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Trout Fishing Tricks and Tips
by L.Woodrow Ross
Most tips for successful trout fishing are not deep,
dark secrets. They are usually bits of wisdom that have
passed down from friend to friend or sometimes learned
from a professional guide. There are, however, a few
revelations that seem to jump out at us when we are on
the stream and they become techniques that will
consistently add to your catch.
This article is related to fly fishing for trout. There
are many little tips that you may benefit from learning.
Here are a few for you to consider:
* Fish a dropper about 15" to 18" behind a dry fly. A
good set-up would be a caddis dry fly and a small
emerger pattern. If the fish takes the emerger, you will
see the dry fly move. It serves as an indicator. In
addition, you have the added benefit of catching fish on
the dry fly.
* Experiment with the same set-up as above, except
substitute a nymph for the emerger.
* When the fish are not rising, go deep with nymphs.
Pinch a split shot onto the tippet about 6" above the
nymph. Cast the fly in a quartering upstream direction.
Allow the fly to sink and then take up the slack line.
Keep the rod tip high and follow the drift of the fly
with the rod tip. As the fly passes your position, begin
to lower the rod tip to extend the drift. The split shot
should be tipping the bottom, and you will hang up
occasionally. If not, you are not fishing deep enough.
If you don't feel the shot ticking on the rocks of the
bottom, you may need to add another split shot.
* When you see insects hatching, and you think that you
have "matched the hatch", but are still not catching
fish, try using a smaller size fly. Often that will do
the trick. Color and fly configurations is important,
but size may be the most important attribute.
* If you are catching small fish and see a big fish
"flash" near him, he is looking at your fish as a
potential meal. Try something big like as Wooly Bugger.
Cast it down and across the current. Let it drift with a
little twitch occasionally. When it reaches the end of
the drift, let it swing across the current and then work
it back upstream with short strips of the line. You have
a good chance of catching the fish of the day using this
technique.
* When the water is extremely clear and the fish are
spooky, be sure that you do not "line" the fish. When
you cast, position yourself so that you can make a
quartering cast upstream from the fish. Try to get a
drag-free drift with the fly reaching the fish before he
can see the tippet or fly line. Also, keep a low profile
when
approaching the pool from a downstream direction. You
may need to kneel to cast and if possible, cast from the
shore so that you will not disturb the water with
ripples that will alert the fish. You will encounter
these type conditions in the fall when it has been dry.
The lack of rainfall will have the streams running low
and clear.
* When playing a big fish and he is running in a
direction that is undesirable (toward a snag or out of
the pool where you are located) you can often make him
change direction by changing the direction of pull by
leaning the rod in the opposite direction. It may even
be less pressure, since it may be in the direction that
he is running, but the change will often make him change
directions, back to a safer location.
* When all of the fishing pressure is on the good pools
after the weather warms up, try fishing the small pocket
water where there is good aeration. It is amazing the
size fish that you can catch in a bathtub sized pothole.
* Remember the key to catching fish when it is very cold
or very hot. Fish deep and fish slow. The fish will be
lethargic and you have to place the fly right on their
nose.
* You will almost always catch more fish on nymphs than
dry flies and they will be of much larger average size.
Dry fly fishing is the ultimate when the fish are
active, but day in and day out, nymphing will produce
more and bigger fish.
Don't be afraid to try new techniques. If the fish are
not responding, try something radical. You never know
when you might come up with a new technique that is a
real winner.
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