The Orvis Guide to Beginning Fly Fishing, page 8
Brook trout
Brown trout
Cutthroat trout
Rainbow trout
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Where to find trout around rocks
THE NATURAL PLACE TO LOOK FOR TROUT AROUND A BIG rock in the middle of a river is behind the rock, where the fish are protected from the brunt of the current. However, the force of the current also digs a trench in front of a midstream rock and along its sides, and a cushion of lowvelocity water also builds up in front of a rock. Trout will lie in all of these places, so when fishing around big rocks it’s important to make accurate casts behind a rock first, then a few casts to each side, and finally in front of the rock. By starting downstream behind the rock first you’ll avoid spooking trout in front of the rock with your fly line.
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Getting started in nymph fishing
IN MOST TROUT STREAMS, NYMPH FISHING IS THE MOST reliable way to catch trout. Surface feeding exposes trout to predators, so unless enough insects cover the surface to make this risk worthwhile, trout stay deeper in the water column and pluck food at their level. The best way to get started in nymph fishing is with a strike indicator, because not only will it let you see when fish take your fly, it will also give you an idea of where your fly is drifting, and whether your artificial is dragging across currents in an unnatural way.
Try to keep your initial nymph rig as simple as possible. Tie a weighted nymph or a beadhead pattern to the end of your tippet and then attach a strike indicator on the upper part of your leader. The indicator should be one and a half to two times the water depth up on your leader because the fly seldom hangs straight down, and you want your fly to be suspended a few feet off the bottom. Cast at an upstream angle and watch the indicator like a heron stalking fry in the shallows. If it hesitates, wiggles, or darts upstream set the hook instantly—it’s easy to miss unseen strikes to a nymph, so better safe than sorry.
Nymphs seldom drift as deep as you think, so if you don’t hang up on the bottom on a dozen casts, you are probably not fishing deep enough. To get deeper, either move the strike indicator higher on your leader or add a couple split shot to the tippet about ten inches above the fly. Once you feel comfortable with a nymph rig, add a second fly by tying sixteen inches of tippet to the bend of the upper hook and adding a second fly to this piece. Two weighted flies often help you get deeper without adding shot to the tippet, and you can fish two different patterns to find out which one the trout prefer.
The Copper John is one of the most popular nymphs used, and features a wire body, brass head, peacock feathers for the thorax, and partridge feathers for the legs.
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How to plan your first trout-fishing trip
IF YOU’VE NEVER FISHED FOR TROUT WITH A FLY ROD, your first trip should be with a guide. Guides do much more than row a boat and show you the best spots. Most fly-fishing guides are excellent teachers and will help you with every aspect of fishing, from rigging your leader to making the right presentation to landing the fish. The guide will have all the equipment you need, so you won’t have to worry about having the right flies or leaders or strike indicators.A day with a guide may seem expensive at first, but consider it an investment in your education.
Fishing with a patient guide will help you learn and have a much more satisfying experience on your first trip.
When planning where to go, avoid trout streams that are described as “technical” or “spring creeks.” These places usually offer challenging fishing. And I’d also stay away from waters that are famous for big trout, because many places with big trout don’t have as many trout, and because these places attract lots of fishing pressure and thus the fish get smart in a hurry.
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How do you know what insect the fish are taking?
WHENEVER YOU SEE TROUT RISING, IT’S IMPORTANT TO figure out what insects are on the water, not what bugs you see flying. Often, one type of insect is hatching while another variety is migrating upstream, and the ones most visible to you may not be on the water at all. This is particularly common with caddisflies, because these moth-like aquatic insects, while very important to trout, live for weeks after they hatch and migrate upstream in clouds that sometimes obscure the far bank. If you see caddisflies in the air, moving purposefully upstream in a straight line, chances are they’re migrating. If you see them flying in a slow, erratic pattern, or if you see them bouncing on the water’s surface, they are more likely to be hatching or returning to the water to lay eggs, and thus available to the trout.
You can tell a lot about what a trout is eating by the way it rises. This brown trout (can you spot it just to the left of the rise?) is probably taking something very small or an emerging insect in the surface film because the rise is very subtle.
Often you’ll find a large insect hatching along with smaller, more abundant ones. It’s natural to pay more attention to the bigger fly (and perhaps also wishful thinking because big flies are easier to see), but if the smaller flies are more abundant the trout may be eating them and ignoring the big juicy ones. It doesn’t make sense to us, but when trout zero in on one insect they may ignore all others, despite how good the big ones look.
Try to watch a fish rising to see what it takes. This is not as easy as it sounds, but if you can find a fish that is rising steadily, focus in on that spot until you can figure out what the fish are taking. Some anglers carry a pair of pocket-sized binoculars just for this purpose. If you see a fish rising to what appear to be invisible insects, there are three possibilities:
The fish is eating tiny, dark insects that are too small to see from your vantage point. Try a small, dark fly.
