I sat in the passenger seat of Dad’s Chevy pickup, eager with anticipation after forty hours of travel. With a camper in tow, our progress through the Rockies was concluding in a final slow decent into the valley.

I’ll never forget the moment I looked down on the Yellowstone river for the first time. We stopped the truck and camper in a small pull-off to let the dog run and stretch our bodies with satisfaction.

“That’s a big river,” I said aloud. Dad nodded.

When we fished it, the rocks, the currents, the undercuts and the grasshoppers were all bigger than I’d expected. It was, in fact, the biggest water I’d ever fished. And for one full day I made the same big mistake. I tried to fish too much of it.

Fishing big trout rivers demands one key character trait. Discipline. And having that discipline leads you to solving all the other problems that might arise with big waters.

Let me point out that I’m talking about wade fishing. If you can get a boat onto a big river, do it. Because that’s a hell of a fun way to fish for trout too.

Most trout fishing takes place on medium to small rivers and streams. I think that’s fair. But the wade angler who visits a valley that’s two, three of four times larger than what they’re used to can easily become lost. I did on that first trip out west. And I’ve made the same error every time I’ve visited big trout rivers back home as well . . .

I try to cover too much.

I still do it. I start lengthening my drifts and extending my reach. I start accepting sub-par drifts and retrieves just because the fly lands in some juicy water far away. But getting the fly to that water isn’t good enough. The fly has to be believable and the presentation has to be there. We all know it. However, most anglers are tempted by big water. We fall for the trap. The river dares us to fish the far side, and it tricks us away from the things we do well.

READ: Troutbitten | Get a Good Drift, Then Move On

These are easy mistakes to make on big water. But discipline solves the problems. Actively planning and following through is an elusive quest with a fishing rod in hand. Most of us want to be creative. We want to follow our whims. The shady side of that boulder sure looks good, right? So why not make a few casts? Then fifteen minutes later, you’ve wasted time, energy and confidence with bad drifts and poor judgment.

The common advice is to break a big river into many small rivers and fish each of them. That’s good stuff. And I have routinely done well by choosing whichever bank I can wade near, then fishing just the first thirty feet out from it. Nothing more, no matter how much the middle of the river calls to me.

Other times, I’ve walked a half mile just to find the next riffle that I could wade. Then I’ve chosen one or two prominent rocks, fished the three lanes downstream of them (five lanes, really) and only then allowed myself to think about what’s next.

Make a plan. Follow through. Then reevaluate.

And the next plan for a big river should always start with the question, “What water can I fish well?”

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