Warm Water guy needs help with Trout

Ok, here it is!

I have been fly fishing again for less than a year, all Warm Water, B/Gs, Bass, Crappie...etc. My local river is stocked with Trout staring Oct 31.

My "river" has very little current, so it's not like a "normal" trout river like I've seen on TV. Last year I caught some Trout, but it was before I started fly fishing again......ya know.....power bait etc.


My question is, if you were fishing for stocked fish in a rather slow river (almost lake conditions) what would you use?

Drys....which ones? Nymps?....which ones......etc.

Looking for ideas and thanks for you help in advance......I am SO looking forward to catching some trout on my fly rod....it will be a new experience for a southerner!!

An interesting question with no definite answer. I imagine you will gat a variety of opinions on your question.

I believe I would start with nymphs, using any of the more popular patterns, say in size 10 or 12. I would let it sink about 3/4 of the way to the bottom and retrieve with slow twitches. I would not be afraid to keep changing flies until I found something that produces.

In addition I would pay attention to what other fly fisherman are doing and if they are successful you might want to copy them.

Good Luck
Tim

Carl,

You are in luck.

Trout are much easier to catch than the bass/crappie/bluegills you already know how to catch.

A small selection of wooly buggers, a few semi seal leeches, and some basic nymphs (grhes, prince nymphs, pheasants tails) and you will be fine.

Weighted flies or bead heads, either will work, just cast them out and strip them back. Start with two flies, if it's legal there, a 'bugger or leech with a nymph behind it. Should catch all the stockers you want.

I'd only fish with dry flies if you see some fish rising consistently. Adams work just about anyplace, and are a good 'match' for the trout pellets the fish grew up on.

If you see others fly fishing, stop and ask what they are using. Lots of odd local patterns out there, and most are more than willing to share with you.

Trout, even the stocked ones, fight pretty well. Not as hard as a smallmouth or bluegill, more like a little largemouth.

You'll have fun until the real fishing starts up again in the spring.

Good Luck!

Buddy

Flip rocks shaking out plants too see whats in there.

Do some research (entomology) on what bugs you are seeing on-line. Once you have figured out what your looking at you'll now what patterns to look for.

Wish I could be of more help but all waters are different. But by spending the time looking you'll know your quarry even better.

JJ

Carl,
If the river isn't too deep, you might be able to use a floating line and sink a nymph or woolybugger. Of course it isn't impossible to catch the trout on dries, so try them too. Adjust your retrieve (with nymphs) according to how the trout respond to your flies. Your floating line could work as an indicator also, but I doubt newly stocked trout are going to bite softly, so that probably wouldn't matter.
Make sure that you pinch down your barbs.
Doug

Crappiecat, PM me your snail mail address and I'll send you a few flies to try. It might be next week before I can get them tied up.

Ed

Very nice gesture EdD

Hey CrappieCat, good luck you've gotten great advice.

Depending on how long they?ve been in the water, stocked trout may not have had time to adapt to feeding on insects like wild ones. How wide and deep is the river you?ll be fishing? And what kind of flies do you have now? Bet some of the ones you?ve been using in warmwater will work. As folks have pointed out, twitching weighted nymphs or buggers is probably the best way to go. Here are some options working with some stuff you probably have already:

Best bet might be to fish something like a size 10 or 12 black bead head wooly bugger in some of the deeper spots like pools, through runs, or along undercut banks. Cast out slightly upstream, wait a bit to let it sink, and slowly twitch-strip it as it swings down stream. If it?s really deep you could use a conehead bugger, or crimp on some small split shot to your leader. Ideally, you?ll want to fish them close to the bottom. Unfortunately, this means you?ll probably lose a few to rocks, so have some backups.

