You can’t change a trout’s mind by showing him a streamer five times. If a trout doesn’t take the streamer on the first cast, he’s probably not going to eat at all, so streamer fishing is best when you show the fly to hundreds of fish every hour. It’s a different game...
A few years ago, Bill Dell and I floated a favorite river from dawn to dusk. It was one of those great days with a friend, with no pressure to put fish in the net and nothing to prove. Everyone wants a fishing friend like Bill. Both of us are dedicated to catching the...
 The Troutbitten Podcast is available everywhere that you listen to your podcasts. ** Note ** The Podcast Player, along with links to your favorite players is below. Something electric happens when we hook into the fish of the day, the fish of the season or maybe the...
Jigging is a time-tested tactic that produces across all fishing styles. Moving the fly, lure or bait up before allowing it to fall has fooled fish from the beginning, everywhere they swim. In fact, jigging might very well be the most primeval presentation. Dunk the...
The last ten feet can be the hardest. So, get the fish upstream, lift on a direction change, keep the head up, and spread your wings. When it’s close enough for the net, those are the keys to landing the biggest trout of your life . . .
Side pressure pulls the trout from its lane. While the fish faces the current and tries to hold a seam, side pressure moves that trout from its comfort zone and forces it to work against the force of our bent fly rod — all while keeping the trout low. And while we never want to play a trout to exhaustion, the art of a good trout fight is in taking them to the point where we have more control over their body than they do.
Want to get deep? Want to be sure the fly is low enough? Try the Touch and Go.
Sometimes, I don’t drift or strip the streamer all the way through. Instead, I plot a course for the fly, looking through the water while reading the river’s structure. And I look for an appropriate landing zone for the Touch and Go . . .
On a tight line rig, things are different. We keep line off the water — so it’s the rod tip that dictates the actions of the fly. Direct contact with the fly lends us ultimate control over every variable. With line off the water, it’s the rod tip that charts the course, the actions and all the movements of the streamer. And that . . . is a very big deal . . .
Watching your streamer is fun. It’s educational, and it helps to dial in great action on the fly. But if you’re not careful, you’ll start moving the fly so you can see it instead of moving the fly to attract a trout . . .
A good streamer bite comes with a shot of adrenaline, especially when the strips are fast and aggressive. As we see a wild trout attack the fly, our natural reaction is one of excitement. We set the hook, and all too often we continue the fast and aggressive motions of our retrieve. The trout never has a chance to get back down through the water column, and we mistakenly fight the fish fast and near the surface. Unfortunately, that’s the worst place for a trout, if you want it to stay attached.