Wood is Good

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Wood is Good Photo by Louis Cahill

Anytime I come across any sort of wood on the water trout fishing, I always take the time to fish around it.

Whether it’s a log jam, isolated root ball, or low overhanging tree, wood offers trout cover and safety which are two very important elements that trout look for when they’re deciding where to position themselves in a river or stream. Wood also in many cases offers current breaks, eddies, and soft seams, that allow trout to feed easily and safely out of the calorie burning swift current. Furthermore, there’s an incredible amount of food that falls off wood cover and hangs out amongst wood, that very often ends up in the stomachs of trout. All of the above make wood prime habitat for trout.

Did I mention that brown trout love to hangout around wood? I can’t tell you how many times I’ve caught nice brown trout around wood, especially when deep water is located near by. And don’t even get me started about how productive it is fishing flesh flies in Alaska around all the salmon carcass loaded wood snags. Back in the day when I guided there, we used to take all our freshly filleted salmon carcasses at the end of the day and dump them in wood snags in the river. Overtime it would create epic honey holes from the huge rainbows that would take up residence for the easy pickings. When the opportunity to fish wood arises, always present your flies alongside it, and you may end up with a big trout hook-up.

Keep it Reel,

Kent Klewein
Gink & Gasoline
www.ginkandgasoline.com
hookups@ginkandgasoline.com
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7 thoughts on “Wood is Good

  1. 68 years ago I was taught “always try every snag (trees in water)” and I have caught hundreds of species just doing that.

  2. Thanks for the note that wood is good. It is worth noting that one a the greatest wood depositors is flooding. Keep that in mind next time you hear of a river “devastated” by spring flooding. And those that confuse property repairs and civil engineering projects with conservation. Floods and wood help fisheries more than most man made “solutions” every time.

  3. The storied battenkill went scarce of trout for many years until a study of the fishery revealed it had lost it’s cover. Downed trees are extremely important

  4. Fishing wood is great and I completely agree, but how about a bit on how to get a trout out of the wood and keep them from getting tied back up into it. Seems to be the common theme for big fish breaking off.

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