Why is the Jerk Strip so effective?
When you dead-drift or slowly strip a streamer you are searching for any hungry fish willing to take your offering. Sometimes you are rewarded; most times, you’re just prospecting. By using the jerk-strip retrieve you’re attempting to entice fish that are not even interested (read hungry) into attacking your fly. Here’s why- When you cast your fly and slap it down onto the water, then jerk-strip it back, you do so at a feverish pace, and if the initial impact of the fly hitting the surface calls attention to itself or the fast-paced retrieve puts the fly anywhere near a fish, it’s a fair bet the fish will react in a very primal manner based on (1) invasion of its territory and (2) the greater urge to disable and consume the smaller intruder. Here’s where this all goes wrong for the aggressive fish attacking your fly. Your quarry is now attacking it’s quarry. It expects to dispatch this intruder and return to the safety of its lie – with no sidetrips or surprises. When the fish inhales
