Trout Tutorial

[spinner1]

Bright sunny morning.
Late May.
No obvious hatches.
How do you fish this hole as a fly angler?
What do you use?
Is the angler pictured fishing the hole correctly?
Should you just bypass the sunny day and go home?

If you were a spin or worm angler how would you fish this hole?

Comment away.

No answer is wrong.

[waskeyc]

Len,

I'd love to hear how you'd fish the hole. But until then, here would be my approach.

Yes, I'd likely be in a similar position to the pictured angler. If I were really feeling ambitious (in other words, willing to change flies for a single hole), I would strip a streamer through a couple of times. Mostly though, I would make some repeated drifts with a nymph rig, trying to make sure that I got a drift along as many of the lanes as possible. I would only go to dry flies if the fish seemed very active and I thought I could get a good drift without drag from that position. Under the bright sun, stealth would be critical, so I would be careful not to get too close, and I would likely cause problems for myself with either bad casts or fly line drifting over the good water before the nymph, or both. But downstream presentations are tough, and moving to the high bank would probably be too exposed of a location.

For spin fishing, it would be similar to the streamer/nymph approach, first with an inline spinner retreived fast enough to make the blade spin, followed by a small jig drug and bounced along the bottom.

With bait (worm), I'd likely just use a little split shot and drag it very slowly along the bottom.

Regardless of the approach, unless the hole was showing signs of having many eager fish, I wouldn't stay after the first or second fish, or more than about 10 minutes if there were no bites (and the whole time keep saying to myself that I've stayed too long).

[WarrenP]

I do not know why, but, I will offer what I would do in this case even though it is difficult to say for sure since I am not there to really see the water. From the picture, it looks like the angler is downstream of the hole and if this is correct, I would slowly hug the left bank and ease up closer to the actual hole which I am assuming is the darker water above the light tan water. Once up closer, I would first drift a weighted Murray's Stremph through the hole with the first cast landing at the top far left in the picture and let it drift as close to the far bank all the way around to the tail out of the hole where the darker water meets the tannish color. Next cast I would start the Stremph at the same starting position as the first and swing it through the middle of the hole. With both drifts, I would add a few 3 inch strips to the Stremph throughout the drift. If I am incorrect and the angler is upstream of the hole, I would probably drift an un-weighted Murray's Stremph through the hole with added little strips to make it look as though it was trying to swim upstream. In both cases, I would try to keep the Stremph drifting as close as I could to the bottom of the hole.

The above is what I would do from looking at the picture and I may do something all together different if I was actually there.

I will not respond to the rest of the question about spinner and worms since I have never fished for trout with either one and do not ever see myself doing it. Not that there is anything wrong with others that do fish that way. I enjoy the challenge as much as the "catching" when trout fishing and, in my opinion, there is more challenge with a fly rod and fly.

[CoachBob]

i would start on the left bank with short casts extending the length with each subsequent cast so that I don't line spook fish there trying to fish the right bank. Once I had reached the maximum extent of my casting ability I would work my casts up the right bank. Wading toward the deeper hole is phase three and I would fish it left, middle and right. Looking at the quiet nature of the water I would use a dry/dropper combo and a long light leader/tippet.

[Ed_D]

I am assuming that the angler is standing downstream. From the picture It looks like the water to the left is just covering a sandbar and it looks too shallow to hold good fish. I think it is mainly a temptation to fish water unlikely to produce results other than spooking the fish in the deeper water to the right. Looking upstream from the angler, just upstream of the shady patch on the water, just above the first dark clump of grass on the right bank, just downstream of the bend of the stream, is where I would likely start. My nymphing skills are minimal so I would probably try a dry and a dropper with the dry being a terrestrial such a hopper, bee/wasp, or an ant. The dropper would probably be something small, brown, and fuzzy (at least fuzzy about the thorax). I would work up the right side of the stream. I can't help but wonder if the best part of the hole is just upstream, around the bend and mostly out of sight. All my verbiage doesn't mean that I wouldn't likely spook every fish for 30 yards.

Regards,
Ed

[Silver Creek]

There's a bend in his rod so I think he has a fish on!

[spinner1]

There's a bend in his rod so I think he has a fish on!

smallish brown on a size 10 black bugger with green crystal flash.

He cast to the top and mended right and ran the foam line.
No indicator.
The sun was already bright and they were hugging the bottom.