[iajetpilot]

Hi All,

So in the few months I have been fly fishing I have had some success with catching bass and bluegills but am still really kind of lost when it comes to fishing for trout. All the fish I have caught so far have been on surface poppers. I would like to learn the ways of trout fishing but can't afford to go out with a guide yet. Are there any good books, videos, or web sites you all could recommend to a new guy?

Thanks,

Larry

 

[TheCream]

Trout fishing isn't always complicated. There are some waters that require the exact match to the bug that's being fed upon in the right color and fished on tippet the diameter of spider web, but in my personal experience, that's the exception. When I trout fish in WV, if you can just get something semi-close to looking like what's hatching, fish will eat it. You don't have to know every Latin genus species name of every bug, either. You see a little brown one that's about a size 14, tie on a size 14 brown bodied dry fly and have at 'em. And during the summer, if nothing is hatching, hoppers, ants, and beetles work really well. Most of the water I fish is shallow and fish will rise to a dry, so I don't nymph fish that often. When I do, I generally will lift a few rocks in the stream and see what's crawling around under them. If you see cased caddis, use a caddis pupa/nymph. If you see little mayflies, try a pheasant tail. It's really not as complicated as you might think most of the time.

 

[rickerd]

One of the things, I think people who fish below surface get hung up on is in detecting the take. 90% of the time you will not feel it, you have to see it, or sense it. Here's how you do it;
Start by swinging a bugger or streamer, or a wet fly with a PT dropper. Stand just above head of pool in riffle. Cast over current about 45 degrees downstream. As fly lands, mend upstream or "set" your flies to sink them. (You are simply setting your flies downstream of your flyline end, and forcing the leader to be straight to the flies.) Let them sink to get lower, then let the current swing them across the pool. Allow your rodtip to be just above the water and slightly ahead of the drift. I like to think of pointing my rodtip at the bottom fly. Take a few steps downstream and repeat until you catch a fish or cover the whole pool. You will have a better chance of feeling the takes but not always. Watch the end of your floating line on the water, when it acts in an unnatural way, a fish just tagged a fly, or you hit the bottom or structure. You can also attach an indicator, but I find I get more takes without them.
Try to go out with someone else who knows a bit more than you and can show you a few of the ropes. There are a number of other ways to fish below surface, ie, dead drift, high stick nymphing, Leisenring lift, Swinging upstream as well as downstream. You can google any of them and get good information on how to use them. The downstream swing I recommend to start with because it can give you the most feel and is easy once you understand how to set your flies and work with the current. Remember, finding the fish is always the first hurdle to catching a fish.

Good luck,
Rickerd

 

[TheCream]

Another option, along with what rickerd mentioned, is to use a dry/dropper. Fish may take the subsurface fly, which will cause the dry fly to get pulled under or twitch. Fish may also take the dry, which you will obviously see. On rare occasions, you'll hook two at once, which is really fun. I have hooked several brookie doubles but one always seems to come free. This is a better option for shallow water, your dropper off the dry fly will usually not be too long. Emerger patterns fished behind a dry fly is also a good setup, like a caddis emerger fished under an Elk Hair caddis.

 

[goatfly]

I am a self taught fly fisherman, one of the best resources for me over the last 34 years is Fly Fisherman magazine. I know that is probably the outdated way of getting information nowadays but I am outdated.