I get my copy of STS a couple of months after the rest of you guys so the following quote is from the Dec/ Jan issue:

"I asked [Guy Schoenborn] how he knew when it was time to rear back and drive the hook home. 'Simple" he said 'I just WAIT FOR THE SECOND TUG.'" (p. 34 -- Trey Clarkson's article 'Steelheading "Magic"').

OK, I've read elsewhere about fly fishermen swinging flies and waiting a second or two for the fish to turn before setting the hook so maybe there's something to this delay game (and that's why I made the post).

But having had the rare opportunity to see steelhead take aeroflies/ aeropuffs in ultra clear water I was surprised -- even amazed -- to note (a) how far ahead of the fly the mono entered the water even when the drift felt like it was being handled with minimal slack; (b) how long (several seconds) the fish held the fly in their mouths before they spat it out; and (c)how all this could be going on and the angler not see or feel anything (until the fish swam off, or the line finally came tight on the drift) unless he had a similar 'window' and could see his fly as well.

Now maybe this was under exceptional circumstances -- a gin clear river with steelhead holding in 3 feet of 4 mph water, and a lightly weighted drift rig cast mostly upstream and dead drifted straight down the seam (as opposed to across and swung) but it still made us re-think a lot of what we were doing out there.

At the time my conclusion was that we must be missing about 75% of the takes because we never felt them. (Watching the fly disappear into the fish's mouth certainly improved the detection rate.)

So meanwhile there's a steelhead top gun who's waiting for the SECOND tug before he sets the hook?

Anyone have any thoughts on this other than 'Cross their eyes as soon as you feel a whisper'?