by Gerry Frederick for Anglers Club Magazine, July 26, 2016

Great fishing holes and hot spots can be easy to find when you live in the trout rich Pacific Northwest. However, just finding a good location on the river is only the start. Once you find yourself standing at the water’s edge, what’s next? Take a moment to read the water.

Locating the fish can be pretty easy if you know where to look. Fish are creatures of habit and the one thing that never changes in their daily routine is the search for food. The food may change from day to day or even hour to hour but the dinner bell is always ringing.

Trout eat flying insects that get close enough, or smaller fish that get stupid enough, but aquatic insects comprise most of their diet. Knowing this, we can prepare ourselves by reading the water and looking for likely spots where the trout will be lying in wait. River dwelling fish don’t move around much. They hold up in areas that have been productive in the past.



These areas generally have three things in common. Cover and shelter from the sun and other predators, breaks in the current that trap insects in slower moving water, and deep, cool running water. All three are easy to spot when we know what we’re looking for.

First I look at the depth of the water. If the water is too shallow I eliminate it as a good spot immediately. By shallow I mean anything under a foot or so. The next thing that I look for is a break in the current. This can be defined in many ways. Seams where two currents meet can provide a break where an insect is momentarily trapped in slower moving water. This is called a feeding lane.

Reading water to find a feeding lane is just that, a visible seam that breaks or changes the surface of the water where the insects are funneled through and the trout hold waiting for them. As the seasons change and the water level goes down these lanes will change. Sometimes they disappear and others will form. Some seams are only a few inches wide and others can be a couple of meters wide.

Eddies are formed by obstructions in the current that cause the water to flow around, along or over something. This also can produce a feeding lane. Although wider than other feeding lanes, a seam will be present. Foam formed by these obstructions can be the best spots to fish because they put a bullseye on the precise feeding lane. Fly fishers skilled at reading water can get real excited over a little foam at the end of a log in the water.

Lastly I look for cover. Last because you can’t always see it under the water. Trout will also sacrifice good cover when there is good feeding to be had. When all three come together we can be sure that there are trout down there. All to often the best of these spots are just too difficult to fish. It can be almost impossible to cast a fly close enough without getting snagged and losing a fly for our efforts.

But what do we do once we’ve found a likely spot, or at least one we feel good about? Trout can be very picky when it comes to their feeding lane. Remember that they spend most of their day holding down below looking up at what’s floating by or drifting past. They know what’s normal and what’s not. If a caddis hatch is on they have a reasonable expectation that they will see a caddis fly. And floating by very naturally, like all the rest.

If we throw them a stone fly that drags through the lane unnaturally, what do you suppose they will think? Sure, we cast a fly out there, but just because they didn’t jump all over it doesn’t mean for a second that they’re not there. It only means that they aren’t as stupid as we thought. Now if that stone fly floated by naturally like all the other bugs, then maybe we have a chance. I think we stand a better chance if we cast them something they’re looking for, like a caddis fly.

What I’m trying to say is that location is just as important to the fish as the fisherman. Reading water and locating the fish is only half the battle. The rest is our location. We need to find a spot on the river that we can cast from that will enable us to reach the fish. Next we must be aware of the current and float our fly through with as much natural drift as possible. If the fly travels through feeding lane being pulled unnaturally by the current or our line, we may need to cast again or relocate ourselves to allow a more natural drift. Even the hungriest fish in the river wants his dinner served up the same way every time.



If Caddis flies and foam lines are a fly fishers best friend, what are our enemies? There are only a couple, but they can cause enough trouble to send us home frustrated and empty handed. Even if we think we have all the right gear, that’s only the beginning.

There are two big complications that can wreck a fly-fishing trip real fast: wind, and the difficulty of casting through it. Fly lines are a lot thicker than mono and that causes them to catch the wind very easy.
The good news is that wind can be dealt with. An experienced caster can not only deal with it, but benefit from it – provided they know how to take advantage of prevailing conditions. The basics of fly casting are well documented everywhere, so in this installment we’re going to focus on a hurdle nearly every fly fisherman faces; casting through wind, and using it to your benefit.

Pros and Cons

A gentle breeze less than 10 kilometers an hour can be a bonus. It will add a little ripple to the surface of the water and this can camouflage you enough to get a little closer to fish for the tough presentations.

Gusting wind or wind 15 kilometers an hour and higher, will create havoc with even the best fly casters. It cuts down the distance we can accurately cast and puts us at risk of landing the hook in our ear instead of the water. I teach most beginners to cast very short casts through tough wind conditions, even less than twenty feet. The drawback is that this will make it harder to get to the best water however. Sometimes we can sit out a few minutes for a bit of calm or a momentary break in the onslaught.

Making the Most of It

This is a great time to double-check the barbs on our hooks. If we do wind up hooking ourselves it can be a big relief knowing we can pull the hook out with relative ease.

This I know oh too well. More than one gust has forced me to tug a hopper or caddis from my forehead. Just last weekend I had a wayward foam bodied hopper embedded in my shirtsleeve.

I tend to think that I can cast through anything and it takes a lot of wind to send me home. When it’s just too much, or like me you won’t give in, make the shorter casts. Remember that the fish have a lot more trouble seeing you with the water rippled. Tie on a sinking fly too. It won’t be affected by the wind on the surface. The theory that a downwind cast works best is just false. The wind behind you can bring that fly dangerously close to you on the forward cast.

Technique

The second most vicious enemy is our fly casting technique. To varying degrees, this can be big trouble for even the best fly fishers. It is by far the largest villain for all beginners. The mechanics of the cast can be a little tough to figure out and this can lead to zero effectiveness. As a guide, helping with casting basics is an issue every day on the water. Ninety percent of the clients in my boat have exactly have the same problem with their fly casting, rod position and line speed.

The good news is that’s it’s easy to fix. In A River Runs Through It, they talked about 10:00 to 2:00. I disagree. All my years of casting experience and instruction have proven to me that stopping at the top, midnight if we’re using a clock for reference, works the best and is easier to learn. The truth is that when we attempt to stop at the top we actually drift back to about 2:00 anyway.



The second most important thing to remember is a hesitation at the top. The stop at the top of the cast (midnight) allows the line to catch up and straighten out behind us. The more line we are dealing with the longer the hesitation has to be. If we start the forward motion too early we run the risk of tangling the line on itself or worse yet hooking our self. With a cast of thirty feet the hesitation is about three seconds plus, really. This means that the rod is stuck in the midnight position for three seconds.

If you find yourself whipping the line with the rod stop and start again. Hold the line firmly and do not allow any line out at any point of the cast but the forward motion. Good fly casting means that we must beat gravity as well. Lifting the line up quickly when we start a cast will help get the line speed up and overcome the force of gravity. Remember that the line wants to go out through the rod guides. The only reason it doesn’t is that we do something to prevent it. Start with a small piece of yarn or cloth instead of a fly while practicing. It will hurt a lot less when we falter and cast it a little too close to our head. Stop at the top and let the rod do all the work. When it’s right it will feel right. You will know good fly casting right as it happens.