Hatchmag link for this artical
by George Daniel – Monday, Nov 7th, 2022
What makes fly fishing for trout so special to me? It’s the dynamic nature of weather, stream conditions, and trout behavior. Almost nothing stays the same. As a result, the approach that worked today won’t always work tomorrow. As anglers, we need to adapt to these changes in order to achieve success, even if, from time to time, it means using some of your least favorite tactics.
If given a choice between Euro-nymphing and suspension nymphing, my preference is for the simplicity and effectiveness of Euro. But low water conditions can make it difficult to catch fish using Euro tactics. Currently, a lack of rainfall has my local waters spitting just a trickle of water, creating challenging conditions even for experienced anglers.
Distance and stealth are usually a fly fisher’s best friend when dealing with low water and spooky trout. Unless you’re willing to crawl on your hands and knees to get into close casting position, then your next best option is adding distance between you and your target. Euro-nymphing tactics may be the most effective fly fishing tactic—which is why it accounts for over 80% of my nymphing—but employing this approach requires being within 2-3 rod lengths of your target. When I begin spooking too many trout, despite a stealthy but up-close approach, it’s time to switch gears and adopt suspension nymphing tactics so I can distance myself from my target.
The key to finding success when suspension nymphing during low flows is using the right tactics. I stay away from hard plastic or cork-style bobbers during low flows, even if colored white or clear. In general, you should stay away from any indicator which lands hard on the water. Such indicators can create an impact that will spook any fish within casting range. I also avoid bright colors like chartreuse, yellow, and orange, as they seem to put some fish down during low flows. During these conditions, I prefer using high-floating dry flies as my indicator. I have no quantitative figures to share, but in my experience, switching to a natural-looking dry fly as my indicator produces much higher success rates, even when compared to using white New Zealand Wool or white pinch-on-style indicators.
The Chubby Chernobyl is a favorite dry-dropper pattern for anglers across the country. I also like to use the chubby, but only when I’m fishing out West, casting heavier flies, and fishing waters where trout are more likely to eat the dry fly. Additionally, low water conditions demand not only a stealthy approach, but often, a long leader to help make delicate presentations. My preference for low water nymphing is fishing a longer and lighter leader (15’ or longer tapered to 6X) in combination with smaller/lighter nymphs (#16-20 with a 2.0mm tungsten bead or lighter). Trying to cast a wind resistant chubby with a long leader is challenging, even for more skilled fly casters. The long and light leader, often necessary for fishing low water, lacks the power to turn over such dry flies, causing constant tangles and twisted tippets. Therefore, I use more natural looking dry flies for my low water dry dropper setups, where the dry fly not only acts as an indicator but has a good chance of catching a fish.
My two favorite dry-dropper indicator flies are the original stimulator and X-caddis. The key to both patterns is using a hollow enough hair to increase the patterns’ buoyancy. Good hair is hard to find and is the reason I purchase all of my stimulator and X-caddis hair wing material from Blue Ribbon Fly Shop, West Yellowstone, MT. I’ve been using this shop as my primary hair wing material supplier for the last 10 years and find their hair easy to tie with while offering excellent floatation. Both stimulator and X-caddis patterns (tied in a variety of sizes and colors) are buoyant enough to float any medium to light weight nymph rig, are easy to cast with a long leader, while offering an attractive surface pattern worthy of encouraging a trout to feed on the surface.
For X-caddis or stimulators I plan to use as an indicator fly, I’ll bulk up the deer hair wings to provide a little extra floatation. I also prefer to use light-to-medium-colored deer hair, allowing me to easily locate the pattern on the water. If needed, a high-vis wing post can be added to create an even easier to see pattern. I tie X-caddis in sizes #6 to 14 for indicator patterns. I use larger #6 patterns for fishing medium-weighted nymphs while using smaller #14 for light nymph patterns. Pair the size of the indicator pattern with the weight of the nymph, creating a tipping point. If the pattern is too large and buoyant and paired with an ultra-light nymph, a trout take may not move the indicator fly enough to register a strike. Strikes are more easily seen when the two are better paired together and this is the reason I tie these patterns in several sizes to better match the weight of the nymph I fish.
And don’t be surprised if the fish of the day eats the dry fly instead of the nymph. Some of my best trout this fall have eaten the X-caddis or stimulator dry fly. Furthermore, this nymphing approach has salvaged several of my Penn State Fly Fishing Program field trips during the semester, where beginners were tasked with tackling extreme low flows on spooky brown trout waters. But don’t take my word for it—try it out for yourself.
