At the top of the riffle, I turned to gaze downstream. With confusion and some sense of despair, I wondered what was wrong with my presentation? What else could I adjust to convince these trout? I’d spent the last three hours fishing nymphs and streamers in about six different ways. I’d changed flies, leaders, tight line rigs, indy styles, split shot to streamers, cadence, depth and streamer speed. I’d also hung up in a few trees and snagged the bottom countless times. But I had no answers and no trout to the net.
For the first time all morning, I slowed down and stared into the flow, until the measured sounds of water blended with the pulse of my own breathing. I thought about things and searched for answers.
Then it hit me. I was fishing hard, but I was hardly fishing. With all of those changes, I’d had no rhythm. I’d been inefficient and had struggled for consistency.
And now, when I look back on many of my toughest days, I realize, time and again, that it’s a lack of rhythm that starts the trouble.
Cadence
There are many excellent ways to find a rhythm while fly fishing. The casting stroke comes to mind, of course, with Norman Maclean’s father strictly teaching his sons the timing and flex of a fly rod with a metronome. We can also be in the rhythm of covering water efficiently, as we so often do from a boat, casting streamers and fishing five feet of bank water with the next cast, until miles have passed, and we’ve forgotten the time of day. We can be in the rhythm of going fishing, too. And isn’t that a splendid thing? To have enough river time to fish every day, or every other morning, or even every Sunday — just something or anything to keep the train on the tracks, making progress, picking up where we left off and moving forward.
These are some of the wonderful rhythms of fly fishing. And the steadiness, ease and predictability of such things are all parts of the intangible attraction that makes fishing something which takes hold of us and won’t let go.
But then there’s the kind of rhythm that I want to call attention to here — the kind that keeps us efficient — the kind that allows for repeatable things, so we can improve the minutia in presentation until it results in agreement with the trout.
READ: Troutbitten | All the Things
The Repetition in Fishing
There’s no doubt, the best anglers are those who lock into a rhythm, making cast after cast to one lane and then the next, adjusting on the fly because the next cast is close to the one before it. And great fishermen won’t permit the distractions or deficiencies that breach such a rhythm.
As fly anglers, we get the chance to do repeatable things over and again, without much pause. Think about it . . .
Most sports are different in this way: A baseball player waits a couple of innings before he’s up to bat again, and he might go the whole game while fielding the baseball just a few times. Football, basketball, golf — the gaps between the action of doing are longer. So it’s tough to get in the same kind of rhythm. Even while playing darts with my sons the other evening I recognized this. I didn’t really want to wait my turn. I wanted to stand with my toe on the line and get in that casting rhythm — to throw a hundred darts at the board and dial in my motion, with one triple after another.
We get that chance while fly fishing. With the goal of short and effective drifts, we can achieve perfection or very near it. See the drift, refine things and move on. Repeat ad infinitum. That’s the game.
Photo by Austin Dando
So What Breaks Our Rhythm?
Snags, tangles and casting mistakes. Some of this is just the bad luck of a tough day. And, when we choose a stream with an abundance of tree cover, we know we’ll hit some of those limbs through the day. Fair enough. Snags and tangles are part of every day on the water. But yes, they break our rhythm. Some snags are unavoidable, but often, the tangles and messes that we tie into our line are our own fault.
What else breaks our rhythm? Too many changes. Too many tactics. Too much guessing, and a lack of confidence. On my worst days, I catch myself trying to solve the puzzle by changing too many things at once. Blaming the flies or the leader is usually a mistake. Changing the quality of the drift is more often the best choice. Changing the water too — fishing the next lane or the next undercut — is a good way to stay in rhythm. Cover water and catch trout.
So much of what breaks this fishing rhythm is within our control. And it’s the distractions of texts and phone calls, conversations with friends and more that rob us of the necessary focus to maintain the symmetry of good fishing.
How to Find Your Rhythm
In short, the best way forward is to simplify.
So if I’m struggling for a rhythm, I focus on just one thing, one style of presentation for long periods of time. I might fish a single nymph in fast water at close range. And I make it work. I might fish a Parachute Adams only along the bank seam off my forehand side. By doing one motion, over and over, I cover water more effectively and change less.
Simplify.
When we eliminate the guessing about fly changes or leader adaptations, we fish what is in our hands. And it gets better. Then we gain confidence because fish come more to the net.
Simplify.
Fish the same rod, too. Stop changing rods for different fly types. Don’t buy into the idea that you need specialized tools. Pick one rod, and get used to the way it casts. Master the rod in your hand. Likewise, choose a leader and stick with it. Fish also with a narrow range of tippet sizes, fly sizes and weights — whatever it takes to keep things familiar and repeatable.
READ: Troutbitten | My favorite Rods
Simplify.
