This week’s picture is brought to you by Brian.
This is my son and his first big brown trout! We fished hard two days, and on the last evening he hooked up with this big brown trout. This fish hit at dusk and took 20 minutes to land on a four weight fly rod.

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One of the first concepts that fly fishermen should learn is the ability to read water to determine which places in a river are the most likely to hold fish. However, another critical thing to learn is the patterns of fish movement for your particular waters. You need to know which water types will hold fish at certain times and when fish move into and out of them. Here are a few things to remember when reading water to find those feeding fish.

In fast streams with a high gradient and lots of pocket water fish will almost always hold on the downstream side of rocks in the slower currents provided there. This makes it possible for them not to expend too much energy. However, in large hatches where a lot of food items are drifting by, remember to look or cast in front of rocks and into faster currents. Sometimes the chance to find enough food in faster currents makes the energy expenditure worth it and fish will feed there and then move back to slower pocket water once the hatch is over.

Don’t overlook fast water in low oxygen situations. Often in the heat of the summer fish will move into riffles bordering on rapids because of the higher oxygen levels available to them there. Once water cools and is able to carry more oxygen fish will move back into more traditional water types.

One of the first rules fly anglers learn is to look for depth when looking for fish. Don’t get too hung up on this practice though as many times feeding fish move into more shallow water where they can catch a meal a little easier.

Always fish shaded spots on bright sunny days but beware that if there is adequate food in the sunny parts of streams that fish will risk the sunburn.

Also learn the particularities of your local waters. Streams with a high fish population will have fish spread throughout the water types while streams with low fish numbers will tend to only hold fish in the most prime locations.

One good way to learn more about where fish are in the waters you fish is to experiment with casts to not so likely looking spots every now and then. You may be surprised at where you’ll find fish and you may end up catching a lot of fish that almost everyone else misses.

This week’s picture is brought to you by JR.
This handsome brown was photographed on the Green River. Just one of many that day on the mighty Green.

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An interesting question posed to me this week got me thinking about migratory trout. While some trout live out their entire lives in basically the same spot, many trout migrate either to spawn or because of natural environmental needs. The most obvious of these are sea-run or lake-run trout like steelhead or various other species that have a similar life history. Some other trout, like some cutthroats in parts of Yellowstone Park, will migrate according to seasons and environmental changes in the rivers they live in. Here are a few things to think about when targeting migratory trout.

Follow the fish. First get all the info you can on the progression of runs before going out. Since these trout are migratory, you may need to chase them and might not find them in the same spot for long. Be agile and ready to move up or down river if nothing is happening. However, remember that migratory trout don’t feed as much during migration and so can be tough to catch and may require a number of casts to finally entice or provoke a strike. Move when nobody around is catching anything, but if a few are, then pound the water until you also hook up.

Look for natural barriers to migration. Often migrating fish traveling upstream will be stopped and will be found in much greater numbers just downstream of either natural or man-made barriers like falls, diversions, or dams. Fishing below such structures can be fast and furious but fishing above can be a total waste of time.

Fish fly patterns that imitate familiar foods. Migrating trout can often remember their favorite food sources from the lakes, rivers or ocean they are coming from. Trout know and remember the prey they have eaten most of their lives, even if it isn’t stuff that is found in the rivers where they are currently found. Try fishing leech, scud, and chironomid patterns to lake run fish or patterns that imitate bait fish like clouser minnows to sea run fish.

High flows move fish. Most of the time when rivers go up because of rain or other factors so will running fish like steelhead and salmon. If you get a bunch of rain remember that the fish will move upstream more during these periods than during periods of low water.

Fish staging areas as well. Remember that many times trout, like salmon, will stage at river mouths either in salt water or in fresh water lakes just before running upstream. If you seem to be just a little early for the run try fishing the mouth of the river with streamers, buggers, or leeches.

Fall is a great time to get out and catch steelhead, lake-run rainbows, lake-run browns, and various other migratory trout. Be ready to hit the runs near you soon.

This week’s picture is brought to you by Alex.
One of many big ones caught that day on McGee Creek, CA. This beaut made a few blistering drag runs before being netted, documented and released.

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One of the bad habits fly fishers fall into too often is to buy tapered leaders, tie their dry fly directly to the end of them, and then to gradually take length off the leader as they clip off used flies and re-tie. Eventually leaders get short, stout, and much less effective. This severely inhibits the angler’s ability to present dry flies to the fish effectively.

In dry fly fishing the leader serves two basic purposes - to create a low-visibility connection between fly line and fly, and to allow the angler to present the fly softly by gradually dissipating the cast’s energy as it follows along the taper from thick to thin and from more rigid to supple. Both of these effects ensure that the angler doesn’t scare fish. A short too-stout leader will scare fish on the cast by causing the fly to land too hard, the fly line to land too close to the fish, or it will spook the fish as they see the leader in approaching to eat the fly. Cutting the leader too far back into the heavier sections of the taper defeats both major purposes of a good dry fly leader.

Keep your leaders long and supple at the end by tying on anywhere from 1 to 4 feet of tippet to the end of the tapered leader and working down the tippet only as your cut and tie on new flies. When the tippet get’s any shorter than around a foot clip it off and tie on a new section of tippet.

I’ve noticed that almost all anglers could benefit by having longer leaders in most dry fly situations. Of course don’t go to extremes in length or the leader will be too hard to control, won’t turn over entirely on the cast, or will tangle too often. Experiment with what works best for you but keep in mind that a leader that is too short will almost always scare fish or sink your flies as they splash hard on the surface.

This week’s picture is brought to you by Scott.
Reminding us of colder weather. One of Scott’s catches on a cold day Erie, PA with hot fishing.

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Unfortunately dry-flies only work some of the time. Sometimes you just have to get your flies near the bottom to catch fish. Conventional wisdom says to add lead shot to the leader and fish your nymphs under an indicator for basically all nymph fishing but I often prefer to fish a dry-dropper set up, especially for fish in swift unsettled water and deep pockets around rocks.

Set up: Use a buoyant dry fly like a PMX, Carnage Attractor, Foamulator, Fat Albert, or other terrestrial or attractor pattern on a shortish leader. I like about 7 or 8 feet to the dry. Rig your dropper a little deeper than you suspect the water is in the areas you’re fishing by tying tippet to the bend of the dry fly. I like around 3 feet to 4 feet for most situations but have been known to fish droppers as deep as around 6 or 7 feet in big pockets around boulders. Use a heavy nymph like a Tungsten Bead Hot Wire Prince, Tung Teaser, or other tungsten beaded nymph. Usually the nymph I choose for these situations is so heavy that it occasionally pulls the dry fly under the surface on long drifts. Also a long light rod works best. A 9 to 10 foot 4-weight rod is ideal.

Method: Fish pocket water and deep troughs around rocks by getting fairly close, of course without being seen by the fish, and using short casts and short drifts. This is essentially a modified version of high-stick nymphing. Cast the flies to the head of the trough or pocket and quickly gain control of the line. After the flies land lift and hold the line off the water by keeping the rod high and only allowing a little of the leader and the dry fly to be on the water. Follow or guide the dry fly through the drift. Sometimes I even lift the dry up off the water a little bit to stay in contact with the nymph. The dry fly acts as your indicator but, since your line is fairly taut, also remember to feel for strikes. As the flies near the end of the drift lift them slowly; as they rise it will often entice a strike.

Practice this method any time you’re fishing around rocks or in fairly swift water. It takes a little time to get the hang of it but you may be surprised at how many fish you can pull from relatively fast water and deep pockets with a dry dropper rig.