For dry flies, first look to see if there are any risers and/or what might be on the water and try to match it in size and color with whatever you have. If nothing was going on, or I didn?t have a close match, I?d probably spend a little time with something like a Parachute or regular Adams size 14 or 16. It?s a good all around fly for slow water on a 5x tippet. A Gray Wulff, which has white wings, and lots of hackle, will float a little higher and be easier to see. Other patterns you may already have and could use instead are Humpies, Elk Hair Caddis, Royal Wulff, Blue Wing Olives, Ants, or small beetles. All of these are good generic fishy looking things, and it?s worth trying a few in size 14, 16 and 18?s if you have them, to see if you can get anything to come up. Vary them up. Say a Wulff or Humpy in 14, an Adams, Tan EHC or Beetle in 16, a Black Ant or BWO in 18 just as an example.Even though the current maybe slow, try to get a natural drift with the dry fly by casting slightly upstream, and mending the belly of your line upstream if you need to. BTW, a good dry fly to have for trout, that you may not now, is a Griffth?s Gnat in size 18 or 20, for when trout are eating really, really tiny stuff on the surface. It can imitate a whole clump of small #26 midges for example, so it allows you to fish a fly you can actually see when there?s really small stuff. It?s a good pattern to pick up eventually if you?re going to be gunning for trout, even if you don?t do it now.

If it?s legal to fish more than one fly at a time, you could also fish a ?dropper?. Just hang a small nymph or wet fly like a Pheasant Tail Nymph, Brassie, Soft Hackle, Flymph etc. on a small 6? piece of tippet, one end tied to the bend of the dry fly, and the other to the eye of the nymph. The dry fly will act as a ?strike indicator? (think ?bobber?) for your nymph, with the added advantage of maybe nailing a fish or two. Generally, folks use a dry fly 1 or 2 sizes larger than the nymph or wet (to float it). So a size 14 Wulff or Humpy and a 16 PTN or 16 soft hackle or 18 bead head PTN might work for you. Just use a short dropper, ?cause longer ones get tangled on the cast more often

If nothing is happening on top, you could try swinging a wet fly like a size 14 brown flymph, an orange soft hackle or green Sparkle Caddis Pupae if you have something like that. Just cast across stream and let it swing down below you on a tight line. Work the water near you first with short casts, and gradually reach out with longer casts to cover more water after you?ve worked it. If you have them, you can fish bead head nymphs like a #16 Pheasant Tail, #12 Gold Ribbed Hare?s Ear or a #10 Prince the same way to cover the same stretch of water with a deeper presentation, different profile and size. As Buddy mentioned you can fish two nymphs or a bugger/nymph combo subsurface, (if legal) to give the trout a choice of patterns and sizes?.or to catch them 2 at a time.

If you want to try unweighted nymphs and/or egg patterns, you could to use them with a little micro shot (tiny split shot) to accomplish the same thing. You can just pinch the shot to the tippet 6-12? ahead of the fly. If you start losing some to rocks or whatnot, that means you are probably in the strike zone, but if it starts to be a problem, when you retie your tippet with a blood knot, leave a tag end of tippet 4? or so at the knot, tie a double over hand knot about 2? from the blood knot, and pinch the micro shot on the tag end above the OH knot. The knot will keep the micro shot on when you cast. That way, the nymph or egg will ride a little bit off the bottom and be much less likely to snag. If you do get hung up, it?ll probably be the micro shot, and hopefully it?ll just pull off the knot. PTN, GRHE, or a Prince would be good basic choices for nymphs. Eggs in orange, pink, peach and/or chartreuse made of yarn or that sparkly estaz stuff would be a good basic assortment. Eggs often work very well for stockies.

If you have a sink tip on a spare spool or back up reel, put it in a pocket of your vest and bring it with you. If you don?t have luck with a floating line, you could swap out the floater and use a short leader, say 4-6 feet or so, and something like an unweighted black marabou muddler or a black zonker size 6 or 8 for deep water pools and runs, fishing it the same way as the bugger. Purple, olive and all white can be good colors too if you have them already. Sometimes they can trigger vicious strikes, perhaps because hatchery fish are used to competing with each other. It?s a great way to catch big trout too, and it?s hard to fish them wrong. They?ve saved the day for me many a time, and my biggest trout so far was caught that way in a pool. If you don?t have a sink tip, you could use a split shot ahead of the muddler or zonker, or you could try a clouser.

Good luck CrappieCat, go get ?em. Hopefully everybody will be coming up to you to ask what you?re using!

peregrines

WOW....thanks to all for the advise.

