Summer Fishing Made Easy !
Summer Brings with it unique challenges and opportunities . Gone are the big hatches (though there are still plenty of chances to match the hatch) , big flows (thunderstorms being an exception) and big crowds . Still with us are the trout and a more intimate angling experiance . You can break summer fishing down into the following catagories .....
1. Sight Fishing
2. Terrestrial Fly Fishing
3. Tiny Fly Fishing
4. Appealing to Preditory Instinct / Streamer Fishing
We will look at these one at a time over the next few days !
Sight Fishing
Sight fishing is just what the name implies ! It is fishing to and attempting to tempt very visible trout . For our puposes here we will take a look at subsurface trout leaving the visible surface feeders for other sections .
Fishing a Hatch
There are few things that put a sparkle in a fisherman's eye quite like the memory or anticipation of a big hatch . They are the good stuff , the holy grail of fly fishing for trout . They can however be elusive especially for those that don't get to fish often . This being the case here are a few thoughts on getting the most out of them .....
1. Start low and work up ! This can be hard to do when a few start to rise but it is essential you find the restraint and leave the dry flies alone , for awhile . The bulk of the feeding activity early in a hatch is on the bottom and your offering should be as well ! Start with a pair of the appropriate nymphs . As numbers of adult insects begin to get heavier clip off the 2nd nymph and replace it with the emerger on a 12 - 14" "leash" . At this point your nymph is still on the bottom .
As adult density gets heavier yet (you should start seeing a lot of mid column flashes and swirls ) start to lighten your rig up (take off some weight) and move your offering up through the column until finally there is a lot of surface activity at which point (and only at which point) it is finally time to break out the dry box ! Now you are still well advised to ALWAYS drop a nymph or emerger off the back . Do so and you will soon learn that the dropper generally will outfish the dry by a wide margin .
These are general rules of thumb .
The above will work well for you with the early Bwo's and the #18 Blue Quills .
Quill Gordon Hatch
Shortly after the Blue Quills comes an Elk River super hatch that requires something different . The Quill Gordons ! This big mayfly emerges differently than most . The actual emergence takes place on the bottom and it swims up as a sub-imago or dun . This requires us to change our tactics a bit .....
Now the 1st stage is the same , start with a pair of the nymphs . When the hatch starts to pick up steam though we clip off the nymphs and put on a pair of soft hackles ! Now you are actually set for the entire hatch though it is so much fun pitching the big #12 dries that you should definitely save some time for doing just that :) ! Back to the soft hackles .....
Since they swim up as an adult we need to mimic that behavior . This can be accomplished either by "lifting' your nymphs as they drift or by turning around , facing downstream and fishing classic wet fly style , quartering your cast and allowing it to swing and lift . Takes can be vicious !!
As I said above you might as well pitch the big dry awhile but I would still recommend you drop a soft hackle off the back 18" - 24" .
Grannom Caddis
This is by far the largest caddis hatch on the Elk . The action here is at least 90% subsurface and almost 100% riffle oriented .
This is another game of lift and swing the soft hackle . Forget the nymph (larvae), forget the dry (this may be hard to do at 1st) and concentrate on the pupae swimming up and the female adults swimming back down to lay their eggs . Between these two activities there will be 100's of thousands of naturals mid column thus making it a pretty good place to be .....
I mention that it will be tough to leave the dry caddis patterns in the box , where they belong . This is because there will be trout leaping everywhere ! These eratic , inconsistant , leaping fish are oh so tempting but THEY ARE AN EXTREMELY LOW PERCENTAGE GAME ! Not hollering at you here , just want to emphasize the point ;) .....
It can be very effective at times to run a soft hackle just barely down in the film (or greased and sort of floated) with a 2nd one mid column behind it . That's about as close as you need to get to dry fly work during this hatch !
Stick to the soft hackles and this will soon be one of your favorite hatches .
Next Couple Mayflies ....
