Fly Fishing in the Rain

[ludeboy_77]

A thought that came to mind, since a rain storm might throw a wet towel on my fishing this Friday, is how is fly fishing in the rain? Besides getting wet and cold, is there anything else different, like do the fish behave differently? Wet flies only?

I was hoping that the rain drops on the water would take away from my novice fly presentation, kinda like fishing in the ripples of a current.

Any thoughts?

[Eric-WD]

watch out for lightning, that 9 foot graphite lightning rod in your hand isn't insulated. beyound that fishing in the rain is sometimes the most productive. wear a hat to keep your glasses dry, rain gear at this time of year can be so sweaty I would rather just change at the end of the session. I have little fly fishing experience so this is from my worm drowning days.

Eric

[gutbomb]

You may have a hard time fishing dries in the rain. I would suggest sticking with wets/nymphs/streamers.

And yes, it will somewhat hide sloppy presentations.

[clarkman23]

fishing in the rain can be some of the best fishing you'll have...especially if it is right during a hatch...just keep fishing your dry and when it sinks, fish it just subsurface...that's what the naturals are doing.

I also love throwing ants along the banks when it starts to rain...trout love 'em, especially when they sink. A great technique is to nymph with a two nymph setup except have your dropper be an ant dryfly fished wet and your point fly be something like a golden stone nymph. I've used this on several rivers around and it seems to work quite well...

~Randy

plus, you'll usually have the whole river to yourself....oh, and I second that about the lightning...don't fish if there's much lightning...

[Chris Dore 1]

Some of the best mayfly hatches here in Southland occur during rain. The drops break the meniscus, letting out pent up gasses, breaking the scum etc which often prevents many mayfly from emerging successfully, and the wet conditions prevent the wings of the dun from drying as quick, hence they spend more time on the water. You will often find due to this many more trout will respond to the hatch, for there is much more food accessible upon the surface.

As previously mentioned, fishing subsurface will often produce the goods also.

Carry a dry cloth for wiping your polaroids thogh, and a long billed cap will help to keep a little more rain out of your vision

Chris

[Sagittarius62]

I think that fishing in the rain can be very effective. My belief is that the fish turn on looking for food getting washed/knocked back into the water. The only thing I have found is that things slow down for a few hours after a good gully washer. Probably because their bellies are so full, and often the flow is pretty high so chasing a meal takes a little more work. As others have said, my sloppy presentation, and clumsy wading also gets lost in the general tumult.

[Joe Valencic]

I recently took my canoe to a small private lake for a day of fishing. It was overcast and a bit drizzly, but was supposed to clear within two hours and be clear and warm. Well, how often have you known the weatherman to be correct? It stayed overcast and drizzled on and off all day, and I had the most productive day of the summer.

Whenever I go out in my canoe I wear all synthetic clothes (My zip-off pants have a polypropylene brief liner built into them so I don't have to wear cotton underwear). If you get wet by a sudden shower (or flip the canoe like I did once), you will dry out quickly to be comfortable for the rest of the day. Cotton is not the fisherman's friend, and in the winter "Cotton Kills!" Stay with the synthetics. Now is the time the sporting goods stores are clearing out the summer clothes, and you can get some great deals on zip-off pants and 100% synthetic shirts. In the winter the synthetic underwear will help hold the heat to your body while wicking moisture away. Look for closeouts at Wally World and others as well.

Sorry for the clothing highjack, but I thought you might like/need the information.

Joe

[flyandtie]

Lighting and thunder shows up,,, YOU get the heck outta there quick!

Besides that, It's not wet and cold if you are wearing the proper gear. I use my lightweight frog toggs when its raining and I still wanna fish. They are fabulous for the price you get them for.

The fishing can be great, or it can really suck. depends really, I have had some days when the fish die off the bite when rain shows up. Other times it's ridiculous how they start to hit.

The rain drops hitting the surface will mask some flaws in presentation, and allow you to use a bigger tippet size.

Fish get less cautious when it rains. The water is all covered in droplet rings so the fish cannot be seen by predators as easily(predators do include you )They come up to or nearer to the surface and start to feed because they let their guard down.

I use streamers and nymphs when it starts to rain and usually catch my biggest fish when it rains because of this guard letting down.

My streamers usually consist of bunny strip flies, palmered bunny flies, buggers, and other big boys of the streamer family. Most any color really, sometimes white if I want to see the fly. Mostly black, olive and brown work the best for me, though.

Nymph's can be mostly anything! I use all the usual lip rippers, Pheasant tail nymphs, GRHE, Copper john, and others. Emergers also work well for me in around a #12-16, buggy emergers though, like my Picky trout killer.

Anyway sorry for the long post, just tryin to help out

[ludeboy_77]

Now it sounds like FUN! and now I want it to rain. I will be mindful of the lightning, I don't want to become a news story.

Thanks again

[ELKHUNTER]

Some of the best fishing I have had has been during or right after a rain. I find it best where there are trees or brush overhanging the water. The fish seem to know that insects will be washed off the branches and into their mouths. And the fishing pressure seems to drop off as some people don't like to get wet so you have more water to yourself.

Rocky