Weather Dictates When and How I Fish My Terrestrials
Every year, I’m asked by clients, when is the best time for them to come up and experience the terrestrial bite?
For years, I kept a terrestrial fishing journal to help me better serve my clients. The journal documented the arrival times of specific terrestrials and when I first started catching fish on them. It seemed to help me for a couple seasons, but after that, I started to become too reliant on the data in the journal, and I lost sight of the most important variable of all in timing the terrestrial season–weather. Depending on what the weather is doing for the current year, it can speed up or postpone the arrival of the terrestrial season. Some years it will only sway the start of the terrestrial season a week in either direction, while other years, it can sway the arrival well over a month. Understanding the role weather plays in the lives of terrestrials can help anglers nail down more accurately when the terrestrial season will begin and peak in their area. If you can be one of the lucky few to time and start fishing terrestrials before everyone else does, you can be rewarded with some of the biggest fish of the year.
THE EFFECT WEATHER HAS ON TERRESTRIALS
Having consistent warm weather is a major factor in the arrival of terrestrials. Cold nights during late spring will keep terrestrials hiding in their burrows and out of sight during most of the day. During years when these cold snaps linger on, it will delay the arrival of the terrestrial season significantly. Sun is a major player in getting the terrestrial fishing going as well. I’m not 100% sure of this, but I think once the rainfall drops off in the summer, and the hot sun sucks out most of the moisture content found in the plants that the bugs are eating, the terrestrials are eventually forced to search out food sources that have a higher moisture content. It makes since to me at least, that the best places for the bugs to find moisture rich plants during the heat of the summer would be around water. All living things, including terrestrials, need water to survive. Furthermore, sun is the fuel for plants to grow, and many of our streams and rivers have large amounts of flowers that bloom (late spring, early summer) along the banks that provide food (nectar) for terrestrials. During above average rainfall years, where you’ve got more cloudy days than sunny days, it can inhibit or postpone the growth and blooming of these flowers that attract the terrestrials, and therefore, they won’t be attracted to the water and available to the trout. So when you’ve got a really wet spring and summer you can expect the terrestrial season to be late. It’s important to note also, that years with high rainfall, will significantly increase the water levels on our trout waters and postpone the terrestrial bite. Too much rainfall will keep the bugs from showing up, and raise water levels, which will discourage trout from expending the energy to rise to the surface to eat them, particularly if there’s sufficient food below the surface for the trout to eat. High water also flushes out terrestrials much quicker than during average water flows. You won’t find terrestrials swirling around in eddies for long periods of time.
WHERE TO FISH YOUR TERRESTRIAL PATTERNS FIRST
Read More »WTF Is A Steelhead Anymore?
By Louis Cahill
Is all the arguing over steelhead hurting the fish?
I’ll probably be sorry I started this, but I have a point to make. It seems you can’t say the word “steelhead” without starting an argument. The fighting points are numerous. Are beads flies? Are hatchery steelhead killing wild steelhead? Is nymphing wrong? But the most contentious and, frankly, mind bending disagreement is over what a steelhead actually is.
There are historically two sides of this argument, although lately there seems to be a third, I’ll get to that later. It’s a classic East vs. West conflict. Eastern anglers refer to fish running from the Great Lakes as steelhead and western anglers insist that only fish running from the saltwater are steelhead. Yelling and name calling ensue. Here’s why both sides are wrong.
First, let me be blunt about this, a steelhead is by definition an anadromous fish. That means it runs from saltwater to fresh. End of story. No fish which lives its entire life in fresh water is a steelhead. It’s not my job to make definitions so don’t blame me.
Here it is from Webster.
Steelhead—noun, plural steel·heads (especially collectively) steel·head.
a silvery rainbow trout that migrates to the sea before returning to fresh water to spawn.
anadromous —adjective
(of fish) migrating from salt water to spawn in fresh water, as salmon of the genera Salmo and Oncorhynchus (distinguished from catadromous ).
That said, west coast anglers can be real assholes about it.
I’ve had this argument over more beers than I can count, and I’m sure I’ll have it again. One of my west coast buddies will start railing about lake-run rainbows and the knuckle- draggers who fish for them and I’ll tell them that their attitude is killing steelhead. Here’s what I mean.
Look around yourself on any western steelhead river.
Read More »Fly Rod Selection For Bonefishing: Video
You’ve booked that bid bonefish trip, what fly rods should you take?
