Something electric happens when we hook into the fish of the day, the fish of the season or maybe the fish of a lifetime. Our hearts beat faster. The adrenaline pumps because the stakes are raised. This is the fish we’ve been waiting for, and we don’t want to lose the opportunity.

Continue reading Podcast: How to Fight Bigger Trout — S3-Ep4 at Troutbitten.

The light of the last day of the year began to fade, and I reminisced a bit. It's been an incredible year for me, full of life lessons that I probably needed to work on for some time now.

Here's to living the next year vividly . . .

Continue reading Last Cast at Troutbitten.

Rivers are built from just a few parts. While the sand and soil of a streambed is fluid, the framework — the shape of a river — is directed by roots and rocks. Time and the tenacity of flowing water changes the shape of the hardest rocks, eventually carving granite into a new form, eroding and molding a riverbank toward a new course. And while nothing is eternal in a river or its floodplain, there’s enough permanent structure in a stream — the immovable objects — that good trout take notice. So does the big fish hunter . . .

Continue reading Where to find Big Trout | Part Four: The Permanent Structure at Troutbitten.

Somewhere in your favorite stretch of a river there’s a depression at the bottom. It’s wide enough and long enough to hold a trout, nose to tail. It’s as deep as the trout is tall — or a bit deeper. The river flowing over this depression in the riverbed is fast enough to bring a continuing buffet of food. And the water comes with the right shade, ripple or depth to offer good protection. This is a special bucket. Let's break it down . . .

Continue reading Where to Find Big Trout | Part Three: The Special Buckets at Troutbitten.

“You look at where you’re going and where you are and it never makes sense, but then you look back at where you’ve been and a pattern seems to emerge.” That's from Robert M. Pirsig. And man, does it ever apply to finding big trout.

Just downstream of a run, right where it blends into what can fairly be called a flat or a pool . . . is the spillout.

I suppose you can point to a spillout every time a run dumps into the neighboring pool. The feature is always at the transition. But for our purposes — for seeking out big trout — only a small percentage of these spillouts are good targets. So let's talk about that . . .

Continue reading Where to Find Big Trout | Part Two: The Spillouts at Troutbitten.

It does not take exceptional technique or skill to catch big trout. It takes an understanding of where they are and what they eat. It requires some forethought and persistence.

. . .Ninety percent of what you hear about most rivers is probably bullshit. Explore and learn these places for yourself. Try to forget the rumors. Discover the truth.

. . .Now I go to certain water types and river structures to target big fish. Every watershed that harbors the big ones has a few of these locations. It’s up to you to find them and fish them well . . .

Continue reading Where to find big trout | Part One: Big, Bigger, Biggest at Troutbitten.

The moon and stars are either in the sky and lighting your way, or they are not. Heavy clouds may roll in and block out those natural lights, or you may have clear skies all night long. There’s nothing you can do to control any of it. But the modern night fisher can choose from an arsenal of artificial lights — headlamps, flashlights and glowing things — to find his way through the darkness . . .

Continue reading Night Fishing for Trout — Headlamps, Flashlights and Glow-in-the-Dark Stuff at Troutbitten.

Midday. High sun and an overpowering heat. I stalked the banks of a large Montana river with my Border Collie at my side. I mirrored his shepard’s crouch: low, with my head forward, almost crawling through the dry sage brush.

We paused strategically under the thick Douglas Firs, not only for a break from the unrelenting sun, but for a real chance at deception. The large wild trout, it seemed, were at the moment, predictable — laying close to the banks (sometimes within inches), and waiting for the next overhead meal from a hapless hopper or any other random terrestrial occurrence. The evergreen limbs provided the shade for true cover — our only opportunity for real stealth.

Continue reading Fifty Fly Fishing Tips: #46 — Fight Big Fish Upstream at Troutbitten.

I recently wrote about locating and fishing rivers where big trout live. But there’s a level beyond that. The spots within the spots are super-prime lies. These are places that hold big trout (almost) all the time. They are as reliable as anything in fishing ever gets.

Zoom in. Get specific. Because, within every good spot, there's a best spot. And when you find it, you can really dial things in. The best fish will be there day after day . . .

Continue reading Super-Prime Lies and Big Trout | The Spots Within the Spots at Troutbitten.

The light of the last day of the year began to fade, and I reminisced a bit. It's been an incredible year for me, full of life lessons that I probably needed to work on for some time now.

Here's to living the next year vividly . . .

Continue reading Last Cast – 2014 at Troutbitten.