Articles in the Category Riverside

A handful of strict competition rules have been passed on to the whole nymphing community. And maybe that’s not such a good thing.

There’s a lot to be done with this system — many different ways to fish, with presentations that go far beyond what is commonly shown and talked about. This is not Euro dry dropper. And we’re not fishing within the constraints of rules and regulations that stem from the competition scene.

Instead, by taking a broad look at what’s possible with a tight line dry dropper approach, fly choice, leader design, weight position and rigging methods all open up into a set of tactics that are more fun and lead to more trout at the end of the line.

What’s the nymph really doing under there? How is it affected by the currents? And is the attached tippet dragging the fly unnaturally across, over, up or out of the natural, one-seam drift that our picky trout are waiting for? the current trend for lighter flies and lighter tackle has taken a strong foothold. But just a few years ago, the concept of anchor flies was driving weighty considerations in the opposite direction.

A lot goes into a good fishing trip. It’s a flexible framework of pieces and parts mixed in with a little fortuitous intuition. That first trout to the net is rarely luck. And when you start to lose count of how many fish have come to hand, you can be sure that luck has had very little to do with it.

The overarching principles of how to catch a trout — the headers of the outline — are these: Find Trout, Don’t spook them, have a solid presentation, choose a reasonable pattern, and fight fish fast . . .