Admiring your casting loops makes you less accurate while also removing your focus from the water and your target. It’s a beginner’s habit that anyone can break in a couple hours, And it's worth it.

Continue reading Stop Looking at Your Backcast at Troutbitten.

There is no good argument for exclusively using split shot under an indicator. There’s also no good argument for exclusively using weighted flies on a tight line rig. I simply fish whatever weight suits the moment. Here's why . . .

Continue reading Q&A: How does weight choice change with tight line nymphing vs indicator? at Troutbitten.

The setup cast keeps you in control on the river. It allows for repositioning and redirecting the line, leader and fly to the next target. The setup cast gives you a chance to regroup and rethink, too. It keeps you in rhythm by keeping you out of trouble and lending new options to an active angler.

Continue reading The Setup Cast — Fly Fishing Strategies at Troutbitten.

I play the odds. I’ve seen what works best, so I repeat it the most. And I’d rather get two or three good casts against the next log for the next thirty seconds rather than just one cast to the log and twenty five seconds of stripping away from it. This is the mindset of having tight targets, of getting short and effective drifts . . .

Continue reading Q&A: Long Drifts or Short — What’s Better and Why? at Troutbitten.

Knowing sizes, weights, diameters and distances improves our effectiveness dramatically. And ignoring these details is a little like a painter not knowing their colors or a photographer not knowing their shutter speeds. So how do we easily measure distance on the water?

Continue reading Q&A: How Do You Measure Your Fishing Distance? at Troutbitten.

In the short term, reeling with the casting hand might lose fish. But in the long term, it encourages poor line maintenance principles.

In this article I give a lot of thought to the various inefficiencies and handicaps that hurt when reeling with the casting hand . . .

Continue reading What Hand Should Turn the Fly Reel? at Troutbitten.

. . .The fact is, keeping it simple only works when trout agree to your narrow terms.

. . . All those adjustments sounds complicated, right? What happened to simple? Well, it didn’t work so well. And it might actually be simpler (or at least more efficient) to make a few leader adjustments than to fight with dragging dry flies and short drifts all afternoon.

Continue reading Simplicity and Fishing at Troutbitten.

Skwala takes the minimalist approach seriously. The Carbons are high-end waders, built from the ground-up with mobility, comfort and toughness at the forefront.

The Skwala Carbon waders are a workhorse for the die hard angler.

Here’s a closer look at the best (and worst) features of the Carbons, as I see them, from bottom to top . . .

Continue reading 100 Day Gear Review — Skwala Carbon Waders at Troutbitten.

Here are ten different uses for the Uni-Knot. This universal knot is a problem solver, and it opens up opportunities . . .

Continue reading (VIDEO) The Universal Uni-Knot — One Knot to Rule Them All at Troutbitten.

Fly fishing gear breaks down. Waders leak, boots fall apart and pack zippers fail. The stitching at the seams of all this stuff takes a lot of abuse, so how long can it hold up? How well is it built?

The 100 Day Gear Review Series on Troutbitten takes a look at how gear is performing after the century benchmark. The Orvis Pro Wading Boots have outperformed my expectations. They are light but extra-solid. They are durable, comfortable and have excellent support in all the right ways. These are great boots . . .

Continue reading 100 Day Gear Review — Orvis Pro Wading Boots at Troutbitten.