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.
Articles in the Category Tactics
How Big of an Ask?
Are trout opportunistic feeders? Sure, but it depends on the opportunity. We choose the fly and decide how to present it. We then pick what water will receive the cast. And to inform those decisions, it’s critical to understand what we’re asking the trout to do.
How big of an ask is it?
And how opportunistic do we expect the trout to be?
Here are a few examples . . .
VIDEO: HOW You Set the Hook Matters Most! — Hook Sets for Dry Flies, Nymphs, Streamers and Wets
This video breaks down all of the important things about hook set direction, hook set distance and hook set timing.
Setting the hooks is the most exciting part of the day. For all the time we spend planning, prepping, wading, tying, casting and drifting, it’s all in anticipation of that brief moment when a trout eats the fly. You fooled a trout. So, don’t screw it up. That’s why the hook set matters most. And planning for the hookset, thinking about how a trout might eat the fly and how we will respond, makes all the difference.
One Nymph or Two? — Here’s a Particular Look That Can Only Happen With Two
“That slowdown on the tag happens when the lower nymph — your point fly — reaches the strike zone,” I said. And even though both nymphs are going slow, they like the position or the level of the upper one.” That can only happen with a two fly rig.
The Setup Cast — Fly Fishing Strategies
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.
Dry Flies In the Patagonia Wind
An account of our last and favorite day in Patagonia . . . We walked the banks and waded through it all — a new slate for memories, a new proving ground for tactics.
Troutbitten Shop Spring Sale ’24 — Leaders, Hats, New Trail Merch, Stickers and More
The Troutbitten Spring Sale ’24 is here, with all leaders, hats and stickers back in the Troutbitten Shop. With this round, we have a few special items to offer, from the Troutbitten and New Trail Brewing company collaboration. There’s a Fish Hard / Drink Beer hat, sticker and t-shirt. The Troutbitten Shop is fully stocked. Hats, leaders, stickers, shirts, hoodies and more are ready to go.
Streamer Presentations — The Super Pause
Quite simply, the Super Pause is a lack of animation to the streamer for a long time. But that pause usually follows some kind of movement. Last fall, on our podcast about streamers, Bill surprised all of us by saying he often didn’t move the fly for five seconds. That seemed like a long time to all of us. I remember saying that I didn’t know if I had that much patience with a streamer. Dell did, and I didn’t. But I do now.
As Bill told me the other day, getting big hits and bigger fish at the end of the line can make you pretty patient.
Good point . . .
VIDEO: The Golden Ratio of Nymphing
One rod length over and two rod lengths up. That’s the Golden Ratio. That’s the baseline, and it’s where trust in our drift begins. There are surely moments and situations that call for something different. But a good tight line style starts here, within the Golden Ratio of nymphing . . .
VIDEO: Wading Belt Carrying System
How can we keep our stuff with us, make it easily accessible and not be slowed down or fatigued by extra weight? Answer: Carry the heavy things on your hips.
Most anglers focus on whether to choose a chest pack, vest, sling pack, hip pack, lanyard or something else. We think of carrying fly boxes, tippet, leaders and other incidentals. But what about the net? What about water, a wading staff, a camera or anything else with extra weight? Carrying these items should not be a secondary consideration. As the heaviest things among your gear, how you carry them is of primary importance.
The heavy stuff is best carried on your hips, so the most critical part of your carrying system is probably the wading belt. And most wading belts are not up to the task.
Forgiving Flies
This is one of the most amazing times to be on the water. Fishing through a snowstorm rekindles memories, ingrained from the novelty of tracking flies and fly line through the optical mystery of falling snow.
. . . This morning, I’m leaning on my favorite set of forgiving flies — just a handful of patterns I’ve noticed that our notoriously picky trout are more willing to move for and eat. These are patterns that draw attention and perhaps curiosity, but also don’t cause many refusals.