With cold flows and eager trout, mountain water and small stream fishing can provide the perfect setup, the perfect escape, if you’re willing to put in the effort. There are some truly wonderful things about small stream fishing, and learning to work these waters teaches us everything we need to know about fishing any trout water. But the challenges can turn many people off as well.
Some very common ways of doing things out there are just wrong, in the sense that doing it that way hurts the angler’s effectiveness. There are a few of these bad habits that stand out to me every day.
Hanging your arms out there is the worst of them.
When casting, drifting, stripping, hook setting and fighting fish, the arms should be in, with the elbows in a natural position. Think of it as your fighting stance. It’s an athletic position, your baseline posture, and you’re read for anything. Arms extended is a bad way to spend any day. It limits your range of motion, changes your reaction time and put’s you in a tough spot to land a fish.
Get the cast perfect the first time, or the trout will pull themselves out of position to check your fly, then turn as it drags away. In these conditions you never get a second chance.
It’s technical, but fair. It’s unforgiving, but fun. It’s a new lesson at every undercut, and the whole thing’s over by 10:30 a.m
The truth is, I do not think you can create a hatch. But I’ve had enough fun through the years, testing the concept in key spots at specific times, that I keep doing it. Because every once in a while, those extra drifts have seemed to make a difference.
. . .But creating an ant hatch makes me feel like Brad Pitt (maybe like a dollar-store version). And it seems to spark the curiosity of a trout once in a while, just as it satisfies some odd curiosity in me. o.
I’ve known Josh as a fisherman and a friend. Now I’m excited to watch him tell his own stories. Honestly, through his videos on the Wilds Media channel, I’m looking forward to learning more about him as a father of five and a husband, to see more of his life on the family farm and about his deep commitment to hunting and other outdoor pursuits.
Because Josh, quite simply, is a natural.
Our objective while fishing is to catch a fish. That’s the point. And as catch-and-release anglers, we don’t fish to put food on the table. We fish . . . because it’s fun.
We can all list a hundred other reasons why we enjoy fishing. It’s the environments where trout live, the problem solving, the daily mystery, the beauty of the woods and the water, the therapy of being immersed in a river and a chance to interact with one of nature’s swimming creations.
But none of that means much without a win once in a while. Catching fish is the motivation. And without that reward, without the feedback that we’re doing something right and improving, all those other intangibles fade away fast.
More water means more food and more opportunity for a trout to use the whole river, from bank to bank, for feeding in the drift and for ambushing bigger food forms.
. . . So, fish the edges when big flows are recent. Fish the edges too when water clarity is at its worst, because slow seams near the bank often have the best chance to clear up, as sediment falls out of the current.
. . . However, given high water with decent clarity, I do not fish the edges any more than normal. And during the last few months here, I’ve caught more trout in the main flow than in the bank water.
So many factors figure into trout habits, and I feel like it’s my job to keep up, matching flies and presentations to the trout’s terms. And then sometimes I don’t want to . . .
. . . A few of those apex fish are still out there hunting cicadas. Still swimming. Still searching. Maybe they’re doing it on their own terms too.