If you’re struggling to find a rhythm, choose to fish water with few casting obstructions. Aim for clean presentations to a single lane. If your nymphs or streamers are snagging too often, choose strike zone rides rather than the bottom. Do whatever it takes to perform something repeatable, without pause.
River Time
Ultimately, finding a rhythm puts the fly in the water more often. All the distractions, all the rigs and fly changes, all the questions, have the fly out of the water, costing valuable time and breaking your rhythm.
Trout can only eat what you show them. So find your rhythm and show trout your flies more often.
Fish hard, friends.
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Enjoy the day.
Domenick Swentosky
T R O U T B I T T E N
domenick@troutbitten.com
Nothing breaks my angling rhythm more than the presence and activity of other anglers.
For me it is a very hard distraction to ignore so I work at finding solitude by moving away from the crowds or even individual fly fishers. The upshot is more often than not finding unpressured and more cooperative fish.
Agreed.
Nicely said Dom. The two rod thing has been a detriment to me in the past.
Nice article Dom and I cN related to Rick’s comment. Moving away from crowds allows me to focus more on my tactics/presentations.
Yup
The BIG takeaway from your article is SIMPLICITY. I see so many anglers arrive with 4 rods and WAY too many options. My advice to many is to keep it simple. When I started fly fishing in the late ’70’s, there were few options. In the beginning I only had one rod, one reel, one tapered leader and only 2 or 3 fly patterns TOTAL! The result, we were forced to focus on developing our technique instead of spending time making changes in equipment. In the long run, it made me a much better fisherman. Once I had developed the skills, I then added the options.
With that said, I too have noticed a break in my rhythm. The most common cause for me is breaking off on a tree or underwater obstruction. It forces a new fly and can sometimes affect the length of my leader, thus affecting my strike detection. I feel the loss of rhythm when it happens, usually after I’ve been IN THE ZONE catching fish after fish, then a sudden struggle ensues to recapture that rhythm.
Nice article,
Jim Parks
“Tails of the Smokies”
Good stuff, Jim.
Dom
Whoa,
This is such an important essay. Doubt is such a wrench in being effective (at anything).
Your tips are all spot on, especially about sticking with one rod. The best anglers I know do a few things well with one rod.
When I can’t find my rhythm or trust my presentation it’s most often caused by doubt or “magical thinking” that convinces me that I don’t have that magic fly or rig because fish aren’t responding to my presentation.
Fish likely water carefully, making sure your fly is being presented naturally in front of the fish. The most important thing to change is not your setup, it is changing your presentation more effectively.
Do a few things well and let the fish teach you.
Right on.
I could not agree more with your ‘simplify’ mantra. One way I address this is to minimize what I carry on the water. Most days I only carry a small chest pack with 2-3 boxes of flies and maybe another box in my wader pocket. A couple of leaders, a few spools of tippet, a few indies, some floatant, and a couple of tools complete the pack. Add a wading stick, a net, and a bottle of water to my belt, and I’m complete. Not only does this force me to concentrate on my presentation, it also feels much better on my neck and back at the end of the day.
Cheers.
At first I reacted negatively to your comment about ‘great anglers won’t allow distractions keep them from dissecting the stream’. It made me think the approach was too mechanical. But as I read further the takeaway I got was that being methodical in the approach and confidence are key.
We all have “confidence flies” and perhaps those help promote confidence in technique. What I hear you saying is finding a rhythm builds confidence in your technique. I hadn’t thought about it in quite those terms. But I know when I’m on a stream and believe I can take a fish out of a spot, I catch fish more often than if I only think the spot is a good one.
Simplify, build confidence with a rhythmic approach, and the fish will come!
Great article.
Sure, George. The point is to just find a rhythm in what we’re doing. All of life is like this, really. I think success and satisfaction comes when we know we are doing something well. And the only way to do something like casting and fishing well is to focus. All I know is that I see many of my clients struggle to find this rhythm. Many times, they throw a few casts and then want to change something. They hang up and get out of rhythm. They choose rigs that are too complicated, perhaps. But when they lock into a rhythm the trout start to respond. It’s fun to watch.
Cheers.
Dom
Dom,
Great stuff. I’ve been finding like one of your other commenters that my best rhythm and focus is with solitude on low pressured water (or at least low pressure for the season).
I recently did two outings to the same creek I’ve never been to before. No expectations and yet caught two nice wild browns. By the way I find the less pressured fish fight harder rather than just give up. My second outing the water was very clear and low. There were only few deep spots, about 4 feet or so. What are your tactics in low water during winter? Reading elsewhere besides keeping low and camouflaged and in low light. I gather I should perhaps focus on banks and other submerged rock hiding places? I would love to read an entry on low water tactics by season, if that’s important.
Finding your rhythm is adapting what you have learned in the past to what the stream is giving you now. To me a good indicator of when you are in the rhythm of the stream is the unnoticed passage of time.