OK for the March browns and Gray Fox (yes I know they are supposedly the same critter but they look very different to me ) we go back to the general rules of thumb . Ditto for the various small/tiny baetis that are kicking off their initial brood of the year at this time . Next in line are the Sulphurs which we will skip for a night or two as I have quite a few thoughts on fishing them which will take longer to type than I have this evening :) ....
Instead we will jump to the Isonychia (I came close to going with Green Drakes) .....
Iso's are another "oddball" mayfly . They swim to the shore (rapidly) , crawl out onto dry land as a nymph THEN emerge ! Therefore the only stage of the normal three (nymph , emerger, dun/dry) the trout usually get to see is the 1st of the three , the nymph .
Iso nymphs are extremely good swimmers , quite fast ! Knowing this combined with knowing where they are swimming to (the bank) allows us to very effectively immitate their behavior . I like to stand close to the bank , quarter my nymphs up and across and strip them very quickly back across current . Gravel/cobble runs at the head of major runs and pools can be very , very productive places to do this :) .
It is also often effective to swing them wet fly style though I feel the 1st approach is a better way to immitate the behavior of the real ones . Either way you nymph NEEDS to be moving .....
Now there are times , usually but not always during high water events , when there are duns on the water . If the trout are visibly feeding on them and if the urge gets too strong to resist go ahead and throw the big dry around . It will give your arms a rest , you might catch a few and then , well rested , you can go back to stripping nymphs and smacking fish ;) !
Green Drakes
The Green Drakes are a glory hatch . This is the one everybody goes on about . Visions of huge trout slurping huge duns dance in the heads of fly fishermen everywhere !!
Trouble with this vision is the above scene simply doesn't happen very often ! Have I seen big trout smack the big duns , one after another ? Yes . Have I seen it often enough to take off my Green Drake emerger ? ABSOLUTELY NOT !
Honestly I can count on 2 hands (and don't need all the fingers on the 2nd hand ....) , in my 20+ years here , the times I've seen it happen . In every case it involved high , off color water . If you sit around waiting for them to eat the duns you will have a long wait ... At least you will have lots of company because there will be plenty of folks doing the same thing , chasing the same dream and catching nothing !
THE ACTION IS UNDERNEATH ! Starting to see a pattern here ? With the drakes , with the hatch , like the Iso's you will be well served , 95%+ of the time , to leave the dry box alone , period . I am not saying don't carry a few just in case . I am simply telling you it isn't likely you'll need them . Now the spinner fall is a different matter .....:) .
A Mustard Green (my buddy Sean Wier's magic pattern) may well be THE most effective Green Drake emerger going . Yes the "wooble nymphs" work but year in year out the Mustard brings home the butter like nothing else when the drakes are on . Do yourself a favor .... have some in the box . Have a lot of them in the box ! I say the latter because you are going to get broke off on the take all too often , even on 3 X .and 4x . The takes are often savage !!
I get my best results by rhythmically lifting , then dropping , lifting then dropping , a pair of the emergers as they drift down stream . This is a cumbersome creature underwater and it often needs to make repeated attempts to break the surface . Immitate this behavior !
The nymph is a burrower so sections with muddy , silty substrate tend to produce the best action .
Continued on the top of the right hand column .........
Reading Riseforms
Something I get asked all the time is "how did you know they were taking the emerger rather then the dry" . The answer is always I looked at the riseform ! If they are taking things riding high on top their mouth will break the plane and they will expell bubbles as they drop back . If they are taking things riding low but still completely on top they may suck them down but they still must break the plane and will expell bubbles (might be hard to see ) . If they are feeding on pupae or other emergers in the film down to 2" their dorsal fin will break the plane not their mouth . This produces a very soft riseform . If they are feeding 3"- 6 or 7" under it appears on the surface as a boil . There are times when it can be hard to decipher but by and large the guidelines above will help .
Fishing Slaty In High Water
This is another area of major interest and in the coming days I'll let you in on a few things that just might up your major brown fish score :) ......
