THE FIGURE EIGHT RETRIEVE: A must have tool for stillwater fishing, by Peter Cockwill

After years of observation and fishing, our friend and master angler, Peter Cockwill, tells us why it is useful to use a figure eight retrieve when fishing in Estancia Laguna Verde Lodge and how to do it.

Strobel for me has been all about using the 'Figure Eight' retrieve and that's because these extra special fish are in no hurry to be chasing their food and therefore a 'fly' that is slowly moving incites their curiosity and is more likely to be sampled than one that is being retrieved fast. The rainbows here achieve their phenomenal growth by predominantly eating scuds and daphnia, neither of which have much ability to escape, and of course, they are really small and tricky to actually imitate.

Soon as I realised this fact, I then spent a lot of time watching the fish and their reaction to our 'flies,' and it soon became obvious that the steady, pulsing retrieve was so much more successful than the fast 'stripping' style of retrieve.

The 'figure eight' retrieve is a puzzling term because it dates back to the days when fly lines were made of plaited silk and anglers didn't like the line accumulating around their feet in the mud and stones so the line was retrieved in the non rod hand and held in the hand such that when next cast it would come out of the hand quite cleanly and easily.

Prior to the cast, the loose coils of line would accumulate in the hand in the shape of a figure 8 and hence the common term for the retrieve. 

As silk fly lines were largely replaced by those based on PVC, they were somewhat thicker than of old, and also anglers were casting much farther than before, and it became very difficult to hold the coils in the hand. This in turn led to the retrieve being the same except that the coils were now dropped, but the term 'figure eight' stayed and remains with us today.

So, how to actually do the figure eight. It's one of those things that most people soon master, but occasionally it remains a complete puzzle to some.

Start by holding the line between your finger and thumb in your non rod hand. Now twist your hand away from your body and turn your other three fingers over the top of the line and then continue the twist so that your three fingers now bring the line towards you with the hand now in an 'upside down' position. Now you reach forward with your finger and thumb to take a new pinch of line while simultaneously letting go of the first pinch. The first loop should now drop out of the hand while you repeat the twist away from your body.

I find that works so very much better if I allow the line to slide through the fingers of my rod hand to provide just a bit of tension to it. Otherwise, it's all too easy to actually miss the pinch process and get in a bit of a muddle.

With practice, it's now possible to vary the speed of the retrieve from a crawl to a rather brisk pace.

Now, accepting that there's very little variety to the principal diet of Strobel rainbows, we now are largely working on their innate curiosity to come and try our fly as it looks or moves as though it is edible.

The figure eight retrieve is slower than the strip retrieve, which is a bit of an advantage as it keeps your fly in the water longer and means you don't have to cast so often (quite handy when fishing in a Strobel gale).

I like to fish with patterns using a long marabou tail tied to a standard shank hook, and I know (from years of observation) that the long marabou will wiggle when using the figure eight retrieve.  This wiggle acts like a trigger in a fishes head to make it think that this 'thing' moving enticingly through the water might actually be edible, and there's only one way to find out.

I have found that I can make a 'pulsing' wiggle to the marabou tail if I make a slight variation to the retrieve, and this I do with the little finger of my retrieve hand. As the hand twist comes around towards the body, I use the little finger to give a quick tug to the line, which makes the fly jerk and 'pulse.' There are times when this slight variation can make the difference to a fish committing itself to a take.

Take the time to learn the 'figure eight' retrieve. It is incredibly useful and really really works.

                                                                                                                          By Peter Cockwill

*Peter Cockwill lives at Hampshire, England, and has dedicated most of his life to flyfishing. Author, competition angler representing his country, guide, fly shop owner, and flyfishing instructor, are some details of his long career, now running Dever Springs fishery: https://deversprings.co.uk/

If you would like to get a hold on Peter, or perhaps lessons from him, which we highly recommend, as it could improve your game substantially, don´t hesitate to contact him at: petercockwill@aol.com

Thanks, Peter, for sharing it!!!