Panfish

LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION – PART 3

Neil Travis - November 30, 2009

From a Journal by..

Last week we took on the issue of successfully presenting a fly to a trout holding along a bank in shallow water. Grass trailing in the water just above where the trout was holding and a complex hatch of various types of insects made the situation more challenging. I presented my solution to this particular situation and this week we want to examine the other three scenarios that I presented in the first installment of this piece.

The next trout in line is a brown trout holding in mid-current below a weed bed. Despite the parade of insects passing overhead this trout is not rising but is occasionally darting to one side or the other and then return to his holding position.

The rule of thumb is that trout holding in mid-water are feeding while trout lying on the bottom are resting or spooked. The erratic darting from side to side indicates that the trout is intercepting nymphs drifting in the water column. The question for the angler is twofold; what is the nymph and how to get it to him.

Hopefully the trout is holding at the end of a weed bed that has open water on each side. If the weed bed extends across the stream it may be impossible to get a fly to this particular fish. Any fly cast upstream will immediately become entangled in the weeds and a cast made directly to the fish will not sink fast enough to reach his feeding level. Unless the fish begins to feed on the surface the angler needs to look for another trout.

If the trout is holding at the end of a weed bed that has lanes of open water on each side then the angler has a shot at moving this particular fish. The trick is to drop a nymph into one of the lanes of open water and allow it to drift down to where the fish is holding. I would approach from downstream and slightly off to one side of the fish. I would wade slowly and carefully and get as close to the fish as possible. I would choose a nymph that represents one of the species that I have seen floating on the surface, or I might use a small scud. If the flies are small I will use some weight on the leader to get the fly down, and it may take me several casts before I get just the right amount of weight and the proper length of drift to get the fly down to the trout’s feeding level. A tuck cast might prove useful to help get the fly down and allow for a drag free drift. As the fly floated toward me I would be taking up the slack but mostly I would be watching the trout. If I saw him dart toward where I thought my fly was I would gently lift the rod. If I have handled the slack line properly and the trout has taken my nymph I am almost guaranteed of getting a solid hook-up.

Perhaps the easiest fish to catch are the ones holding at the base of the riffle. Again I would approach from below. In this situation I would probably use a dry fly with a nymph dropped off the hook bend, since the trout are feeding opportunistically an imitation that represents one of the insects that I found in the drift should bring a strike. The broken water in the riffle will mask my casts and I can put the leader over the fish without spooking them. I would watch the fish and pick out an individual trout. When a fish is holding in a feeding position I would drop my flies just a short distance upstream in the riffle water and allow then to float down to his holding position. If I hook a fish it will most likely run down into the deeper water below the riffle. This will probably allow me to hook several of the fish feeding along the base of the riffle without spooking the other fish. In similar situations I have hooked and released most of the fish that were actively feeding without spooking any of them.

The last group of fish I discussed in the first article was a group of trout feeding on a deep flat. The depth of the water made wading difficult and in many place impossible. The trout were cruising and sporadically feeding mostly on flies riding on the surface. The key to hooking a trout in this situation is patience and a carefully planned approach.

My approach to these fish would be very careful. I would spend several minutes watching the movements of the fish on the flat. Trout feeding in what appears to be a sporadic manner often have a well defined pattern that you can detect by careful observation. I would endeavor to discover if they had a pattern and also which fish fed most regularly. Next I would try to select one trout, generally the most respectable one, and concentrate on attempting to fool him. In this situation it’s likely that the commotion created by any hooked fish will spook all of the other fish feeding in the area, so I want to hook the best fish on my first attempt. Unfortunately, many times the most aggressive feeders are not the largest specimen and I might have to settle for attempting to fool a respectable fish but not necessarily the largest specimen.

Once I had selected a suitable target I would totally concentrate on that fish and ignore the other feeders. I would make certain that my terminal tackle is free from any ‘wind knots,’ nicks, or weak spots, and if necessary I would lengthen my tippet to allow me to make as delicate as presentation as possible. Once again I would grease my leader so that it would float since my method of catching this type of trout involves letting my fly sit on the water until the cruising fish passes by. When I have completed my tackle tinkering and have established the pattern of the cruising trout I will cast my offering out well ahead of where the trout is headed and wait. Unless there is a pronounced hatch or spinner fall I favor using a terrestrial or a midge pattern in this situation. I might use a small beetle pattern as a dry and a midge pupa or emerger as a dropper. Sometimes a slight bit of motion, a small twitch, will induce a cruising trout to take but generally I favor the dead drift approach for these types of situations. If I succeed in hooking a fish under these circumstances I feel that I have been successful even if I don’t manage to land it.

Well, there’s my solution to four different scenarios that most fly anglers will encounter on a regular basis on many trout streams. You may not agree with my approach, but I hope that it will give you some food for thought.

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