A lot of you fly fishing people complain of being hacked from time to time, referring to the act in which you choose security passwords that are even simpler, perhaps, than yourselves. It’s not terribly surprising that this happens. After all, you are not very clever.

I’ve recently been hacked as well. In fact, it seems to be happening with more regularity. As an example, I’ll be resting under my cut bank waiting for a nutria or merganser to swim by, when suddenly my peace and quiet is interrupted by one or several indications that I’ve been hacked. Here are a few suggestions for you hacks:

1. Use an open loop, not a clinch knot. Not even an improved clinch knot will improve the way your fly swims. The clinch knot creates an unnatural hinge. Loop knot. Repeat.

2. False casting is for dry flies. Strip some line off your reel, use a good double haul and shoot some line. Forget the 10 and 2 rule. Throwing meat is not pretty, for crying out loud. Speaking of loud…

3. That loud snapping sound as you begin your forward cast probably means you lost your fly because you rushed your forward stroke. When you hear the telltale snap, stop. Check to see if there’s still a fly on the end of your line. If the fly is gone, do not continue fishing until it has been replaced using a loop knot. It’s annoying when the tag end of a leader drifts by my nose.

4. When fishing a weed bed, it’s a sound practice to occasionally inspect your fly to see if it’s collecting aquatic flora. Most critters in the river do not swim about dragging weed strands. Amazingly, I can tell a difference between an olive woolly bugger and a black woolly bugger dragging green weeds. If you must, use a weed guard on your fly. It may make you feel like a low-class bass fisherman, but who are you to be a snob, right?

5. Mend, but only if you need to. When you’re swinging a streamer, mend only as you need to and do so with some tact. When you yank your line off the water abruptly, imagine what that does to your fly.

6. When you go all stealthy, squinting behind your polarized sunglasses doesn’t make you disappear. I can still see you.

We cannot rid the world of hacks, but with these helpful tips perhaps the number can be reduced.

I am Roderick Hawg-Brown, and I speak the truth