Lower the rod, catch a fish

“Fishing stunk. I couldn’t get a bite.”

“Fishing was awesome. I couldn’t keep ’em off my line.”

The reason for these two different results might be nothing more than lowering the rod tip closer to the water. Same old drill. One person catches fish; another doesn’t. Even when sitting in the same boat.

Last week, a friend and I were fishing for grayling on Rogers Lake. My friend, let’s call him “Dan,” admitted he hadn’t fly-fished in years, if ever.

We fished the same fly, the venerable Beadhead Red-Assed Partridge. Gold bead. Red wool tag. Peacock herl body. Single wrap of Hungarian partridge hackle. Size 14.

Just my luck, I hooked a fish on the first cast. Then several more. Dan could cast at least three times the length of the rod, which was more than far enough for boat fishing.

After a cast, we’d both count to twenty before retrieving the fly in short strips. I got bites. Dan didn’t

The only difference was Dan’s rod tip was pointed slightly up and mine was down, nearly touching the water. Dan’s line was slack on the water, curving along upwards to the rod tip.

Truth be known, fish were hitting Dan’s fly, he just couldn’t detect the bite.

When I showed Dan how to keep the rod tip low and watch for the slight bends in the floating line to straighten, he let out a yell, “I missed him.”

Then another. And another. In some cases, the grayling were “hitting and spitting” too quickly to be hooked by jerking the rod upward.

When we used a “strip strike,” quickly pulling the fly line back with the non-casting hand, we caught fish.

I recently read a review of Hal Janssen’s new book about hooking fish in lakes. I will review that book in this space sometime. Janssen says most fly-fishers detect only about 10 percent of their strikes when fishing in lakes.

Lowering the rod tip a few feet can make the difference between getting skunked or bragging about an awesome day.