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The Tap and the Take — Was That a Fish?
Using the riverbed as a reference is the most common way to know about the unseen nymph below. Get the fly down. Tick the riverbed. Touch and lift. This time-honored strategy is used across fishing styles for just about every species I’ve ever cast to. Find the bottom, and find fish. Better yet, find the bottom and know where the fly is.
But how do we tell the difference between ticking the bottom and a trout strike? My friend, Smith, calls it the tap and the take . . .
Fly Casting — Acquire Your Target Before the Pickup
Accuracy. It’s an elementary casting principle, but it’s the hardest thing to deliver. Wild trout are unforgiving. So the errant cast that lands ten inches to the right of a shade line passes without interest. As river anglers, our task is a complicated one, because we must be accurate not only with the fly to the target, but also with the tippet. Wherever the leader lands, the fly follows. Accuracy holds a complexity that is not for the faint of heart. But here’s one tip that guarantees immediate improvement right away.
Podcast — Ep. 5: Fly Fishing the Mono Rig — Versatility and the Tight Line Advantage Taken Further
After hundreds of Troutbitten articles featuring the versatility of the Mono Rig, now there’s a podcast. My friends Josh, Austin, Trevor and Bill join me to discuss how each of us fishes this hybrid rig as a complete fly fishing system, detailing the ultimate flexibility of this amazing tool.
The Troutbitten Mono Rig is a hybrid system for fishing all types of flies: nymphs (both tight line and indicator styles), streamers, dry-dropper, wets, and small dry flies. With twenty pound monofilament as a fly line substitute, better contact, control and strike detection are gained with the Mono Rig versus a traditional fly line approach. And yet, the casting here is still a fly line style cast. Ironically, it takes excellent fly casting skills to efficiently throw a Mono Rig.
STORIES
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TACTICS
Efficiency: Part 2 – Leader/Tippet Changes
My best days on the water are usually full of changes. The morning fog burns off, and I switch from streamers to nymphs; a half hour later, a swirling back eddy looks like the home of the next nameable brown trout (two footer), and I go back to...
Efficiency: Part 1 – Knots
"You can't catch a fish without your fly in the water." Efficiency has become a game for me; it's something I enjoy; it's something I think about when I'm not fishing, and I'm constantly trying to improve on a system that keeps my flies in the water and the downtime...
DIY – Bar Boots
I burn through boot soles fast. And cheap boots with poor foot support are a bad idea when you're wading heavy runs and putting full days on the water with lots of hiking, so I was spending about $150 every ten months on a new pair of boots. I used to resole my own...
NYMPHING
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STREAMERS
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ANGLER TYPES IN PROFILE
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BIG TROUT
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NIGHT FISHING
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MORE
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