1st tip : It is NEVER too muddy :) !
I stumbled into the big fish fishing strictly by accident and fate . I had a trip booked and it poured all night 2"+ . I met them at the parking area below the mill the next morning(they were staying at Snowshoe) stated what I believed to obviously be the case (better to reschedule for another time) , set up another trip and said our goodbyes . I sat watching the high chocolate water then took a walk down the tracks and noticed that Laurel Run almost looked fishable . Looking at the confluence of Big Spring and Old Field Forks it was apparent 2/3 of the volume was coming down Big Spring and Old Field looked crossable , if barely .....
Grabbed the rod and decided to have a go wet wading . MADE IT ! Proceeded to fish Laurel picking up a few little brookies and a small brown in a short stretch , tired of it and headed down the bank to where Props Run enters . Picked up a few tiny bows and headed back down to the river to hike out . Standing there again just looking at the mud with a #12 Cream Larvae dangling from my leader . I took a cast up into the mud let it come right down the seam where the little bit of clear water from Props hit the river ....Wham !! 15" rainbow . Another cast a little farther out into the mud and Wham again . This fish hit like a truck turned and screamed down river and popped me off . Re-rigged and started fishing the heavy brown water . Wham yet again . Big brown fish :) . Spent the rest of the day fishing back the 1/2 mile to the parking area . it was crazy good . That night more rain . The next morning back to the mill we went and this time hiked down in to the 103 marker starting on the shelf rock chutes above (that's a clue) the railbend . Repeat of the day before with 3 browns to hand over 20" (best right at 23" ) and several fish that I simply could do nothing with ......
2nd tip : They may not be where you would expect to find them :) ......
Ok Where were we .... Oh yes
(Lets subtitle this........
Slaty IS NOT Elk Springs
This will probably be the hardest of the tips to take to heart and have enough faith in to put into practice . I am going to warn you in advance ....you will have to force yourself to try this !
Unlike Elk Springs you will quite often find the major butter in fast water . VERY FAST HEAVY WATER !!! Water that will try and wash you down stream as you dig in your cleats .... Yes I have caught big browns in the eddies and the slack edges up on Slaty in high water but it's been 10 - 1 in favor of the heavy flows . I mentioned the shelf above the Rail Bend at 103 . There is a connection in my mind between it and all my favorite shark chasing water up there . They all have large pools with tons of cover just down stream .... THEY WILL OFTEN LEAVE THESE POOLS AND SLIDE UP TO THE HEAVY RUNS ABOVE TO FEED IN A HIGH WATER EVENT .
As you stand streamside looking at one of these runs with the river ripping you will question my veracity and your sanity for listening to me but if you muster the faith it just might change the way you look at thunderstorms :) !
It must be 10 years ago (maybe more) by now but I remember sitting in the upper parking lot with 7 or 8 fellow shark chasers (Chad , Zach , Mike and the Old Man in the crew) after what had been a banner day in very heavy water . There had been 6 over 20" caught just above the Bait Hole alone (including Zach's 1st ever 20"+ brown ) . Anyways there we were sitting and celebrating the day when a dark cloud rolled over Sharps Knob , lightening flashed and the thunder shook the valley . Spontaneously everyone let out a YES and drinks were raised in a toast !!! Strange behavior for fly fishers sitting by an already blownout river ......
Tip#3 Flies and Things that are almost Flies ;) .....
Well now we have established favorable river conditions and where you should concentrate your efforts so I guess that brings us to what to tie on .
Rule of Thumb : Start big and if that fails go bigger .
I am not talking about #8 Woolybuggers here ..... 6" bunny flies are entry level and it doesn't hurt to go larger . Anything immitating a small rainbow is a good bet .
The same holds true for other patterns. I have had a lot of success fishing a Cream Larvae (see Elk River Patterns section ) tied on a #2 6xl . It takes a half pack of dubbing per fly ! The same pattern tied in yellow is another good one . Tie as many as you think you will need and then double that amount because you are going to lose a bunch of flies .
