12-30 SS Come Back Fly

Today we’re going to discuss comeback flies so please, after a short time out…come back. Talking with fly fishing expert Josh Mills the other day about steelie fishing and the fish were kinda hitting but not taking the fly all the way. Kinda like teasing, not commiting. I’ve experienced those feelings in two places, while talking to women and while fishing. But I digress. Here’s Josh: “It is a concept of moving to a smaller, drabber , less tied fly. What happens is it is like they are playing with it. They are not fully committed, they are half committed so if you switch to a different fly you may elicit a better strike at the fly and thus take the fly. If you find yourself steelhead fishing and you find yourself throwing flies at the current and if you feel there is someone at the other end of the line just plucking at it, pluck pluck and it is not really committing and it is obviously a fish, it’s not a rock but it’s not committing, if you do that a couple of times and it continues to pluck, pluck, pluck at the end of the cast, you can step back up the run a couple of steps, rest the fish for a minute or 2 and come back with what you call the comeback fly. Again the comeback fly is a smaller, drabber , less tied fly so there are less materials and it is smaller.”