Greetings!
MANY OF US have been caught in this situation: We're on a business trip or vacation, and some crystal-clear trout stream meanders into view. We might even have gear handy or know where to borrow some. But we don't have any idea what bugs might be the preferred meal for local trout. This week Phil Monahan offers a few suggestions for how to begin fly selection on "trouty" but unfamiliar water. Ben Bolden Photo  | In this week's fly tying video, Michael Yelton shows how to tie a popular terrestrial pattern, the Foam Back Beetle. Yelton demonstrates how to tie a hi-viz version and describes it as a "tasty little morsel," something trout aren't used to seeing and a great producer when fish are focused on easy-to-grab terrestrials.
And this week's addition to MidCurrent's Fly Fishing Photography gallery is Ben Bolden, who began fly fishing at age ten and fished all around the US West before beginning a career in photography.
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Top Fly Fishing News
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What Line Should I Buy for Fishing Streamers?
 AS WITH so many other questions about fly fishing, the answer is "It depends." I do a lot of streamer fishing because my home river, the Battenkill, has a low trout-per-mile number, so you need to cover a lot of water to find the fish. Also, Battenkill browns don't rise nearly as much as fish in other rivers, except during Hendrickson spinner falls.
I consider my fishing buddy Joe Phillips a real streamer aficionado. He catches more Battenkill browns over 20 inches than anyone I know, and he doesn't use anything but a floating line. He gets his streamers down to the fish by using a long fluorocarbon leader, weighted patterns, and split shot. But he also switches back and forth between nymph rigs and streamer rigs fairly frequently, so using a floating line cuts down on the re-rigging time. I'm sure that Joe would also argue that the long leader allows the fly to move more naturally in the current, which draws more strikes. Whatever the reason, his system clearly works.
Read on...
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The Mechanics of Accurate Casting
Accurate Casting Techniques  | IN ORDER for the fly to land on target, the unrolling loop of fly line and leader must carry it there. Since the path of the loop follows the path of the rod tip, the key element in achieving casting accuracy is to drive the rod tip on a line pointed at the target. I teach this to students by getting them to look at the target and make an overhead cast (at least on the forward stroke) down their line of sight. This may seem very basic, but many of the accuracy problems I see on the stream result from excessively sidearm casting motions. Many self-taught casters learn by trial and error to minimize the effects of tailing loops by canting the rod to the side. Canting the rod doesn't cure tailing loops, but it does keep the line and leader from tangling, since the crossed loops unroll alongside (rather than on top of) one another. With enough practice, a sidearm caster can achieve accuracy, but a sidearm approach fails to take advantage of the natural accuracy that comes from casting directly down one's line of sight. Read on... |
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Figuring Out the Local Hatch
QUESTION: My job involves lots of road travel, and I always keep my fishing gear with me so I can pull over and fish streams that look trouty. But my territory covers almost a quarter of the country, so I'm not always familiar with local hatches. Is there a quick way to get a sense of what bugs I should be imitating on an unfamiliar stream?
Read on...
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