That brings us to the almost , sort of , flies ..... As mentioned above anything immitating a small rainbow is a good bet and some of those immitations are made of soft plastic/rubber . Rumor has it they will occasionally eat one of them ......
Basically this is big bait = big fish fishing . If you want brown spotted sharks , you gotta fish for brown spotted sharks !
Now having said all that if this water event happens to be during the Green Drake hatch you would be well advised to have a box full of Sean Weir's Mustard Greens , tied a little large .......
Tip 4 - Techniques and Strategies
Well , here we are standing waist deep in a fast run above a major pool , the water is brown milky , and we have a pair of huge cream larvae tied to our 0x - 2x tippet . Now What ?
Before we do please note the tippet size range ......
Fishing the Cream Larvae involves nothing out of the ordinary other then remember in this water you will need a LOT of weight . This is just dead drift nymphing . You want to get it down and keep it there . Try to keep as steep an upstream angle as possible with your casts . Be prepared to give ground after you are sure you have the set .
Fishing the big bunny streamers I like to start at the top of a run and quarter it downstream like a wet fly . When it straightens flutter it , back and forth ,back and forth . Flip your rod 1st to one side , then the other causing your streamer to "swing" side to side in the current . Take a couple steps down , rinse and repeat ! Again you will need a lot of weight in some of those runs but it is not as important as it was with the big larvae to get it down . They will come up to inhale your streamer . If you get smacked then he releases it drop your tip and feed line . They will often seize a small fish , crush him , release him then drop back and inhale him . I have had it happen to a number of small rainbows (real ones) I've hooked up there .
I've got some more thoughts on this but as this is already pretty long winded that's probably enough for now . Hope it helps . Happy Shark hunting !
Breaking The Bobber Habit
I am asked about this at least 3 or 4 times a week . Help is on the way !
Beyond Dead Drifting Nymphs
( Active nymphing techniques)
Summer Brings with it unique challenges and opportunities . Gone are the big hatches (though there are still plenty of chances to match the hatch) , big flows (thunderstorms being an exception) and big crowds . Still with us are the trout and a more intimate angling experiance . You can break summer fishing down into the following catagories .....
1. Sight Fishing
2. Terrestrial Fly Fishing
3. Tiny Fly Fishing
4. Appealing to Preditory Instinct / Streamer Fishing
We will look at these one at a time over the next few days !
Sight Fishing
Sight fishing is just what the name implies ! It is fishing to and attempting to tempt very visible trout . For our puposes here we will take a look at subsurface trout leaving the visible surface feeders for other sections .
Fishing a Hatch
There are few things that put a sparkle in a fisherman's eye quite like the memory or anticipation of a big hatch . They are the good stuff , the holy grail of fly fishing for trout . They can however be elusive especially for those that don't get to fish often . This being the case here are a few thoughts on getting the most out of them .....
1. Start low and work up ! This can be hard to do when a few start to rise but it is essential you find the restraint and leave the dry flies alone , for awhile . The bulk of the feeding activity early in a hatch is on the bottom and your offering should be as well ! Start with a pair of the appropriate nymphs . As numbers of adult insects begin to get heavier clip off the 2nd nymph and replace it with the emerger on a 12 - 14" "leash" . At this point your nymph is still on the bottom .
As adult density gets heavier yet (you should start seeing a lot of mid column flashes and swirls ) start to lighten your rig up (take off some weight) and move your offering up through the column until finally there is a lot of surface activity at which point (and only at which point) it is finally time to break out the dry box ! Now you are still well advised to ALWAYS drop a nymph or emerger off the back . Do so and you will soon learn that the dropper generally will outfish the dry by a wide margin .
These are general rules of thumb .
The above will work well for you with the early Bwo's and the #18 Blue Quills .
