The Lazy Arm

So, you see the indicator twitch, but you are just sure that it is just your weight that caught the bottom of the river bed.  So, you let it keep drifting.  There it is again!  Another little bump in the water, without a set.  You say to yourself, "I will get another chance at the end of the drift"... Guess what?  No more chances.  You now have to recast and start over.  There it is again!  This time the hiccup in the water causes your arm to go up with your set.  But, 2 seconds too late.  Game over.  Sound familiar?  The frustrations of a lazy arm or in my case, a delayed reaction.  Haha.  Recently, I have been at a loss of reasons why I am working harder, not smarter.  I know that every time a strike indicator does anything besides drift calmly in the water, it is a reason to set that hook!  And when I finally do get the timing right...  It's game on!

 In being ready for that set, you need to make sure you don't have too much slack line in the water.  You don't want to spend your strike time picking up line.   I know that I leave too much line on the water if it lies in too many waves and coils.  Mend that line and minimize the slack.  All you need is enough to keep the indicator drifting freely,  I mend my line near the top of the drift and maybe one more time directly in front of me as it passes by.  More than that... and you are doing yourself a disservice because you are possibly moving that fly with each mend.  Now, you should be ready to make that "once a lot quicker when younger" arm of yours raise to a tight line with a trout at the end of it!  Right?

The last little midweek "tippet" for you is to not yank on that "rock" that you set and hasn't moved.  You see, I had given up on a supposed snag in the water and handed my rod to my buddy for him to get it free for me.  He turned to me and asked me, "Are you sure you don't have a fish?"  Hahahaha.  That "rock" was indeed a big ol' fish just being honery and belligerent.  It didn't want to head to a net with an angler waiting for a possible photo shoot!   It gave a wiggle after a few minutes, he gave me the rod, and the rest was history.  So, patience is a virtue.   It could be a very nice surprise down under that is trying to outfool you...