If You’re Not Looking For Trout, You’re Missing Out

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trout-fishing

Take equal time looking for trout and fly fishing. Photo Louis Cahill

One of the things I always stress to my clients is the importance of always keeping an eye out for trout on the water.

The first thing I do when I walk up to a prime piece of trout water, is take a minute or two to scan the water for dark shapes, shadows and subtle movements. I do it before I wet my fly or even my boots for that matter, because I know, if I can spot a trout, I’ll immediately double my chances at getting my rod bent. I also look for trout when I’m wading from one spot to the next. This is where many anglers mess up and get distracted by all the great looking water upstream of them, and then end up missing opportunities to spot and catch trout in transit. I used to spook a ton of trout myself moving from one fishing spot to the next. It still happens but not nearly as much because these days, when I’m on the move, I’m not in a hurry and I take plenty of time to look for trout as I wade.

You have to look for trout to spot them. They don’t shout, “hey, I’m over here”, or wave a white flag at you. It takes time to train your eyes and become proficient at spotting trout. They’re experts at camouflage and often hold out of sight to stay off the radar. If you’re trout eyes are lacking in talent, the only way you’re going to change that, is to start spending twice as much time looking for them when you’re out fly fishing. Don’t tell yourself it’s a waste of time because you’re not good at it. Make a pact with yourself to put more time doing it and push yourself to get better. I often boost my clients sight-fishing confidence by spotting a fish and then asking them to point it out to me. It usually takes a while, but when they finally do spot the fish, it shows them it’s not impossible and they can do it. Just remember that every time you spot a trout on your own, your skills improve. I’ve got a buddy that I is so good at spotting trout, he can walk up to a piece of water, and if there’s a trout around, he’ll have a bead on it in five to ten seconds. He’s also one of the most consistent trout fisherman I know. Seeing fish and catching fish, go hand and hand.

As much as I’ve gone on a tangent about always looking for trout, it’s impossible to spot every fish in a stream.

The majority of us catch most of our fish blind casting, but it’s the really smart trout, where getting a visual on them really pays off. On water with lots of educated trout you can’t always afford to blind cast your flies or you’ll risk putting them down. The big the one’s often watch the small fish risk their lives for food and instead hold back and wait for food to enter their safety zone. To catch these trophies, you often have to spot them and make a well planned approach and accurate cast.

The last suggestion I’d like to give everyone trying to get better at spotting trout, is to not get down when you walk up to a hole that you know has fish in it and you fail to spot a single trout. Scan the areas where you can clearly see the bottom first. If you see no signs of life, no worries, because in the process of scanning for fish you’ve just eliminated a great deal of dead water. You now can focus your attention on drifting your flies through the areas where the bottom is blurry and the fish are probably holding anyways. It’s not always about spotting fish, half the battle is identifying where the fish aren’t holding, and not wasting your time drifting your flies there.

Keep it Reel,

Kent Klewein
Gink & Gasoline
www.ginkandgasoline.com
hookups@ginkandgasoline.com
 
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6 thoughts on “If You’re Not Looking For Trout, You’re Missing Out

  1. This is true ,seeing trout alows you to catch trout, however in many situations I would recomend casting before looking. I grew up trout fishing in the Sierras mostly high mountain streams, and discovered that many times casting into a pool or riffles from as far away as possible would produce trout, if I walked up to the dtream to look I would often see trout running for cover and they would be harder to entice after that. Some of the heavier fished stream where the trout were really spooky my brother and I even would go as far as to crawl towards the bank and cast from the ground.

  2. You couldn’t be more right about looking for trout before you cast. I fish a gin clear tailwater in Colorado that gets a ton of pressure. I was there a few weeks ago and it was busy as usual, I passed a guy to go down below him to a shallow riffle that always seemed to have some nice fish in it. I asked him which way he was going and if he’d mind if I’d go fish the run below him. He said he’d already fished it and no luck, and was moving up so it was fine. He also said he was going to take a minute and watch me fish, as he’d never been here before. As soon as I got down there I spotted a really nice 21″ rainbow. I called him over to take a peak and show him how to spot fish. 30 seconds later he could finally see it and he was amazed that such a big fish could go unseen in about 2 feet of water! I said to him, it took me about six months of practice on this river to figure that out. Stop blind casting, you’re wasting time, spot some fish and have at them. Sure enough, he hooked a decent fish 20 minutes later.

  3. It’s a two edged sword that works hand in hand with self confidence.

    I have watched great fishers drop a nymph at their feet and catch multiple fish, and then then same person moves to a different spot and sights a trout many yards away and nails it.

    On the other hand, sometimes reading the water and searching what looks right produces just as well when done with confidence in self and fly.

    Use every tactic you can master, and fish as often as you can.

  4. Absolutely correct, in fact in January 2015 I was in NZ fishing and I met an old guy and his wife from Scottsdale on the Diamond river, this guy was using his wife to spot and steer him to the fish whilst he sneaked up to within casting range! I noticed then that most of the anglers were in pairs, husband and wife, taking it in turns to spot and fish! Ok you get less time fishing but more fish on the line!

  5. How true is this. Was out on a reservoir a while back on a very overcast day, walked maybe 2km spotting for trout. Saw a nice rise, cast once, fish on! That was it. Walked another 2km around the other side, never spotted another fish moving.

  6. Hello,
    For me, “fishing water” is not the opposite of fishing a visible trout. First, sometimes, the river is large and with a water not so clear. Second often exists favorite places where are trouts. As we say, talking about the stream : ” in strong of the slow, in slow of the strong”…
    Look at the river is not an “everything goes”…
    G. Baudin from France (Normandy)

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