Quill Gordon Hatch
Shortly after the Blue Quills comes an Elk River super hatch that requires something different . The Quill Gordons ! This big mayfly emerges differently than most . The actual emergence takes place on the bottom and it swims up as a sub-imago or dun . This requires us to change our tactics a bit .....
Now the 1st stage is the same , start with a pair of the nymphs . When the hatch starts to pick up steam though we clip off the nymphs and put on a pair of soft hackles ! Now you are actually set for the entire hatch though it is so much fun pitching the big #12 dries that you should definitely save some time for doing just that :) ! Back to the soft hackles .....
Since they swim up as an adult we need to mimic that behavior . This can be accomplished either by "lifting' your nymphs as they drift or by turning around , facing downstream and fishing classic wet fly style , quartering your cast and allowing it to swing and lift . Takes can be vicious !!
As I said above you might as well pitch the big dry awhile but I would still recommend you drop a soft hackle off the back 18" - 24" .
Grannom Caddis
This is by far the largest caddis hatch on the Elk . The action here is at least 90% subsurface and almost 100% riffle oriented .
This is another game of lift and swing the soft hackle . Forget the nymph (larvae), forget the dry (this may be hard to do at 1st) and concentrate on the pupae swimming up and the female adults swimming back down to lay their eggs . Between these two activities there will be 100's of thousands of naturals mid column thus making it a pretty good place to be .....
I mention that it will be tough to leave the dry caddis patterns in the box , where they belong . This is because there will be trout leaping everywhere ! These eratic , inconsistant , leaping fish are oh so tempting but THEY ARE AN EXTREMELY LOW PERCENTAGE GAME ! Not hollering at you here , just want to emphasize the point ;) .....
It can be very effective at times to run a soft hackle just barely down in the film (or greased and sort of floated) with a 2nd one mid column behind it . That's about as close as you need to get to dry fly work during this hatch !
Stick to the soft hackles and this will soon be one of your favorite hatches .
Next Couple Mayflies ....
OK for the March browns and Gray Fox (yes I know they are supposedly the same critter but they look very different to me ) we go back to the general rules of thumb . Ditto for the various small/tiny baetis that are kicking off their initial brood of the year at this time . Next in line are the Sulphurs which we will skip for a night or two as I have quite a few thoughts on fishing them which will take longer to type than I have this evening :) ....
Instead we will jump to the Isonychia (I came close to going with Green Drakes) .....
Iso's are another "oddball" mayfly . They swim to the shore (rapidly) , crawl out onto dry land as a nymph THEN emerge ! Therefore the only stage of the normal three (nymph , emerger, dun/dry) the trout usually get to see is the 1st of the three , the nymph .
Iso nymphs are extremely good swimmers , quite fast ! Knowing this combined with knowing where they are swimming to (the bank) allows us to very effectively immitate their behavior . I like to stand close to the bank , quarter my nymphs up and across and strip them very quickly back across current . Gravel/cobble runs at the head of major runs and pools can be very , very productive places to do this :) .
It is also often effective to swing them wet fly style though I feel the 1st approach is a better way to immitate the behavior of the real ones . Either way you nymph NEEDS to be moving .....
Now there are times , usually but not always during high water events , when there are duns on the water . If the trout are visibly feeding on them and if the urge gets too strong to resist go ahead and throw the big dry around . It will give your arms a rest , you might catch a few and then , well rested , you can go back to stripping nymphs and smacking fish ;) !
Green Drakes
The Green Drakes are a glory hatch . This is the one everybody goes on about . Visions of huge trout slurping huge duns dance in the heads of fly fishermen everywhere !!
Trouble with this vision is the above scene simply doesn't happen very often ! Have I seen big trout smack the big duns , one after another ? Yes . Have I seen it often enough to take off my Green Drake emerger ? ABSOLUTELY NOT !
