Nothing compares to actively fishing streamers and watching trout attack the fly. In early November, I found good streamer action in some favorite water. The takes were spotty enough that I had to work for them, but frequent enough that I could learn the preferences of the trout and dial in a presentation . . .

Continue reading Fish and Film – Fishing Fall Streamers (VIDEO) at Troutbitten.

Moving the fly with the rod tip and not just the line hand is a fundamental skill that opens up many presentations that bring trout to a streamer.

The jerk strip is critical for any serious streamer angler. It’s a must-have skill for animating the fly -- for selling the streamer to a fish. And it’s the baseline for what I think of as a jig strip, a twitch strip, a glide strip, a head flip and twitch, a lane change, and much more. At its core, the jerk strip is a hand off from left to right -- it’s about moving the fly with the rod tip and then recovering with the line hand. In this way, the jerk strip sets the table for everything else . . .

Continue reading The Jerk Strip – Streamer Presentations VIDEO at Troutbitten.

Deep into the fall season, I revisited one of the most important small streams in my life. I fished dry flies and dry dropper. Fishing was technical at times, and the weather swayed from sunny skies to strong winds that created a canvas of colored leaves, until eventually concluding with a cold, calm rain near the end of the day.

But as great as the fishing was, all of it was secondary to the memories, both old and new, among the minor waterfalls of a steep canyon valley.

Continue reading Fish and Film – Mountain Water Memories (Dry Flies, Dry Dropper and Wild Trout) at Troutbitten.

How do we fish around midstream rocks? How do we use them to our advantage? Because trout surely use them to their advantage . . .

Continue reading VIDEO: Fishing The Rocks — The Opportunities Around Midstream Boulders at Troutbitten.

Riverside is a new video series from Troutbitten. It's a place for sharing some of the latest articles from Troutbitten and streamside thoughts . . .

Continue reading Introducing . . . The Riverside Video Series at Troutbitten.

There may be nothing more misunderstood in the tight line game than floating the sighter. But it’s a great tactic that solves a lot of problems and offers some unique presentations that fool trout.

However, there’s a lot more to floating the sighter than simply laying line on the water. In fact, without a solid understanding of what's going on, laying the floating the sighter can hurt the presentation . . .

Continue reading VIDEO: Floating the Sighter at Troutbitten.

Fishing is a story . . . On one of the last mornings of summer, I found good action with a Crossover technique, combing the advantages of both streamers and nymphs on a tight line, Mono Rig system. This style was a perfect match for trout that were eager enough, but not in all water types. I covered many different sections and enjoyed fishing some of my favorite wild trout water -- big woods and a big river.

Continue reading Fish and Film — Crossover Shifts (VIDEO) at Troutbitten.

Find feeding fish. Find the fishy water. These are the keys to putting trout in the net. But as the seasons change, so do the habits of trout. This film focuses on the shift between summer to fall.

Consistency on the water, day to day, requires an awareness of the shifts that take place, season to season.

Meeting trout in these times of transition takes some forethought and willingness to adapt . . .

Continue reading VIDEO: Fishy Water — Summer to Fall at Troutbitten.

This third installment of the Fish and Film series highlights the technical aspects of good, adaptive nymphing. It's a look at a full morning of fishing riffles, runs and flats, while making the necessary and natural changes to find fish.

There are many adjustments along the way. And I comfortably switch between pure tight line tactics and tight line to the indicator style, along with weight adjustments, using both beadhead flies and additional split shot . . .

Continue reading Fish and Film — Tight Line Nymphing and Tight Line to the Indicator (VIDEO) at Troutbitten.

The Lagging Curve is a beautiful way to provide slack to a dry fly, and it's my favorite way to get perfect dead drifts to a dry fly in rivers. I fish a lagging curve at just about any angle, using both a forehand and backhand cast, and it provides slack to a dry fly for days.

The lagging curve is really the opposite of what most people mean by a curve cast. This is an underpowered curve and not a power curve.

The leader design matters a lot, and so does the casting stroke. I cover it all in the video . . .

Continue reading VIDEO: The Lagging Curve Cast — Dead Drifts for Days (Fly Casting Skills) at Troutbitten.