Articles in the Category Tactics

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 . . .

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 . . .

Our skill for leading the nymphs through a good drift and aiming for perfection is what puts trout in the net more predictably than any other approach.

Most anglers are tempted by big water. We fall for the trap. The river dares us to fish the far side, and it tricks us away from the things we do well.

. . . These are easy mistakes to make on big water. But discipline solves the problems. Actively planning and following through is an elusive quest with a fishing rod in hand. Most of us want to be creative. We want to follow our whims. The shady side of that boulder sure looks good, right? So why not make a few casts? Then fifteen minutes later, you’ve wasted time, energy and confidence with bad drifts and poor judgment . . .