You’re working through the river, wading upstream or down, aiming for dead drifts or otherwise — and you’re moving, covering water and searching for active trout while trying to draw every possible insight from the experience. You learn with each step, with every cast, with each failed attempt and every trout that reaches the net. Because a versatile angler, willing to adapt, is a successful angler who keeps coming back.
And as you wade the river, you’re looking for moments. You’re looking for places to make that next adjustment.
I call these the changeout spots.
Knots > Fish
At the end of the day, the ratio of knots tied to fish caught can be amusing. But long ago I realized that rigging and adjusting things is a simple part of the fishing game. I have no problem spending a few moments swapping out leader sections, changing tippet length or tying on a second fly. It’s the cost of doing business, and the time investment is built into the experience. As long as I’m tying knots and making changes efficiently, without wasting time, I enjoy the process of testing my next theory. And I know that’s exactly how many other anglers approach the river too.
READ: Troutbitten | Learn to Love Rigging
What works? Why does it work? And what can work better?
The only way to find out is to adjust — to test.
But none of us want to spend all day with the rod tucked under our arm, watching our fingers do miniature magic tricks either. So we look for the best times to adjust. We look for the changeout spots.
Might have been the last snow of the year. I’ll miss it.
Find Your Rhythm
Looking back over my decades on the water, the most enjoyable days aren’t necessarily the ones when I caught the biggest or the most trout. They are trips when I simply fished well. For long stretches of time, I made great casts, got the drifts I wanted, found feeding fish and used the signals from those trout as pieces of a puzzle for where and how to catch the next ones.
On most of these days, I made dozens of rig changes and adjustments — maybe more. But if I was in a good flow, I did it in rhythm. And instead of changing flies or rigs at random, I took signals from the trout and changed with purpose.
Even more importantly, I probably made most of my adjustments at . . .
The Changeout Spots
High confidence pieces of water, places where you just know there are a few trout, these are your changeout spots.
In the first hour on a new river, you may have nothing to go on other than, “Hey, that looks fishy.” Instinct might be your only locator until you start to gather more data.
Did you spook two trout off the skinny side as you waded upstream? Did three fish swirl your streamer as they charged from the old logs in thigh-deep riffles? Maybe everything is hitting your tag nymph twelve-inches off the bottom and just out of the strike zone. All of these are great indications that suggest where and how the trout are feeding.
And with that data — with every fish caught, missed or seen, we start to understand what type of water should be considered to be prime.
Those prime pieces are your changeout spots.
READ: Troutbitten | Find Feeding Fish
Lost net
Work Them
Good fishing is about reading water and working from one piece to the next. And with an eye on my next piece of prime water, I most often fish the secondary stuff too.
Most times, I continue fishing the secondary water where I’ve had less action, just to keep testing things. But I may not spend much time there. Instead, I work fast through the less likely opportunities and get to my best chances in the primary water.
READ: Troutbitten | Cherry Picking or Full Coverage
And when I arrive at the next high-confidence, prime water for the moment, I start thinking about what change I’ll make, even as I’m throwing the first few casts.
Ultimately, I have such high confidence in the prime water that if the trout won’t take the presentation I give them, then it’s a great spot to change something up and fish the same piece of water again, without moving.
READ: Troutbitten | Asking the Best Questions to Catch More Trout
It’s nothing more than A/B testing. I know trout are seeing my fly, but they won’t eat it. So I adjust something about the rig, about the fly or the way I’m presenting it. Then I re-test.
For me, the greatest reward out there is in developing a theory, making a change and fooling a trout that refused my previous efforts. I could tell you a hundred stories about these times on the water and a hundred more times when I’ve experienced it with my guided clients. Solving that puzzle is endlessly gratifying.
Think Globally — Act Locally
One more point here . . .
Changeout spots should be small — one lane, one pocket, one undercut. Usually, these are sections of water that can be targeted without moving much. Because if you do move up through a lane, you very well might spook the trout you’re trying to catch. And circling back down to test with a new rig may not be a fair test.
READ: Troutbitten | The Spots Within the Spots
Like a good scientist, control as many variables as you can.
So as I wade upstream, I have my eye on the deep shady run that’s a hundred feet long. Then, as I approach and fish those shady lies, I look for the best of part of the whole section — the juiciest ten-foot bucket of that shady run. And that’s where I’ll make my stand. That’s the changeout spot.
Fish hard, friends.
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Enjoy the day.
Domenick Swentosky
T R O U T B I T T E N
domenick@troutbitten.com
Excellent article. And arguably one of the toughest aspects to put into words. It is amusing to me at the days that I look at my fly patch and its lined with seemingly 100 flies of any variety and know I caught 2-3 fish, and as I reflect on the day I feel that I changed on my own whim vs what the fish were actually showing me. Conversely, on the days that I make a rig/fly change in the situations similar to what you mentioned above; with either fish refusal or river conditions dictating that change, I am far more successful. And when I look at my fly patch at the end of those days, I know that each fly on it had a purpose for being there.
Thanks, Jacob. Great point, too. I feel the same about a ton of flies on the patch. Changing that many times rarely helps things.
Chees.
Dom
Dom,
Does your fish catching “Spidey (6th) Sense” factor into your changeouts?
I was a bit confused by this article. Are you saying to fish harder (and smarter) in the best spots?
Hi Rick,
Might just require a re-read. Be sure to follow the links provided to the other articles as well. I think the message is quite clear. Use the data gathered to find water where fish are feeding most. Consider that your prime stuff. And when you get to the next great piece of water, that’s your changeout point. So run your current rig through there with great drifts, then change and re-fish. The point is to find high-confidence water and have a reason to change, not just doing things at random. And I said all of that above.
No, there’s no sixth sense. But yes, always fish hard.
Chees.
Dom
Experience-based trial and error makes sense. When you fish 200 days a year and have multiple home waters that you know like the back of your hand, those reasons to change must be very intuitive. Any idea how changes in fish mood factor in? I absolutely love it when my spidey sense kicks in. It is isn’t often but when it does it’s as real as seeing and hearing. Ha!
Hi Rick,
Respectfully, it doesn’t take 200 days on the water or any special sense for things to get this. That’s the point really. Instead of trying to rely on instinct or some sixth sense, instead of trying to guess about the trout’s mood, we approach the water with an open mind, find feeding fish, learn what water seems to be prime, and then focus most on that water. And when we do get great drifts in great water, we take that opportunity to try something different in the same water. That’s the changeout spot.
That’s the only way I know to say it.
Hope that helps.
Cheers.
Dom
Got it now. Thanks for taking the time to help my aging brain.
Hey Dom:
Here’s a fundamental dilemma that my brain deals with constantly:
I’m fishing waters that aren’t packed with fish (blue ribbon natives and wild) and I pick a fly that I have confidence in and that seems appropriate but no takes. Is it the perfect fly if I did locate fish OR is it the wrong fly and that’s why I’ve had no takes? Help !!
Great post Dom – as a scientist (biochemistry), this really resonates: form a hypothesis, find the best place to test it, constrain as many confounding factors as possible, get data, and learn! Its what keeps me coming back.
Right on, Travis.