#55 Learning to Fly Fish to a Fish

Fish to the Fish, What is He talking about?

I know the title is a bit corny, but it is so true, “you need to fish to the fish”.If you follow along with me as I write these little pearls of wisdom, whether you are just learning to fly fish or you have a few laps under your belt, I hope you will find some useful information.

So many times, I will be on the water and watch another fisherman sit in one spot for hours on end without ever catching a fish, and without moving more than 25 feet in either direction. One of 2 things is happening. First off, there were told this is were all of the fish are, or number 2 they in love with the scenery and are just sight-seeing?

When I was just a tadpole my mentor taught me one thing that has stuck with me for the last 43 years, and that was, “if the fishing is slow fish fast, and if the fishing is fast, fish slow”. Let that sink in for just a second, what Tom was telling me is that if you are not catching fish, or seeing fish, keep moving until you find them. Once you find fish that are eating, take your time and fish slowly.

I know it sounds simple but the big question on your mind is, “how do I find the fish”????

To answer the question there are several ways to go about just that, and we will talk about them in more detail. If you are on a new piece of water, you can do what I do and that is to walk and spot. Before you just blindly plunk your hardware into the water, take a few minutes and walk along the banks. I heard another Blogger talking about “how to fish like a Heron”. If you have ever watched a Heron fish along the banks, they will walk very slowly and deliberately along the bank, the whole while their eyes glued to the water, as they look for signs of life.

Be like the Heron

Have you ever been on the water and watched a Heron hunting in the water? These birds are master fishermen. They walk slowly along the water’s edge, slowly looking and watching before they take a step forward. So be more like a Heron when you are on the water.

Are you spooking fish as you walk? If you are spooking fish that might be a good sign that there are fish in there. If you spooked them, what type of structure were the spooked fish holding in? Was it cut banks, or riffle sections or was the fish holding next to structure, like logs, or boulders. These are all good things to keep in mind when you are looking for fish.

Look into the water with your polarized glasses can you actually see fish in the water?, if so the same holds true, what are they holding next to.

Can you see fish rise in sections of the water? Are they rising in the head of a riffle, are they holding in the tail of a section, is there a seam in the water they are favoring?. These are all of the little clues that can be a huge game changer.

When I fish at a new section I will just take a stroll and keep my eyes open, to see if there are any slight clues to alert me to the presence or location of fish. If I see fish rising I will sit down for a few minutes and study what is the favorite location of the majority of the fish that are rising. If I notice most of the rises are in the slack water on the edge I will begin in these areas, if the fish are rising along a particular seams next to fast water, I will concentrate my cast in these areas. When I walk to a new section I will look for the same types of water I was productive in.

I promise this can be a real game changer

If you are planning to chuck nymphs, then you need to use your eyes even more, and try to look into the water. As I walk along the bank, I will try to get a higher vantage point and look down into the water to see if there are any shapes that are moving. If I do see shapes I will again take a few minutes to study what I’m seeing, are the fish actively feeding, or are they sitting motionless on the bottom. All of this data will only help you to be able to catch more fish, and sooner.

Of course, all of this will be “mute” if you are not using the correct flies. I get this question so many times and it is, “what flies should I use”. It’s like asking the question, “how long is a piece of string”. The answer will vary from time to time, and place to place, season to season.

The best advice I can give is to stop by the local Fly Shop and have a quick conversation with the staff, they should be able to give you a starting point of contact for which flies you might want to try. Once you have a simple game plan you can start your recon work.

If you actually spend a few minutes and try to employ some of these quick tips you just might be surprised as to how quickly you can get onto fish. However, if you just love to cast over and over without anything tugging on your line, then by all means keep at it.

The difference between 2 fish and 22 fish in the course of a day is a good day V.S. a great day.

I hope you will give this a try.

Cheers

Gary

As always, any questions or comments feel free to give me a shout, I always will return e-mails.