The other day I was listening to a podcast featuring Charlie Craven. I was dreaming of fishing while raking another giant pile of leaves in the backyard when something Charlie said caught my attention: “Trout are not very smart. They eat everything down there.” It’s a...
Articles With the Tag . . . fishing tips
Fly Fishing Strategies: Sighters — Seven Separate Tools
Sighters are game changers. A visible sighter allows you to stop guessing where your fly might be and know where it is instead. By having a visual reference at a fixed point on your leader, you can track the movements of that leader, in relation to the currents, and...
Fly Fishing Strategies — The Add-On Line
Adding a second fly to the tippet section usually improves your chances of fooling a trout. Sure, there are times when the precision of just one fly is an advantage, but more often than not, I fish with multiple fly rigs. I like two nymphs, two streamers, and two...
It’s a Suspender — Not Just an Indicator
This August, 2016 Troutbitten article is retooled and revisited here. Bobber, cork, foam, yarn, dry fly. Those are my categories, but who cares? If you’ve been fly fishing and nymphing for a while, you’ve probably tried all of the above. You have your own categories...
Fifty Fly Fishing Tips: #2 – Fish all fly types
The ultimate convenience and utility of fly fishing is in the way you can meet fish on any terms they dictate. With a fly rod in hand, you may deliver flies that are light or heavy, flies as large as your palm or smaller than the freckles on your hand. You can fish...
Streamside | Fly rod length vs Fly Rod Reach — Devin Olsen does the math
Leave it to Devin Olsen of Tactical Fly Fisher to make a physics equation out of the length of a fly rod vs the actual reach of the fly rod. No, really. Leave it to Devin. I’ve often wondered and commented to friends that the 10 foot rod seems to reach a lot further...
PSA – It’s Hot Out There
As I backed into my driveway the other night, I glanced at the outside temperature reading on the rearview mirror. 81 degrees Fahrenheit. It was 11:45 pm. Yikes. For trout streams, perhaps the worst part of a heat wave is the high overnight temperatures. When the...
Fifty Fly Fishing Tips: #1 – Fish More
You should fish more. No, really. You should fish a lot more. Yeah, I know that family, work and the unfortunate surprises of life keep us away from the rivers we love. When I meet young people, full of ambition and new excitement for the fly rod, I marvel at their...
Change is good — Now give the trout another chance to eat a fly
I have a bad habit that I'm trying to break. Let's say I'm standing in the river, and I decide to make an adjustment. Maybe I change flies, add weight, switch to streamers or to a suspension rig. But after standing still for the modification, I often take a few steps...
A Slidable Dry Dropper System
A friend of mine once described a truly slidable, easily movable, dry dropper as the Holy Grail of fly fishing. I suppose it depends on where your goals and interests lie, but if you like fishing nymphs under a dry, then you’ve surely wished the dry fly was easily re-positioned without tying more knots. There is a way . . .