Captain Patrick MacKenzie joins Loon Outdoors on San Francisco Bay to share a simple technique for improving your hookup ratio when targeting striped bass in shallow water.

When fishing large clouser-style flies on intermediate or full-sink shooting heads, a grab can happen at any point in the retrieve, but especially when the fly pauses and begins to fall through the water column. The key is being ready to come tight with a strip set instead of instinctively lifting the rod.

Patrick demonstrates how keeping the rod away from your body gives your stripping hand more room to work while making it harder to prematurely lift the rod. He also explains why returning your line hand to your rod hand during every pause puts you in position to immediately strip set when a fish eats.

And if you miss the first grab, don't lift the rod. Keep the fly in the zone. There may be another fish following, or the same fish may come back for another shot.