the angler.

Usually a basic principle of retrieve was violated. That day on the Christmas Island flat, my friend made the same presentation several times--each time frightening the bonefish. He threw only a few feet in front and just past the cruising fish. The retrieve brought the fly toward the fish, but when it got closer, the fish had already moved so far ahead that the fly was actually approaching them from behind. This was, of course, an unnatural way for a prey species to approach a predator, so the fish instinctively fled.

Here's one of the most important rules concerning retrieving underwater flies: No fly should ever be retrieved so that the predator may think it's being attacked.

Predators chase and eat their prey; never in the natural environment does a crab pick a fight with a permit, or a baitfish chase a barracuda. When this happens, the reaction of the predator is to back off or flee. Predators expect to see their prey (or the fly) act and react in the natural manner of any creature in danger.

Whenever we present a fly to a fish, we must retrieve it so that it behaves like all the other prey the fish consumes. More important than the type of fly, the color, its size, or its sink rate is that a fly be retrieved in a natural manner.

The Fish's View
An angler, either wading or in a boat, sees a fish ahead of him. A basic tenet of good presentation is never to throw your line over a fish, so most fishermen place the fly directly ahead of the fish, allowing only the leader to fall to the surface near the fish. Then they retrieve the fly in hopes the fish will strike it.

Let's look at this from the fish's viewpoint. It sees the fly swimming toward it; naturally, it expects this fly to try to escape as it gets near and realizes the danger--like all prey does. But instead, this "thing" continues to come straight on, in what the fish has to regard as an attack mode. Of course, the fish bolts.

What should you do in such a situation? Instead of dropping the fly directly in front of the fish, cast so that it falls to the water several feet to one side and a slight distance forward of the fish. Then begin your retrieve. What the fish will see is a creature that appears to be sneaking away to the side, and it'll bolt forward for the grab.

Let's look at another situation. The angler sees a fish directly in front of him and casts. What happens if the fly lands almost on its nose? The fish sees something directly in front of it, appearing to slowly or casually move away. This isn't a natural occurrence, so the fish will often refuse the offering.

But when the fly falls to the side, the fish sees what it expects: something trying to sneak away. Impulse will cause the fish to streak forward and hit the fly.

When a fish is lying in a channel or where a tidal current is carrying its food, it doesn't expect to see shrimp, baitfish, and other creatures swimming upcurrent against the tide. To the fish, this simply doesn't appear normal. Cast so that your fly comes sweeping down to one side of the fish; just before it gets to the fish, the fly should make a U-turn, right in front of the predator.

This is what occurs frequently in the current. Shrimp, crabs, and other morsels are drifting with the tide. Then suddenly they see downstream something that might eat them, so they try to go sideways, rather than continuing to drift toward the fish. A fly that sweeps downcurrent and then turns away directly in front of the fish is the most natural of all retrieves.

Perhaps where fly fishermen make the most consistently wrong retrieve is with a fish cruising off to their left or right. What generally happens is that the angler drops his fly well ahead of and beyond the swimming fish. He starts his retrieve but while he's bringing the fly back, the fish is swimming forward. Far too often the fish moves far enough ahead so that the fly never passes in front of him at all, which would be the perfect retrieve. Instead, the fly approaches the fish from an angle and slightly to the rear. Coupled with spooking bonefish on the cast, I find this the major reason why anglers fail to score. This was the mistake that my companion constantly made at Christmas Island. Each time, his fly approached the bonefish at an angle from the rear.

If you always retrieve your fly so that it appears to be acting like any prey species--trying to elude a predator--your hookup rate will drastically increase.

Setting the Hook
There are two methods I recommend for setting the hook on wet flies and streamers in fresh and salt water: the strip strike and the side strike. Both work, but a special technique is needed with either one. Fortunately, this technique is easy to master, once you understand the problems.

Strip strike. If you use the strip strike properly, you'll almost never break your leader tippet when you drive your hook into a fish. Here's the technique: You're retrieving the fly. You have the line clasped under a finger of your rod hand. Your line hand pulls or moves the line beneath the finger to activate the fly.

You think a fish has grabbed your fly. Instead of flipping the rod upward, you leave it just where it was during the retrieve. To set the hook, you release the line from your rod hand, grip it securely with your line hand, and make a short (usually gentle) backward pull. This tightening of the line between you and the fish will set the hook--even in a hard-mouthed tarpon.

When you use the strip strike, be mindful of two things. First and most importantly, you don't need much pressure to set the hook in almost any fish; this is especially true with all freshwater species. A gentle set--pulling back no more than six inches on the tight line--is all you need.

Second, the most panic-stricken moment for the fish is just after the hook is set. The fish will immediately try to escape. This first surge is when it's at full strength, and you must not allow it to jerk your fragile leader tippet.

The moment you make your strip strike, then, form an O-ring with the thumb and first two fingers of your line hand and allow the line to flow freely through the O-ring as the fish flees. The O-ring permits you to control the line and slow or stop the fish anytime you desire.

The side strike. The side strike is just what its name implies: When you think a fish has taken your fly, move your rod gently to the side. There's no need to flip it hard. After all, you're using a lever that's probably from seven to nine feet long; it will easily set the hook with just gentle pressure. With a side strike, keep the rod low and parallel to the water as you move it sideways, and as soon as the hook is driven into the fish, form the same O-ring and follow the procedure described for the strip strike.

If you learn to strip or side strike in shallow water when using wets and streamers, or any other underwater fly except a nymph, you'll increase your score of hooked and landed fish--in salt or fresh water.

A common mistake made by fishermen who fish steelhead and Atlantic salmon with drys is to strike improperly. When a Bomber or similar surface fly is cast across the water, the current causes the line to drag the fly in a skittering motion that is attractive to salmon and steelhead.

A fish rises to suck in the fly. It's important to realize that a salmon or steelhead is not going to bite the fly--it sucks it into its mouth.

Now consider more fully what's going on during the retrieve. The fly is being pulled across the surface by the tension the current is exerting on the fly line. The fish rises and tries to suck in the fly, and the tension of the line actually moves the fly away from the fish. Then, compounding the problem, the fly fisher sets the hook as the fish takes. Between the line tension and the sweep of the rod, it's easy to see why the fly ends up being pulled out of the fish's mouth. Instead, when the salmon or steelhead takes your fly, drop your rod tip toward the fish so that slack occurs, permitting the fish to suck in the fly.