Honestly I can count on 2 hands (and don't need all the fingers on the 2nd hand ....) , in my 20+ years here , the times I've seen it happen . In every case it involved high , off color water . If you sit around waiting for them to eat the duns you will have a long wait ... At least you will have lots of company because there will be plenty of folks doing the same thing , chasing the same dream and catching nothing !
THE ACTION IS UNDERNEATH ! Starting to see a pattern here ? With the drakes , with the hatch , like the Iso's you will be well served , 95%+ of the time , to leave the dry box alone , period . I am not saying don't carry a few just in case . I am simply telling you it isn't likely you'll need them . Now the spinner fall is a different matter .....:) .
A Mustard Green (my buddy Sean Wier's magic pattern) may well be THE most effective Green Drake emerger going . Yes the "wooble nymphs" work but year in year out the Mustard brings home the butter like nothing else when the drakes are on . Do yourself a favor .... have some in the box . Have a lot of them in the box ! I say the latter because you are going to get broke off on the take all too often , even on 3 X .and 4x . The takes are often savage !!
I get my best results by rhythmically lifting , then dropping , lifting then dropping , a pair of the emergers as they drift down stream . This is a cumbersome creature underwater and it often needs to make repeated attempts to break the surface . Immitate this behavior !
The nymph is a burrower so sections with muddy , silty substrate tend to produce the best action .
Continued on the top of the right hand column .........
Reading Riseforms
Something I get asked all the time is "how did you know they were taking the emerger rather then the dry" . The answer is always I looked at the riseform ! If they are taking things riding high on top their mouth will break the plane and they will expell bubbles as they drop back . If they are taking things riding low but still completely on top they may suck them down but they still must break the plane and will expell bubbles (might be hard to see ) . If they are feeding on pupae or other emergers in the film down to 2" their dorsal fin will break the plane not their mouth . This produces a very soft riseform . If they are feeding 3"- 6 or 7" under it appears on the surface as a boil . There are times when it can be hard to decipher but by and large the guidelines above will help .
Fishing Slaty In High Water
This is another area of major interest and in the coming days I'll let you in on a few things that just might up your major brown fish score :) ......
1st tip : It is NEVER too muddy :) !
I stumbled into the big fish fishing strictly by accident and fate . I had a trip booked and it poured all night 2"+ . I met them at the parking area below the mill the next morning(they were staying at Snowshoe) stated what I believed to obviously be the case (better to reschedule for another time) , set up another trip and said our goodbyes . I sat watching the high chocolate water then took a walk down the tracks and noticed that Laurel Run almost looked fishable . Looking at the confluence of Big Spring and Old Field Forks it was apparent 2/3 of the volume was coming down Big Spring and Old Field looked crossable , if barely .....
Grabbed the rod and decided to have a go wet wading . MADE IT ! Proceeded to fish Laurel picking up a few little brookies and a small brown in a short stretch , tired of it and headed down the bank to where Props Run enters . Picked up a few tiny bows and headed back down to the river to hike out . Standing there again just looking at the mud with a #12 Cream Larvae dangling from my leader . I took a cast up into the mud let it come right down the seam where the little bit of clear water from Props hit the river ....Wham !! 15" rainbow . Another cast a little farther out into the mud and Wham again . This fish hit like a truck turned and screamed down river and popped me off . Re-rigged and started fishing the heavy brown water . Wham yet again . Big brown fish :) . Spent the rest of the day fishing back the 1/2 mile to the parking area . it was crazy good . That night more rain . The next morning back to the mill we went and this time hiked down in to the 103 marker starting on the shelf rock chutes above (that's a clue) the railbend . Repeat of the day before with 3 browns to hand over 20" (best right at 23" ) and several fish that I simply could do nothing with ......
2nd tip : They may not be where you would expect to find them :) ......
Ok Where were we .... Oh yes
(Lets subtitle this........
Slaty IS NOT Elk Springs
This will probably be the hardest of the tips to take to heart and have enough faith in to put into practice . I am going to warn you in advance ....you will have to force yourself to try this !