The fish is eating insects that ride low in the surface film. These could be spent mayfly spinners, egg-laying caddisflies, ants, or beetles. If it’s evening, try a size 16 Rusty Spinner (this fly imitates a ton of mayfly spinners and is a good bet anywhere in the country). If it’s during the day, try a size 18 ant or size 14 beetle.
The fish is eating emerging insects just under the surface. If you don’t see any bubbles along with the rise form, this is often the case. Fish an emerger, or don’t false cast your dry fly so it drifts just under the surface.
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How does water temperature affect trout fishing?
TROUT ARE COLD-BLOODED AND MOST ACTIVE AT WATER temperatures between 55 and 65 degrees Fahrenheit Within this temperature range, they’ll feed actively, rise to the surface readily for dry flies, take nymphs aggressively, and chase streamers for six feet or more. Below 50 degrees, trout feed less often because their metabolism slows down, and as a result they won’t move very far for a fly. They’ll also migrate to slower, deeper pools in very cold water, so the best way to fish for trout in cold water is with a nymph fished slowly, close to the bottom.
From 65 to 74 degrees trout don’t feed as readily. At these temperatures their metabolism stays high but the ability of the warmer water to hold enough dissolved oxygen to sustain them is greatly decreased, because colder water can hold more dissolved oxygen. Sustained feeding at these temperatures exhausts them—in fact, catch-and-release anglers normally stop fishing at these temperatures because playing a fish when water temperatures are in the 70s can tire a fish to the point where it can’t be revived. Sustained temperatures above 74 degrees will kill trout, although they can tolerate temperatures into the high 70s for short periods, as long as they aren’t stressed and temperatures during the night fall back into the 60s.
If the temperature in a river approaches the high 60s in the middle of the day, the best fishing will be early in the morning, when water temperatures are at a minimum. It’s often thought that evening fishing in hot weather is equally productive, but most rivers stay warm until after midnight because water cools more slowly than the surrounding land.
In cold water, trout will not move very far for a fly, so slow and deep is the strategy.
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How does weather affect trout fishing?
I’M NOT A BIG BELIEVER IN THE EFFECTS OF A BAROMETER change on trout fishing, because a fish rising from the bottom of two feet of water to the surface experiences pressure changes far exceeding those due to atmospheric pressure, so I just can’t see why a change in the barometer should affect the behavior of fish. However, I am a big believer in the effect of light levels and wind, and a change in barometer typically accompanies a change in cloud cover and the wind speed and direction.
Trout will feed in bright sunlight, and will feed actively if the sunny weather stimulates a hatch of insects, which often occurs in spring when water temperatures are low and sun on the water warms it enough to induce insects to hatch. However, most insects are programmed to hatch during low light levels because their greatest threats are from birds and from desiccation. Birds are less active in low light and the chances of a hatching insect drying out are much lower when it’s cloudy, so often when a sudden storm darkens the sky, you’ll see an abundant hatch of insects and heavy feeding by trout.
I’m really not sure why windy days inhibit trout feeding, but they seem to. In my experience, the worst weather for trout fishing is just after a cold front has passed, as the bright sunlight, lower water temperatures, and wind just seem to put the fish off. Given a choice, my favorite weather for trout fishing is a calm, cloudy, humid day. A slight drizzle doesn’t hurt, either. Pack your rain jacket and enjoy the great fishing.
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How fast should you gather line when fishing upstream?
FISHING UPSTREAM IS VERY EFFECTIVE WHEN FISHING A dry fly or nymph, but is tiring because you must gather the line in front of your rod tip constantly. Usually when fishing upstream you’re trying to make your fly drift naturally with the current, so you should gather line just as fast as the current brings it back to you—not so fast that you pull the fly, but fast enough that slack line does not gather under the tip of your rod. Slack line under the rod tip makes it difficult to set the hook, and it also makes it difficult to pick up line when you need to make a new cast.
When fishing upstream, gather the line as the current brings it back to you.
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How much do you need to learn about insects?
THE THOUGHT OF LEARNING ENTOMOLOGY SCARES many would-be fly fishers as it dredges up memories of high-school science class. Is it helpful to learn a little basic aquatic entomology? Absolutely, because different groups of aquatic insects have different life histories and different behavior, and knowing, for instance, that most stoneflies crawl to the shallows to hatch and don’t ride the current when hatching might save you from needlessly fishing a stonefly dry fly, even if you see a lot of them in the air.
As you learn about these insects, you naturally learn more about their life history, and when you understand the behavior of trout prey as well as trout, you’ll develop a canny instinct for predicting what the fish will do next. My advice is to learn at least to identify the four most important orders of insects and then learn a little about their life histories. These four orders are mayflies, caddisflies, stoneflies, and midges. Learning to identify the adults in the air and the larvae when you turn over rocks in a river is not hard and may even add to your enjoyment and appreciation of all aquatic life.
Mayflies fly slowly after they hatch and look like sailboats on the water and tiny butterflies in the air. The nymphs have threadlike gills along the abdomen.
Caddisflies skip and bounce on the water when hatching and look like moths in the air. Most caddis larvae build cases of stones and sticks, although some common species don’t build cases. These “free-living” larvae usually look like green or tan grubs. All caddisflies have a brief pupa stage between the larva and adult stages that is not often seen but is very important to trout.