Where to start?....lets see. I do have someGRHEN, and PTN, and even some BWO and Grif knats so that sounds good...

Yes, my concern was that hatchery fish would not be use to feeding on natural foods yet.

The water is prolly only 4 to 8 feet deep at the DEEPEST, and maybe 90 ft accross.

I think I need to print this post out and just take it with me! :D

Thanks again to all and Ed my snail mail address is on the way!!!

You guys are GREAT!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Buddy Sanders

Carl,

You are in luck.

Trout are much easier to catch than the bass/crappie/bluegills you already know how to catch.


Buddy

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:lol: Good one Buddy :lol:
Lets see if CRAPPIECAT believes that after he tries it for himself a few times

Buddy,
What about Goldfish?? http://smilies.vidahost.com/contrib/edoom/goldfish.gif Are they easy to catch??
Thanks,
Doug

CrappieCat: Good Luck. Please let us know how you fared.

Tim

PS - If all else fails try our secret weapon: http://www.flyanglersonline.com/lighterside/cartoon/

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Panman

CrappieCat: Good Luck. Please let us know how you fared.

Tim

PS - If all else fails try our secret weapon: http://www.flyanglersonline.com/lighterside/cartoon/

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^^^
Q. How do you tie that one?

A. VERY carefully!!!! :shock: :) :)

Doug,

Your photo didn't come up, but if you are talking about the noble Carp, then, no, they are probably the most difficult freshwater fish to entice to the fly. Incredibly spooky, picky about what they eat, just plain onery to boot.

They are also probably the hardest fighting fish in our lakes and rivers. Certainly they make the longest runs. Fight like bonefish, but are much harder to get to take the fly.

Carp are the only fish I know in freah water where you really need to have a reel with a good drag.

Dudley,

Why shouldn't he believe it? It's true. Once you become adept at finding bluegills, crappie, and bass in lakes, trout, especially stockers, present little problem. There is always a learning curve with new waters and species, but in this case it should be pretty short.

What makes trout 'hard' tends to be 'pressure'. Places where they get hooked a lot, or see a lot of flies. Wild fish in out the way places are pretty easy to catch, it's 'getting there' that poses a problem. Some of the tailwater fisheries out west, the San Juan, Lee's Ferry, places like that you get VERY finicky fish that require technically correct presentations. Almost all of these areas are fly only.

Otherwise, a piece of velveeta on a hook would quickly clean out the whole area.... :D

Buddy

Buddy,
It was just a Smiley, no big deal. Buddy, I admire you a lot, but saying one fish species is easier or harder to catch is not worth arguing about.
Doug :D

8) let me guess... maybe the blue river Huh.

Dark olive marabou size 10 1/124 oz jig with a smaller hares ear or san juan worm as a trailer( 6 to 10 inches behind jig). Fish this under an indicater with slow twitch and sit retrieve . If you are not just absolutely slaying them move the indicator up so you you are fishing deeper. If the fish slow down switch the nymph trailer before you move.

The jig matches the local minnows and the nymphs just look edible.
By the way the rig w/out the trailer is also great for crappie after the temperture drops. Try chatruese or orange marabou Good luck

OkFF,

No I live in Altus, and they stock the Altus-Lugart Lake below the dam starting Nov 1.....but I like your thinkin'....I do plan on making a trip to the Blue River when I get a chance! :D

And thanks for the advise.

Carl,

Sounds like OKFF nailed it. If that doesn?t work, and I don?t know why it wouldn?t, here are some more ideas (and ramblings).

If you want to try dries, start out with a 14 on top and a ptn on the dropper (if legal to fish w/ 2 flies). Current seams, foam lines, eddys, shadowed areas with over head cover and the heads or tails of pools are good places to plunk one down. If you?re not getting any action drifting over slow water, try a larger #10 or 12 heavily hackled fly and twitch it to see if you can tick one off enough to whack it.

I once fished dries in a pool below a bridge in Tennessee with no luck, or any sign of fish for about ? an hour. A young girl came along and emptied a bag of Cheeze Doodles into the water from the bridge, and out of no where the water erupted with a feeding frenzy of a bazillion trout rocketing up from the bottom. I guess it looked like feeding time at their old address. I?ve carried a couple of big orange stimulators with me ever since in case another doodle hatch breaks out.. Anyway, twitching a dry can sometimes work.