Unlike Elk Springs you will quite often find the major butter in fast water . VERY FAST HEAVY WATER !!! Water that will try and wash you down stream as you dig in your cleats .... Yes I have caught big browns in the eddies and the slack edges up on Slaty in high water but it's been 10 - 1 in favor of the heavy flows . I mentioned the shelf above the Rail Bend at 103 . There is a connection in my mind between it and all my favorite shark chasing water up there . They all have large pools with tons of cover just down stream .... THEY WILL OFTEN LEAVE THESE POOLS AND SLIDE UP TO THE HEAVY RUNS ABOVE TO FEED IN A HIGH WATER EVENT .
As you stand streamside looking at one of these runs with the river ripping you will question my veracity and your sanity for listening to me but if you muster the faith it just might change the way you look at thunderstorms :) !
It must be 10 years ago (maybe more) by now but I remember sitting in the upper parking lot with 7 or 8 fellow shark chasers (Chad , Zach , Mike and the Old Man in the crew) after what had been a banner day in very heavy water . There had been 6 over 20" caught just above the Bait Hole alone (including Zach's 1st ever 20"+ brown ) . Anyways there we were sitting and celebrating the day when a dark cloud rolled over Sharps Knob , lightening flashed and the thunder shook the valley . Spontaneously everyone let out a YES and drinks were raised in a toast !!! Strange behavior for fly fishers sitting by an already blownout river ......
Tip#3 Flies and Things that are almost Flies ;) .....
Well now we have established favorable river conditions and where you should concentrate your efforts so I guess that brings us to what to tie on .
Rule of Thumb : Start big and if that fails go bigger .
I am not talking about #8 Woolybuggers here ..... 6" bunny flies are entry level and it doesn't hurt to go larger . Anything immitating a small rainbow is a good bet .
The same holds true for other patterns. I have had a lot of success fishing a Cream Larvae (see Elk River Patterns section ) tied on a #2 6xl . It takes a half pack of dubbing per fly ! The same pattern tied in yellow is another good one . Tie as many as you think you will need and then double that amount because you are going to lose a bunch of flies .
That brings us to the almost , sort of , flies ..... As mentioned above anything immitating a small rainbow is a good bet and some of those immitations are made of soft plastic/rubber . Rumor has it they will occasionally eat one of them ......
Basically this is big bait = big fish fishing . If you want brown spotted sharks , you gotta fish for brown spotted sharks !
Now having said all that if this water event happens to be during the Green Drake hatch you would be well advised to have a box full of Sean Weir's Mustard Greens , tied a little large .......
Tip 4 - Techniques and Strategies
Well , here we are standing waist deep in a fast run above a major pool , the water is brown milky , and we have a pair of huge cream larvae tied to our 0x - 2x tippet . Now What ?
Before we do please note the tippet size range ......
Fishing the Cream Larvae involves nothing out of the ordinary other then remember in this water you will need a LOT of weight . This is just dead drift nymphing . You want to get it down and keep it there . Try to keep as steep an upstream angle as possible with your casts . Be prepared to give ground after you are sure you have the set .
Fishing the big bunny streamers I like to start at the top of a run and quarter it downstream like a wet fly . When it straightens flutter it , back and forth ,back and forth . Flip your rod 1st to one side , then the other causing your streamer to "swing" side to side in the current . Take a couple steps down , rinse and repeat ! Again you will need a lot of weight in some of those runs but it is not as important as it was with the big larvae to get it down . They will come up to inhale your streamer . If you get smacked then he releases it drop your tip and feed line . They will often seize a small fish , crush him , release him then drop back and inhale him . I have had it happen to a number of small rainbows (real ones) I've hooked up there .
I've got some more thoughts on this but as this is already pretty long winded that's probably enough for now . Hope it helps . Happy Shark hunting !
Breaking The Bobber Habit
I am asked about this at least 3 or 4 times a week . Help is on the way !
Beyond Dead Drifting Nymphs
( Active nymphing techniques)