The Challenge in Trout Fishing
The trout rising to sip in natural insects on his feeding station a few feet upstream of me seems to be confident in his feeding. After all, he has been doing this all day before I arrived on the stream.
I have just been challenged!
My ultimate goal is to convince this trout that my dry fly is the real thing as it drifts over him. He rises up under it and sips it in. I gently set the hook. I fooled him! My next step is to release all of the pressure on the line and in most cases the fly will slip out of the trouts jaw. He will then swim free.
This is what I call my Pop Strike.
I use my pop strike on all of the trout I hook on mountain trout streams because it greatly reduces the stress on the trout.
The fighting, landing, handling and releasing of these trout proves nothing and stresses the trout unnecessarily.
Just because I won the challenge on this trout does not mean I will win all the challenges. It also doesn’t mean I won’t keep trying!