VIDEO: Riverside — Fishing Direction — Should You Work Upstream or Downstream?

by | Jun 19, 2025 | 2 comments

Fly Fishing Strategies | Tactics

The way you approach the river and the angle that you fish influences everything about the way you present the fly.

Fly fishers have a lot of options for fly styles — so a good fisherman can show pretty much every food form that a trout might eat throughout the day. And That’s not just by changing the fly, it’s by also choosing the angle or the direction that we’re fishing in the first place.

Precisely because trout fishing in a river is so varied, there’s never just one answer or one way to do anything. Everything works sometimes. But what should you do most of the time? That depends a lot on your tactics.

I’ll make a pretty strong argument that most of the best trout fishing happens by fishing in an upstream direction. I fish dry flies, nymphs and streamers while working upstream. And one of the only times I choose to work downstream is when I’m swinging something. For me, that’s usually wet flies and it’s usually at night, after dark, with a pair of big wets or a swung streamer.

So I work upstream about ninety-five percent of the time.

After all the articles, podcasts and videos since 2014, I still get comments from people who wonder why I fish upstream, because they work downstream, and  they catch a bunch of fish. I’m sure they do!

But here are some good reasons for fishing upstream. Some are about presentation, some are about trout habits. Some are undeniable and some are just personal preference.

I published an article a couple years ago about all this, and this Riverside video is borrows from that text.

Here’s the article:

READ: Troutbitten | The Advantages of Working Upstream

Here’s the video, and the audio will publish next week.

(Please choose 4K or 2K for best resolution.)

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

 

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Domenick Swentosky

Central Pennsylvania

Hi. I’m a father of two young boys, a husband, author, fly fishing guide and a musician. I fish for wild brown trout in the cool limestone waters of Central Pennsylvania year round. This is my home, and I love it. Friends. Family. And the river.

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2 Comments

  1. Bill on June 20, 2025 at 2:17 pm

    The Smith Creek fly box has some nifty features. I went to their website, and it’s not listed there. Any word on when this will be available?

    Reply

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Domenick Swentosky

Central Pennsylvania

Hi. I’m a father of two young boys, a husband, author, fly fishing guide and a musician. I fish for wild brown trout in the cool limestone waters of Central Pennsylvania year round. This is my home, and I love it. Friends. Family. And the river.

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