Saltwater fly fishing requires he angler to respond quickly to changing conditions. Having the right gear makes a huge difference. The problem is, if you don’t have a lot of experience, you may not know what is going to work when the fishing gets tough. In this video, I’ll try to help you sort through it.
The big factor in saltwater fly fishing is wind. Either too much or too little of it. A lot of beginning saltwater anglers want to fish on dead calm days. Believe it or not, it’s just as tough to have too little wind as too much. Bonefish can get really spooky when the water is flat calm and the setup you love in the wind may not produce.
“Which rods should I take,” is the question I get all the time.
In my opinion, the fly line is an even more important choice. How the rod and line work together to present the fly is what’s really important. I start by choosing the line I want to fish, then I choose the rod I like to cast it. I find I can carry fewer fly rods and catch more fish.
WATCH THE VIDEO AND LEARN ABOUT FLY ROD SELECTION FOR BONEFISHING.
Read More »Confessions of a Trout Guide
WHAT HAPPEN ON THE RIVE, STAYS ON THE RIVER…USUALLY.
So this time of year in Colorado, the rivers are blown, there is no one in town and all the guides are hanging around the shop bullshitting about their worst/best days on the water. It got me to thinking that I should tell some stories about the worst possible guide trips/situations that we’ve had on the water. Hopefully this does not reflect poorly on our guide services, but it will shed some light on what happens in the day-to-day life of a fishing guide. I know there are a ton of guides out there who will want to one-up me and please do, I love this stuff. Names have been changed to protect the innocent.
Guide #1 (me) was floating with a mom and her son. We were catching tons of fish and having a great time. The son was maybe 12-13 years old and was a stud fisherman aside from giving me a fantastic Hank Patterson “snap it!” cast. As we floated down the river, mom was snapping pictures left and right as son caught fish after fish. At one point we were back-rowing a riffle when all of a sudden mom jumps out of the boat and starts running through a knee deep run towards an island in the river. My first thought is “wow, she really had to pee,” my second thought is “this woman is trespassing, and we are going to be issued a ticket at the takeout.” Lost in all my jumbled thoughts is a calf elk stranded on the island. This woman took it upon herself to rescue this thing. Next thing I know
Read More »Articulated Nymphs, All Hype or the Real Deal?
If you pull any serious streamer fisherman aside and ask them to name their favorite streamer pattern, chances are the fly pattern will be articulated.
Ask the same question instead to a serious nymph fisherman, and most will answer with names of nymphs that aren’t articulated. I agree you don’t have to fish articulated nymph patterns to catch trout, but I do find it a little odd that we aren’t seeing more of them in the spot light today. As far as I can tell, the concept has been around almost as long as articulated streamers have. The last couple of years I’ve started to incorporate articulation into my fly tying for many of my nymph patterns. Just about all of them have done very well for me on the water. In some cases, my articulated versions have caught trout 3 to 1 over the traditional non-articulated versions. You can’t tie all nymphs articulated because many fly patterns and species of aquatic micro-invertabrates are far too small. However, with some practice, most fly tiers will find it’s pretty easy to tie articulated nymph patterns as small as a standard size
Read More »Accidental Fishing, Keep Your Gear Close
I’m a firm believer in a well laid plan, so why has some of my best fishing been an accident?
I guess it all started because I have a weak bladder. Anyone who has been on a road trip with me can tell you that. Be prepared to make frequent stops. As much as I try, those stops don’t always coincide with gas stations and rest areas. It was on one of these unscheduled pit stops that I noticed a small stream in the North Carolina mountains. The sound of running water always helps to get the plumbing moving, but this water deserved closer inspection.
I tromped back to the car for a 3 weight and within a couple of minutes I was catching wild brook trout fifty feet from the road. The little stream was lousy with them and there were no trails, beat down banks or any other sign of human traffic. Wild brook trout were thriving there in spitting distance of the highway with no one the wiser. I caught eight or ten and was back on the road without ever knowing the name of the stream.
A couple of years later I was in Colorado when nature called. This roadside bano took me in sight of a small mountain lake. I couldn’t help but notice a cutthroat about sixteen inches cruising the bank. I zipped and trotted back to the car for a different rod. A single cast was all it took. The optimistic cuttie swam right over and ate my hopper. Nothing breaks up a road trip like an unexpected fish.
All of my accidental fishing isn’t related to public urination.
Read More »How I Almost Owned A Trout Stream
By Jon Tobey
NOW THAT THEY ARE SELLING IT, I CAN FINALLY TELL THE STORY OF WILLIAMSTOWN GULF.
