Poor Technique??

Stevie-B;
If you're referring to my post, on the "side setting, of the hook", by dropping the rod to a right or left 45 degree angle and "re-setting the hook"........ I usually try to have the line clinched against the cork by that time and simply give the rod a short, quick, pull rearward.
The same hook set you'd use if the rod were vertical, on the initial set. Just not nearly so forceful is all!

 

[OhioOutdoorsman]

Agree with all that has been said.

Make aure its sideways pressure not upwards pressure when the fish is within 20 ft or so.

Use a barbed hook.

Use a fuller flexing rod, I fish a lot of fiberglass for this very read on.

When a fish makes a hard downstream charge towards you forget the reel, hand strip as fast as you can, and you'll still loose a lot of fish. I've found this happens a lot on heavily fished tailwater fisheries a lot and got very fustrated by this on the Yough and SoHo (South Houlston) this past year.

 

[beadhead2]

les
maybe you could loan stevie one of your 200 or so rods to try !!!!!!!! :lol:

 

[thedude1534]

I don't know a lot about this area, but can't fish also shake you off if you put too much pressure on the fly (especially if they're barbless)?

I ask because I find that if I encounter a streak of fish shaking me off, I conciously make the effort to keep my rod tip elevated and be more patient when playing the fish and it seems to alleviate the problem.

Howevever, I also never sharpen my hooks, and did not know to do so until this thread, so maybe my solution is just a bunch of B.S.

 

[Stevie-B]

Update: I was able to make it out yesterday and try some of the suggestions. Started off as usual; cast, drift, take, set, resistance, hook free. I think that since I am fishing high pressured water, the fish are nipping at the fly instead of inhaling it. When I started keeping the rod low to the water and side setting coupled with a strip set, the fish stayed hooked. Hopefully I am on the road to recovery

Dude, I do put a lot of pressure on the fish when fighting and use barbless hooks. It could be that I'm pulling the hook out as well but we are not talking about large fish. I seem to target fish 12" and smaller. LOL

Beadhead, you may be on to something, Les, want to go fishing sometime?

Steve