We are back at the New Braunfels Public Library on Wednesday, September 28th at 7:00 PM for a more traditional meeting agenda with the raffle, business meeting and a speaker. Our speaker for the meeting is Jim Gray whose presentation is ‘Fly Fishing the Colorado River”. Jim’s presentation will be a practical guide to fishing the Lower Colorado River. He will cover several floats, flies and techniques for success. All are welcome, hope to see you there.
Written by
Allen with The Catch and The Hatch
Streamer fishing techniques can be a productive way to fish year round in colorado, but during the fall, it peaks.
This is because the brown trout are spawning, and the already carnivorous and aggressive brown trout of the rocky mountains now have just one more reason to bite something that comes near them. Leeches, smaller fish, and other aquatic animals prey continuously on the eggs of brown trout.
It’s not uncommon to see them half out of the water like you would see a cruising carp during the spawn
During this aggressive and stressful time for trout, you can catch a lot of brown and rainbow trout on similar techniques. I have tried several of these techniques and I want to share a few of them with you now.
This is the classic technique that most know, but needs to be said, because it works, and works often.
throw your streamer to the other bank – if you’re not 6 inches off the bank, you might as well be a mile. you are imitating a food source (typically a smaller fish) being spooked out from it’s hide, and frantically fighting the current across stream. fish aren’t spooked out of hiding 3 feet off the bank, they get spooked 6 inches or less of the bank.
2-5 strips. as soon as your fly pulls a couple feet off the bank, give it 2-5 quick 6-12 inch strips. this makes the fly look like its scared and provokes a reaction strike in the trout that see it.
Let it drift. after you strip it, let it sit. your fly will now naturally drift across the stream to the side you are on. be ready, this is when 90% of your strikes will happen. when that streamer is just working it’s way across the current, it’s too much for rainbows to resist, and browns will attack it during the spawn to defend their eggs that they think your fly is trying to steal.
Once it’s made it’s way to your side of the river, give it 4-5 more slow but arm length strips and see if a fish strikes. if not – then start back over to step 1 until you get the desired result :).
This technique involves being at the top of a hole, and fishing down stream into the hole and the first part of the run. During the winter, I have caught monstrous fish on streamers in colorado using this exact technique. the beauty of this technique is that you can keep a streamer in the strike zone for a very long time, so even the lazy fish can’t resist the constant enticement.
For this technique, use a very heavy streamer that can get to the bottom quickly and can almost “jig” off the bottom.
It’s best to stand in the middle of the river and directly upstream of the hole you are going to fish and let the streamer sink down into the hole as you work this maneuver.
All you do with this technique is pull out as much line as you need to reach the end of the hole and then cast out your fly 3-5 yards in front of you and let the current dead drift your streamer till it reaches the end of the hole.
then take your line and mend it to the right or the left and let the current drag that mend so it makes the fly drift the direction you mended it. as that happens, I give a few short strips to make the streamer shoot forward.
The trick now is once the streamer, and your line, has straightened out, the line you just stripped, gets let back out so the streamer falls or sinks like he is struggling.
repeat that process and each time bring in a little more line so you work your way up the hole. mend the line right or left, vary the distance of the mend and play with this technique.
these are the kind of fish you can catch slow rolling a streamer with the above mentioned technique
You will catch more fish this way during the winter and early spring. granted I’m sure this works year round, but it’s particularly good during the winter and early spring of colorado.
This technique uses 2 flies to simulate a leech chasing an egg. it’s a simple technique that catches a lot of fish when the spawn is on. when you find spawning fish at the end of a run, do the fish a favor, and let them spawn. it’s very important for fish to spawn in as much peace as possible. good news is that there are plenty of fish usually right below the spawning fish, feeding on the eggs that don’t stick to the ground.
The way it works
Set your self up in the middle of the hole, giving yourself access to cast upstream and dead drift, as well as strip the streamer when the fly is at the end of the cast.
Tie an egg as your lead fly, and a streamer below it, as if the streamer is chasing the egg. you then just cast is as normal and dead drift the fly. you’ll catch a good amount of fish during this dead drift, so be ready and aware.
The second part is just giving small quick strips like the streamer is trying to chase down the fly. the fish key in on this leech and egg, and go after both. it’s a great technique that covers a lot of water effectively.
you can also see this at the below link and there are pictures of suggested streamers also.