This episode is about our winter approach, with advice on time of day, fly strategy, covering water to suite the river and reading what the trout want for the moment . . .
Search Month: January 2023
Fifty Fly Fishing Tips: #26 — The Art of Hanging Out
Sure, looking around once in while and studying the river will improve your catch rate; you’ll build knowledge about a trout stream by just watching, there’s no doubt. But breathing deep and relaxing into the beauty of a trout stream (and they’re all beautiful) is good for the soul too.
Five Keys to Reading the Sighter (with VIDEO)
Control. Options. Precision. These are the most attractive aspects of fishing a tight line system, and the sighter is the key to it all.
A sighter is more than a strike indicator. It also shows depth, angle, speed and contact. It points to our flies and takes away the guesswork. For an angler who learns to read all of this on the sighter, that colored line above the water provides a most significant advantage to the underwater game . . .
Angler Types in Profile — The Fly Tying Artist
It’s easy to understand how tying flies makes you a better angler. And many fly fishermen take their passion for the river directly over to the vise. With that passion follows artistry. And for that kind of artist, what is wound around wire and bound to a hook comes with beauty . . . or there is no point.
One of the best tyers I’ve ever known would tie a dozen of the same fly and keep only two or three, stripping the rest with a razor blade to the bare hook. Why? He said he only fished the ones that had a soul . . .
Streamer Presentations — Why “Always Strip Set!” Makes No Sense
You don’t have to strip set your trout streamers all the time. In fact, using the rod to set the hook is a great way to do it. Just don’t trout set . . .
The Big Rig: The Two Plus One — Two Nymphs and a Streamer
Multi-fly rigs are nothing new. We pair one nymph with another all the time. Many of us fish two streamers, and most of us cast a dry fly with a nymph for the dropper once in awhile. But the pairing of a streamer and a nymph is less common. And maybe that’s because the typical presentations for each fly type are quite different — we tend to think we’re either streamer fishing or nymph fishing, but rarely both at the same time.
The Big Rig combines two nymphs and a streamer. With some minor leader adjustments and some outside-the-box thinking on tactics, you can kinda have it all . . .