Stoneflies are clumsy fliers in the air, and two pairs of wings are visible as they fly.The nymphs are flat with thick legs and tails, and crawl onto rocks along the shore to hatch.
Midges are tiny insects with only one pair of wings and look like gnats in the air and on the water. The larvae look like tiny worms and are often bright red or green. Like caddisflies, they have a brief pupa stage and the pupae are typically dark brown or black and very appealing to trout.
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How to decide what nymph to use
IT’S PRETTY EASY TO FIGURE OUT WHAT FLY TO USE WHEN fish are rising because you often observe what insect the fish are eating. However, if you suspect trout are feeding underwater on nymphs, the clues aren’t so obvious. One of the first things to do is to turn over some rocks to see what kind of aquatic insects are present. The best rocks to check are flat ones in riffled water because these are more hospitable for larvae. Many nymphs migrate to the shallows before hatching, so check the rocks closest to shore. Better yet, carry a small aquarium net and stir up a small bit of gravel and stones with your feet, holding the net just downstream to pick up the animals that get dislodged. The reason this is better than just turning over rocks is that some insects bury themselves in the gravel or silt and don’t live on the underside of rocks, and seining in this way may turn up crustaceans like crayfish or baitfish like sculpins.
Now it’s a simple matter to poke through your fly box for a fly that is about the same size and color as one of the critters you’ve dislodged. The most abundant one is your best bet, even if it isn’t the biggest, juiciest one you see. If that doesn’t work, try an imitation of the next most abundant creature.
If all else fails, just try some of the most popular artificial nymphs until you find one that works. Over the years, flies get popular because they work well in trout waters throughout the world, as the insects from a trout stream in New Zealand are not that different from the bugs in a California mountain stream. You can’t go wrong with a size 14 Beadhead Hare’s Ear, a size 12 Prince Nymph, or a size 18 Pheasant Tail Nymph. One of those will work most days in any trout stream in the world.
If a little olive mayfly nymph is the most common one you see when sampling the stream bed, choose your imitation ► accordingly.
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How do you fish for trout in very small streams?
TROUT DON’T NEED MUCH WATER, AND IT’S AMAZING how many can be in a tiny stream that you can barely jump across. The little trickles are often overlooked by most anglers, but you can have lots of fun plucking colorful little jewels from tiny streams. Trout in small streams are usually not very picky about what they eat, but are very spooky. So the fly pattern you choose is nowhere near as critical as your approach. Work upstream so you sneak up on fish in their blind spots, and keep your profile low by kneeling or at least crouching. Short casts, obviously, are mandatory, not only because you may not have much back-cast room but also because most of the pools you fish will be tiny and you may only get a foot or two of drift before you have to pick up for another cast.
The most effective way to fish small streams is with a dry fly.The fish lie shallow and can see your dry fly even if they are lying on the bottom, and small streams don’t produce as many aquatic insects as bigger rivers, so trout in the smaller waters rely a lot more on terrestrial insects that fall into the water—perfectly imitated by your fly coming from above. Choose a dry fly that floats high and that you can see, because trout in small streams take a fly quickly and you need to watch your fly so you don’t miss any strikes. It’s hard to beat a Royal Wulff, Stimulator, or Parachute Adams, all of which are highly visible and good floaters.
Keeping a low profile and fishing straight upstream will help you approach spooky trout in small streams.
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What to do when you can’t see your dry fly
IT’S IMPORTANT TO BE ABLE TO TRACK YOUR DRY FLY’S float down the current, and not only so you can see when a trout takes it. Just as important is to make sure that your fly is floating alongside that midstream rock, or over a rising fish, or that your fly is not dragging unnaturally in the current. Accuracy is more important with dries than with any other type of fly, but once your fly lands on the water it might do things you wouldn’t expect because of conflicting currents.
First, it’s important that you see where your fly lands so you can pick it up quickly.A few false casts over your target will give you a good idea of where the fly will land. Second, try to get in good light. Sometimes just a slight change in position will give you a better view of your fly. I often find that removing my polarized sunglasses actually helps track a dry fly if the light is dull, because glare sometimes helps you pick out your fly better against the shiny surface. If you can, change to a fly with white upright wings like a Parachute Adams or Parachute Hare’s Ear. Actually, any parachute fly will be easier to see because the wings stick up plainly.
If those tricks fail, you still have a few more. Treating the fly with silicone desiccant powder, the stuff used to re-float a drowned fly, helps it stand out better against the surface. Not only does the powder make the fly float higher, it brightens the fly a little and keeps it visible. If you are convinced you need a small, dark fly or a low-floating fly, both types that are tricky to see even under the best lighting, make your small fly a dropper. Tie on a large, high-floating dry fly you can see, and then tie about twenty inches of tippet to the bend of the big fly and add your little one behind it. Now you can watch the big fly, knowing that if the big fly drags the little fly will, too. And if you see a rise anywhere near the big fly—or if it goes under—set the hook!
