Committed Fish
Often times while fishing a big foam hopper to opportunistic trout an angler will “miss” the set. Often times it’s operator error. Setting too late, setting too soon, too much slack, not paying attention, etc… But sometimes it isn’t the angler’s fault and the miss is due to what I call “non-committal fish.” These are slappy, pecky, kissy, scared or curious fish that don’t fully commit to the fly. Sometimes it takes a twitch of the fly. I call it “twitch and sit,” where a couple of slight drags of a hopper can change an otherwise hesitant fish into a committed fiend. Other times it’s the pattern. Anyway, I always try to keep the anglers getting after it and ultimately we’ll find a committed fish. Here’s one fish out of several that was fully committed to a Grand Hopper on the Stillwater River.