I’m a newbie, and wondering how I should change my tactics when there is a light rain falling on the river? Any help would be much appreciated!
I personally don’t think so. I think you will find that an overcast, rainy day is a great time go fishing. Fish are typically less spooky and more active on an overcast day. I guess bright sunlight makes them feel exposed to predators.
Little do they know their #1 predator is frequently right there with them on those rainy days.
If you are trout fishing, put on a wooly bugger, cast out and strip in quickly. If there are trout around you’ll catch 'em.
use wet flies 
. i just discovered that one myself recently.
dont let the bad weather fool you in to staying home. fish dont care if it is rainging…they are already wet. get a decent rain/wading jacket and have fun with your local fishery all to your self…
As a guide, I often had to fish in all kinds of weather. Other than good weather, I found that days with light snow or rain falling always seem to fish good especially if there was no wind with it. A light rain, with dark skies seemed to bring a river to life. I liked to fish both streamers and nymphs during these times. I also found that orange scuds and red San Juan worms worked well as both dead scuds and worms would get washed into the river by the rain.
After the rain stops, try throwing some dry attractors. I have found that the fish will often look up after a rain and I have had some fantastic dry fly action in the hours following a nice rain.
As mentioned earlier, buy some good rain gear. Make sure you try it on and make a few casting motions in it before you leave the store. The other shoppers might think you are crazy, but nothing is worse than trying to cast with a tight jacket on.
Another good thing is, that you will often get a nice stretch of river to yourself when all the “fair weather” fishermen head home or stayed on the couch.
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Hi
I am a fisher from Colombia S.A. so our fishing is a little different from yours up there (we have rain all year, it can range in a same day from light showers to monsoon-like storms then back to bright and sunny. The tropic!) but here is what I have found works best round here:
The best patterns are soft hackle wet flies, for us here, bright colors (red, yellow, green, etc. bodies, with light brown or white hackle) work best when rain is still falling while dark colors (black, dark grey or brown bodies with dark brown, black or grizzly hackle) and fat bodies work best just after the rain stops. If the pattern has a little peacock herl in the body it works GREAT. Sizes for us here range from 6-12 for soft hackles.
The approach that triggers the most strikes is casting up and across letting the fly dead drift and then slowly rising up the tip of the rod to make the fly swing across the stream and finishing with not too short but fast, jerky retrieves.
Just before rain, nymphs (hare’s ears, pheasant tails or whatever works in your waters) work great retrieving with very short, fast pulls bringing the fly to the surface, no split shots or sinking lines, may be nymphs get crazy about emerging just before it rains, who knows?
The same flies work for lakes, better in bigger sizes but any size will do fine (we mostly fish lakes round here), for soft hackles and if there is wind try a floating line a long leader, 9ft or more, cast 45 degrees to the oposite side the wind is blowing, above active trouts (if seen, if not where ever you’ve got action before) and let the wind bend the line in a big curve, strikes may come any time while the fly moves dragged by the line.
If there is no wind look for any moving water (streams that feed the lake) and cast so that the fly drifts and swings; if raining, flies that are just below water surface work best.
Just before it rains nymphs work incredibly. Use whatever apporach you’ve used before, it WILL work.
Hope this helps.
Dave