[Pocono]

I fish a lot of small freestone creeks. Many of these have large stretches of pocket water; the haven of the native Brookie.

I've gotten so that I can consistently land the Brookies that I hook up in those environs. But occasionally I'll hook into a stocked, hold-over Brown or Rainbow; a big one; you know that kind, the one that you really want to land, the fish that's too big to be in the water that you're fishing - but he's right there in front of you, on your line. These are the fish that I consistently loose. They break me off almost all of the time. The Rainbows are not quite as bad, because in pocket water they tend to come out of the water right away; jump 3-4 times, run short and after a few minutes, they're tired and landable - sometimes. The Browns are a diffierent story for me. They run almost immediately for the closest sunken log or undercut rock and, "plink" - there's that sound and feel that I hate, the broken-off fish.

I throw slack as fast as I can and have gone to setting my drag to almost nill in an effort to give the running fish enough line so that the tension doesn't contribute to the potential break-off. But, I'm still loosing fish; really nice fish.

Any ideas?

[yatahey]

Take some time to learn where the holds are that these fish might head to when hooked like the log you mentioned or undercut banks, etc. Position yourself so you can get between the likely hold spot and the fish when you cast, basically blocking him from getting to it. If he still wants to head for it, he may be running toward you so you need to strip in line really fast. Get his head up and the fish on his side as quick as you can, that disorients the fish and makes him less likely to fight. It's always a good idea to get downstream during the fight whenever you can.

[WANTONJ]

A few years back I started fishing a fast water stream that had a fair amount current ,I was casting up stream about 40 ft using a Pheasant Tail nymph that had a wrap of lead on the base of the hook,at that time I was tying my own,also had on the tippet a tiny split shot, tippet was 4# test,the run was fast before it dumped into a deep pool,the Rainbows were in the bottom,if you were not heavy enough you would go over the top of them down stream.These fish were between 4# to 5.5#,when you hooked into one they would head down stream with the aid of the current and break off, I lost a bunch of them,they would always hit below me when the fly was rising from the botton up,the fish was already down stream from where I was at ,if you fished near to the pool you could not get deep enough,note most of the water was over your head,I tried 2 things,when my fly was coming down stream bumping over the rocks you could feel the pauses and sometimes see the line pause,but when a fish took it he was on without you feeling it and would turn down stream and plink,I put on a strike indicator and some of those pauses were hits,the second the indicator paused I would horse the nose of the fish up stream to face the current they could go left and right but not down stream ,when they got tired I would slide them to the shore and release them,you would fight them in the current but could not force them up stream,you had to keep a tight line and come towards them when you were parallel to them you could fight them to the shore,I started landing 7 out of 10,you would lose a few,it was not uncommon to lock into a dozen or so on a Sat morning.I dont know what size tippet you are using or what kind of flys ?

have a good and safe day.

Captain Wayne Valley Fire Service,Valley Springs Calif.

[WANTONJ]

A few years back I started fishing a fast water stream that had a fair amount current ,I was casting up stream about 40 ft using a Pheasant Tail nymph that had a wrap of lead on the base of the hook,at that time I was tying my own,also had on the tippet a tiny split shot, tippet was 4# test,the run was fast before it dumped into a deep pool,the Rainbows were in the bottom,if you were not heavy enough you would go over the top of them down stream.These fish were between 4# to 5.5#,when you hooked into one they would head down stream with the aid of the current and break off, I lost a bunch of them,they would always hit below me when the fly was rising from the botton up,the fish was already down stream from where I was at ,if you fished near to the pool you could not get deep enough,note most of the water was over your head,I tried 2 things,when my fly was coming down stream bumping over the rocks you could feel the pauses and sometimes see the line pause,but when a fish took it he was on without you feeling it and would turn down stream and plink,I put on a strike indicator and some of those pauses were hits,the second the indicator paused I would horse the nose of the fish up stream to face the current they could go left and right but not down stream ,when they got tired I would slide them to the shore and release them,you would fight them in the current but could not force them up stream,you had to keep a tight line and come towards them when you were parallel to them you could fight them to the shore,I started landing 7 out of 10,you would lose a few,it was not uncommon to lock into a dozen or so on a Sat morning.I dont know what size tippet you are using ?

have a good and safe day.

Captain Wayne Valley Fire Service,Valley Springs Calif.