Quote Originally Posted by Herman Jooste View Post
... Missed it, but an improvement, i.e. I got the bump. As I was about to lift for the next cast I see a "ripple rise" to my right. 9# dropped, 6# picked up and flicked within 60 seconds, result? Nada, nix, Zilch.
Let it be a lesson to you to keep your line taught, it's a bad bad bad mistake to pull off more line when your fly has just hit the water, often you will find a LM pouncing on you while you're not paying attention ... no pain worse than observing that and knowing it was your own stupidity. I speak from experience.

Ripple rises don't typically indicate SmallMouth feeding on Adults/Emergers, you want the classic porpoise rise, otherwise it's mostly luck & little strategy.

If you see such a ripple rise again, apply bugger on 9WT about 1-1.5M ahead of ripple and to the side of where the ripple was moving to. See what happens (oh yeah, and if you didn't know it, hold on for dear life)