Fishing Fast Water

Hi All, I have been away from fly fishing for several years and now that I am retired and have the time I have returned to the sport. One of the rivers that I have access to in my area is very fast and access without a boat is limited. The problem I am having is in how to fish the water I can access and should I expect it to hold fish. In most of the access points there are no visible rocks or sandbars to break up the flow of water. The bottom has many rocks on it. I have looked for seams that are reachable but there are very few. This river, the American in northen Cal, is quite wide, not extremely deep, but fast flows. I have been able to wade in several spots and I have been able to see fish moving through the area. I am mostly using sinking line and casting either up stream or across stream and then stripping line to move my fly. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

I will say this, that's about the hardest type of fly fishing there is. Only way I know of to get the job done, short of lighting a fuse.

fast water sucks, up here in the spring (june) the water levels get really high and fast. It is hard to fish for rainbow then, so most of the fishing that time of year is for salmon. the only way for us to fish this water is to put a 3/8 twist-on weight and flip that heavy sucker out their and hope for a nice drift.

That said why dont you look for some of the rivers tribs that might be a little lower and slower?

Be sure to read the Wet Fly article tomorrow, has your solutions. Will be on the front/main page under the photo.

Welcome to the best FF'ing site on earth cal...try running some streamers down stream and across. keep hte rod tip low, pointing at the line, mend to keep it all straight between you and the sunk fly and hang on right when the fly swings across the river downstream from you..pause at the end of the swing and wait a couple of seconds then 'inch' the fly back to you for a few pulls then cast again. You might be surprised. Good luck !

Cheers,

MontanaMoose

And, please, use a wading staff and floatation device.

Welcome aboard!! You'll like it here!!