Simple question, but a difficult answer. The number one variable which determines the number of trout caught is not the lure or gear used but the skill of the angler. A novice with a spinning rod, will nearly always outfish a novice with a fly rod. The learning curve required to fish with spinning gear…
The Hopper Dropper might just be my favorite summer time fly fishing rig. Simply because it catches more trout. The Hopper Dropper Rig is a variation of the standard dry fly dropper rig. It uses a large terrestrial fly that resembles a Grasshopper, cicada, crickets, locus or adult stonefly, or any large terrestrial insect. One…
Today, Sage has announced their new R8, their first flagship fly rod for quite a few years The launch hype is generating quite a bit of conversation. Much of which is concerning its $1050 price tag. So I decided this would be a good topic for a blog, do expensive rods catch more fish? Is…
If you are reading this article, I guess you have just dropped a fly box overboard and watched helplessly as it sunk to the deep. Don,t feel too bad, I am sure most fly fishermen have lost more than a few fly boxes over the years. In this article, I will share what I consider…
Struggling to catch trout while fly fishing, this article provides a few hints to how better select and present flies to hopefully catch more trout. How to present a dry to rising trout Present the fly above where you can see the trout rising, not at the site of the rise. The rise is where…
Welcome to my guide to targeting rainbow trout in mountain lakes. I love fishing in the mountains, there is nothing better than fishing surrounded by nature. Maybe best of all, mountain lakes usually stay cold enough to fish even in the hottest part of summer. Many new anglers can find lakes a bit daunting. There…
Reviewing products when new is fine, but it does little to indicate long term durability. So in this post, I decided to take a look at one of my old Lamson fly reels to see how well my US made Lamson has held up after many years of freshwater use. I tried to find my…
Strike indicators serve two main purposes. To give a visual clue for when a fish takes the fly, and to control a fly’s maximum depth. To work best at giving a visual clue, they must be clearly visible. But does that visibility scare fish? Strike indicators can scare trout, but a well-presented one should not….
Most anglers, myself included only fish the first few feet of most rivers and pools we fish. We cast out, maybe let the lure sink for a few seconds before starting our retrieve. The lure, unless it is a diving variant usually dances back toward the surface. Even most deep diving baits really only get…
Stock trout are not like wild fish. That is because they spent their entire life feeding upon pellets. A natural fly or nymph in their hatchery pond will be an extremely uncommon sight. So when a stock trout is hungry, they do not think of a crunchy mayfly or juicy worm, but rather a small…