If no luck on top, in 3? of water or deeper, I?d go OKFF sugesstion or a bead head bugger or large dark BH nymph like a Prince, with a smaller unweighted PTN trailer, or a single streamer, like a marabou muddler. I?d try and fish it just off the bottom with a twitch retrieve, pausing before the retrieve and counting Mississippis to know where the bottom is, or where the fish are holding. Since you mentioned you?ll be fishing below the dam, a white marabou muddler could be good too if the lake has shad that spill over.

For shallower water, or to fish subsurface but higher in the water column you may want to pick up a few size 14 orange and/or green Lafontaine Caddis Sparkle Pupae like this http://www.flyanglersonline.com/flytyin ... fotw.html. Caddis are a very important part of a wild trout?s diet, ? and? don?t tell any one, but this also kinda looks like an egg pattern/hatchery pellet. Try fishing them down and across stream on the swing like a wet fly, maybe giving it a little twitch or two once in awhile. With a couple of micro shot, you can fish them deeper too, and/or see if you can find some that are weighted.

A couple of times I?ve caught stockies with cigarette butts in their bellies, and once caught a stocked rainbow about 10? long (on a muddler) that had 6 white rocks the size of marbles inside. The sparkle pupa kinda looks like them too.

Good luck! We?re looking forward to the report

peregrines

Doug,

Nothing about fishing is really worth arguing about.

I just like to beard the lion in his den at times, for the fun, you know....

Gotta stir that pot...

Buddy

And if all else fails, keep some bare hooks and Power Baits close by. Yes, I have done that in a pinch, just to avaid the skunk. i have even used canned corn...all with the fly rod, so you are technically fly fishing for trout. :roll: :roll:

As the old sailor once said, "any port in the storm."

Joseph the Resourceful

P.S. One fine day a friend and I seined hellgramites in the riffles and "lobbed" them into deep pools with our fly rods for smallies. Now THAT, friends & neighbors, was a hoot! (Did I tell you folks I was not a purist?)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by CRAPPIECAT

Ok, here it is!

I have been fly fishing again for less than a year, all Warm Water, B/Gs, Bass, Crappie...etc. My local river is stocked with Trout staring Oct 31.

My "river" has very little current, so it's not like a "normal" trout river like I've seen on TV. Last year I caught some Trout, but it was before I started fly fishing again......ya know.....power bait etc.


My question is, if you were fishing for stocked fish in a rather slow river (almost lake conditions) what would you use?

Drys....which ones? Nymps?....which ones......etc.

Looking for ideas and thanks for you help in advance......I am SO looking forward to catching some trout on my fly rod....it will be a new experience for a southerner!!

---

CrappieCat

I expect that you will be fishing Quartz Mountain. Try heading over to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/blueriverflyfishers/ There are alot of folks there with expertise that should translate well on the Quartz Mountain fishery.

^ Thanks, Robin, will do.

and Joe, i would have never thought about the powere bait!!! 8)

jk jk

Two words ~~ woolly buggers.

Black...
Brown...
Olive...
Conehead...
Tungsten head...

You name it ~~ you fish it.

Given your user name there is one fly that you absolutely must tie for your arsenal. Al's Crappie Candy is deadly on both crappie and trout. Actually, it will catch anything that swims fresh water. Here is the pattern:

http://www.flyanglersonline.com/flytyin ... 1fotw.html

No one has mentioned it and I'll probably get hammered for bringing it up, but for stocked trout try egg flies. Very easy to tie. I'd stick with nymphs or streamers unless you see fish rising. I'd also recommend you use an idicator of some sort.
Now I have to disagree with Joe that using bait with a fly rod is still fly fishing and so will most states. Not that it isn't effective but it isn't FF. Check the laws of your state. In most FF only or no-kill areas it is illegal to even have any kind of bait on you. Please don't use or chum with corn. Fish can't digest it. It will clog up their intestines where they can't pass it and will eventually kill them.

Tom