When my dad was in high school, he and his 3 best friends bought a trout stream. I know it sounds like something out of Trout Fishing in America, but they really did. Can you imagine, getting out of school and heading out to your own trout stream, as a teenager, to fish with your best friends? Somehow, that story makes me feel like I really got my priorities completely wrong at a very early age. I didn’t even own a fly rod until I was 40, but I heard about this stream my whole life and finally one day when I was home I asked if I could go fish it. They’ve been stocking if for years even though nobody has fished it for 20 and my dad had to call his one surviving friend to get directions to it. It’s a little creek that becomes a tributary of the White River.
When we finally got there it was in an incredibly dense and verdant valley, but unfortunately the stream had been beaverized, with dams about every 100′ on it and a lush swamp in the resulting river bottom. I had to walk through a very dense swamp to get to it and I was a little nervous because it was filled with moose tracks and from what I’ve heard you would rather run into a bear than a moose. When I finally got to the stream it was about 8′ across, and beneath the dams almost that deep. In the crystal cold water there I could see the fry, every pool holding hundreds and knowing what cannibals trout, especially brook trout, are I imagined each stretch must hold one lunker or so. I mean 20 years….
Read More »Saltwater Short Shot: Video
A 100 FOOT CAST WILL CATCH YOU SOME FISH, BUT A 30 FOOT CAST WILL CATCH A WHOLE LOT MORE.
There are days on the flats when you never cast to a fish that’s more than 30 feet from the boat. When you don’t have sun, bonefish and other saltwater species can sneak up your skirt in a hurry. Even on clear days a good short shot will serve you well.
It sounds simple but it’s one of the hardest things to do well. If you think casting a fly rod 100 feet is hard, try casting one 10 feet. Especially a fast action saltwater rod. Making a short cast and landing the fly accurately with a straight leader requires a specific set of skills.
THERE ARE FOUR KEY SKILLS THAT MAKE THE SHORT SHOT WORK.
A good ready position
When fish are close to the boat, there’s no time to think. You have to be ready to present your fly immediately. That’s impossible without a good ready position. You need a good leash, nine feet of fly line plus your leader, outside the rod tip. This will allow you to load the rod with no false casting. You also must hold the fly in a way that you can release it cleanly and quickly with out it catching in your clothes, your line or on the boat. (MORE HERE)
A short stroke
You can’t make an effective short cast by lobbing the fly out in front of you. The only way you can land the fly accurately with a tight line is to load the rod. You can’t load the full rod with only 9 feet of fly line so you have to make a short, powerful stroke that loads only the tip. (MORE HERE)
A good target picture
There’s no time for strategy when fish are at your feet. You have to know where the fly goes without thinking. Put it
Read More »Fly Fishing Stillwater by Gareth Jones
THE OTHER HENRY’S
Mention to any flyfisher that you’re heading for Island Park, Idaho and they’ll immediately think you’ll be packing a selection of CDC and biot creations intended to deceive the wonderfully selective leviathans of the Henry’s Fork.
However, my latest visit to see Rene Harrop and the boys at the TroutHunter, was all about fly fishing the incredible Stillwater’s of the region, and more specifically, Henry’s Lake. The plan was to see how fishing UK flies and techniques would work on the great Cutthroat and Hybrids that inhabit the lake. This wasn’t the first time I fished the lake. I’d visited it ten years earlier, and I remembered enjoying some wonderful sport-fishing from a float tube, fishing damsels through the gaps in the summer weeds. Needless to say, I was fairly confident that some of my own fly patterns and techniques would produce on this trip, and I was excited to hit the water.
Read More »Don’t Let Go of the Fly Line in Your Rod Hand During the Hook Set
Have you ever set the hook on a fish, and the next thing you know, you’ve got your arms spread apart in the shape of a giant slice of pizza, leaving you unable to reach the fly line with your rod hand?
Do not be ashamed if this happens to you every now and then on the water. You’re not alone, I promise. Many fly anglers do this regularly, and the reason they get themselves in this situation is because they’re letting go of the fly line in their rod hand when they set the hook. You can completely eliminate this problem on the water if you make sure you keep a solid grip on the fly line with your rod hand during and after every hook set. Doing so, it will allow you to maintain tension and control of the fish while you’re stripping in fly line or getting that excess fly line on the reel.
I know some of you that have found yourself in this situation have probably used your mouth to hold onto the fly line until you can get your hands back into the correct position. God, I know I have plenty of times.
Read More »