Weight is weight. It's the original sin of fly fishing, and there is nothing inherently better about any of these styles. Use all of them.

Continue reading Podcast: Weight In Fly Fishing: Beads, Shot, Sinking Lines and More — S5, Ep4 at Troutbitten.

I don’t like using a rig that forces me into a water haul as my only option. I’m happy to use the water haul as the occasional problem solver, but for day-to-day casting, no thanks.

Continue reading Why I Hate the Water Haul Cast at Troutbitten.

Presenting natural, convincing or looks-like-real-food drifts is the responsibility of every angler. Whether the flies are light or heavy, whether we’re drifting weighted flies, drop shot or split shot, it’s our ability to adjust, to refine and endlessly improve that keeps us wading into a river anew with each trip.

It’s why we love the nymphing game . . .

Continue reading Are Light Nymphs More Effective? Is Less Weight More Natural? at Troutbitten.

You need the right tools, the right shot and the right methods for using all of it. None of this is complicated, but simplicity in fishing is often elusive, until time on the water eventually reveals what is best. Honestly, I believe there's no better way to carry and use split shot than what is shown here . . .

Continue reading Don’t Hate Split Shot — Have a System (with VIDEO) at Troutbitten.

Casting to the bank with my back against the wind, the medium copper conehead on the Half Pint wasn’t enough to drop my fly through the stained water and out of site, so I needed split shot . . .

. . . I turned into the wind with my head down. The rain pummeled the hood of my raincoat, creating a buckshot spray that sounded like small hail on a tin roof. With soggy fingers poking out through wool gloves, I reached into my vest for the disc-shaped container of split shot. I plucked out two #4 shot and quickly squeezed them onto the line . . .

. . . Use whatever kind of weight makes sense. Use whatever fits the situation and matches the objectives, and I don't limit yourself.

Continue reading Fly Fishing Strategies: No Limits — Fish every type of weight available at Troutbitten.

So you hate split shot, right? I’ve never had anyone tell me that they like using it. But for me, split shot is a convenient and useful tool in my vest, and I think it's underrated. It does things for me that can’t be done any other way, and I like it. Yes, I like split shot. Sure, I prefer weighted flies over having shot crimped to the line. (My nymph box is full of tungsten beaded flies.) But I also carry a selection of unweighted patterns that get a regular workout while using split shot for the weight.

Here are some thoughts about all that . . .

Continue reading Split Shot vs Weighted Flies at Troutbitten.

Why so much hate for the split shot? Guys grumble about attaching it to the line, bitch about removing it and snarl when it slides. That’s too much hate for such a timeless and effective tool. Sometimes, using split shot just makes the most sense. In a variety of situations, I use shot for both […]

Continue reading Stop the Split-Shot-Slide at Troutbitten.