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The Best Fly Tip of All
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May 29, 2009
The Best Fly Tip of All
By Kirk Deeter
What's the single best fly fishing tip you've ever heard?
I've learned a lot of helpful hints over the years on everything from casting to picking the right fly... but in my book, the number one challenge (and the real appeal of fly fishing) is locating fish in the river. It's all a big game of hide and seek, which never grows old.
Interestingly, the best lesson I ever learned about locating trout in a river came from a tuna captain. Fishing with Steve “Creature” Coulter, 40 miles off Hatteras, North Carolina, I stared out at the blue horizon and asked him how in the world he went about finding fish in the open ocean.
“It isn’t so hard,” he smiled. “It’s just like trout fishing.”
“How do you figure?” I asked.
He explained: “Fish like changes.” Changes in currents, changes in depth, changes in water color, and changes in structure. If you find a patch of sea grass floating in the open ocean, that’s a structure change, and you’ll find fish under it. If you find a place where currents converge baitfish will school there, and bigger fish will follow them. Reefs, wrecks, and rock formations attract fish too, as do underwater ridges and canyons.
Creature’s lesson is to apply that thinking when you go to the trout river. Look for changes in currents, where swift water meets slow water; changes in structure, where rocks and trees create holding water; changes in depth, like shelves and pools, or changes in color, which usually signal a depth or structural transition.
Find the changes, and you find the fish.
Tim and his buddies tease me when we fish together... "Oh here comes Deeter, Mr. Changes..." "Fish like changes!" "Play the Bowie music... ch-ch-ch-ch-CHANGES!"
That's okay. The more I fish, anywhere from bass lakes to rivers to the ocean... I now find myself constantly concentrating on changes.
Do the same, and I promise you you'll change your hookup ratio for the better... hopefully starting this weekend.
Deeter
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Comments (17)
I think you wrote about this "fish like change" maxim in an older post, or maybe it appeared in the magazine at one point. Either way, I've read that story before, and before I was done reading your third sentence, I was thinking, "That's easy, it was that bit I read about fish liking change." I've used it to find everything from trout and steelhead to bass and pike. The beauty of it is that since it applies so well, you can use it on a new species or in a new environment without having to ask or answer "why?" Yeah, trout like to hide in seams behind rock to get out of the main current and gorge on the food conveyor belt, but it's a lot easier to tell my kid or buddy or even myself, look for the change in current and there be yer fish.
"I fear change" - Garth Algar in Wayne's World
Thanks for the tip. I never really realized but places that change are where I have caught the most fish
Good tip, now I won't be able to get on a stream without ch-ch-ch-CHANGES! going through my head.
This really helped last weekend on my little vacation on Lake George in NY. It's been a while since I fished there and I don't know the spots anymore, but I just looked for the transitions and caught fish there.
Change, transition, call it what you will, it is magic.
The best fishing tip for me was to be told to learn to sit still. Become a tree. Big fish can't pass up an insect, a mouthful, and they can't wait more than 15 minutes to do it, revealing themselves in the process.
Mmmmmmm. Become a tree. I like it. Mind if I steal that?
The best fly fishing tip in my humble opinion is to match the hatch. Size, shape and color.
I find my fish in foam lines. Behind rocks and under dimples.
And might I add, look like the tree....Camoflage is just plain awesome!
Thermoclines.
Stop complicating the art of fly fishing. It's a simple fact that the fish want food, protection and to conserve energy. We tend to complicate every aspect of everything we get into. Man is like that. Learn the basics and learn them well. For stream and river fishing (even lake) 1)Understand the characteristics of your prey 2) reading the water 3) learn three simple cast. 4) understand their food source. KIS
This is what I teach my beginning students.
Sorry, to get real basic. First you need a fly rod and second, piss downwind. I missed the Flyiconelli post couple of weeks ago, Deeter, but June 11th, Lake Ririe outside of Idaho Falls smallmouth fly only tourney, not to many rules, one is drift boats with up to 10 hp. Largest five fish, 2 man team wins. First one was last year, had a blast.
As I said, the sum of my skills was useless until I learned to avoid making an impact in the environment. Go there and just sit still for 15 minutes. Enjoy the day around you for 15 minutes. Watch the water, try to avoid even moving your head. In the beginning, I thought that this was fairly stupid but when nothing else was working. . . . . . . Now, I know better.
Nice tip thanks!
As Mel Krieger once said, "Read the changes in your fishery, be it lakes, streams or rivers-do this and you will find the trout."
Trouuuuuuuut
Good tip
I just returned from a weekend trip away and funnily enough I caught my best sea bass yet at a "change" 48 hours before reading your article
(where a rocky point meets a sandy beach)
Post a Comment
"I fear change" - Garth Algar in Wayne's World
Stop complicating the art of fly fishing. It's a simple fact that the fish want food, protection and to conserve energy. We tend to complicate every aspect of everything we get into. Man is like that. Learn the basics and learn them well. For stream and river fishing (even lake) 1)Understand the characteristics of your prey 2) reading the water 3) learn three simple cast. 4) understand their food source. KIS
This is what I teach my beginning students.
As Mel Krieger once said, "Read the changes in your fishery, be it lakes, streams or rivers-do this and you will find the trout."
I think you wrote about this "fish like change" maxim in an older post, or maybe it appeared in the magazine at one point. Either way, I've read that story before, and before I was done reading your third sentence, I was thinking, "That's easy, it was that bit I read about fish liking change." I've used it to find everything from trout and steelhead to bass and pike. The beauty of it is that since it applies so well, you can use it on a new species or in a new environment without having to ask or answer "why?" Yeah, trout like to hide in seams behind rock to get out of the main current and gorge on the food conveyor belt, but it's a lot easier to tell my kid or buddy or even myself, look for the change in current and there be yer fish.
Thanks for the tip. I never really realized but places that change are where I have caught the most fish
Good tip, now I won't be able to get on a stream without ch-ch-ch-CHANGES! going through my head.
This really helped last weekend on my little vacation on Lake George in NY. It's been a while since I fished there and I don't know the spots anymore, but I just looked for the transitions and caught fish there.
Change, transition, call it what you will, it is magic.
The best fishing tip for me was to be told to learn to sit still. Become a tree. Big fish can't pass up an insect, a mouthful, and they can't wait more than 15 minutes to do it, revealing themselves in the process.
Mmmmmmm. Become a tree. I like it. Mind if I steal that?
The best fly fishing tip in my humble opinion is to match the hatch. Size, shape and color.
I find my fish in foam lines. Behind rocks and under dimples.
And might I add, look like the tree....Camoflage is just plain awesome!
Thermoclines.
Sorry, to get real basic. First you need a fly rod and second, piss downwind. I missed the Flyiconelli post couple of weeks ago, Deeter, but June 11th, Lake Ririe outside of Idaho Falls smallmouth fly only tourney, not to many rules, one is drift boats with up to 10 hp. Largest five fish, 2 man team wins. First one was last year, had a blast.
As I said, the sum of my skills was useless until I learned to avoid making an impact in the environment. Go there and just sit still for 15 minutes. Enjoy the day around you for 15 minutes. Watch the water, try to avoid even moving your head. In the beginning, I thought that this was fairly stupid but when nothing else was working. . . . . . . Now, I know better.
Nice tip thanks!
Trouuuuuuuut
Good tip
I just returned from a weekend trip away and funnily enough I caught my best sea bass yet at a "change" 48 hours before reading your article
(where a rocky point meets a sandy beach)
Post a Comment