Fishing Secrets

Undercut banks are a great location to find trout since this location provides them with excellent cover from predators. The trout can hover against the edge of the stream right where the friction causes the water to slow down, making the swimming easy.

A Woolly Bugger is ideal in this situation. You’ll want to cast upstream so that your fly and your leader can land close to the bank and almost parallel to it. You can cast across stream to fish if the stream is wide enough. This way your cast will land the fly close to the undercut bank. When this happens you need to jig your cast downstream so that as much of your fly line and the leader is lying in a parallel position to the bank as possible.

When the fly starts to drift downstream and gets pulled in by the current you’ll want to flick the tip of your rod and push the fly line further downstream. This action should attract the attention of the most elusive trout.

Before you select your fly you need to identify the feeding patterns of the trout:

Sip Rise: A sip rise will have surface rings that are sometimes very hard to see and other times very easy to see. A sip rise is caused by a trout that is sucking spent spinner or sipping on tiny duns.
Splashy Rise: A splashy rise will indicate that the trout are rising up to active mayfly duns, quick rising pupa, caddis adults, or stonefly adults. Many times you’ll see the trout jump out of the water.
Dorsal Fin and Tail Rise: This rise is an indication that the trout are feeding just below the surface and that they will probably ignore any surface flies.
Head Rise: A head rise is identified by trout sticking their heads up out of the water. This means that they are feeding on mayfly, stonefly adults, caddis adults, or cripples and that they will feed right on the surface.
Splashy Surge: A splashy surge indicates that the trout will most likely chase any whitebait or smelt into shallow waters.

A quick note on rivers: Rivers are probably the best type of habitat for trout. This is because they have a great deal of oxygen in the water that is evenly distributed from the top to the bottom. The water temperature in rivers is a bit more moderate than lake temperatures. Temperatures are cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter than rocky or low lying lakes.

When you’re fishing for trout in rivers you’ll want to stay close to the current but out of the direct flow. Look for breaks in the current such as stumps or logs; these are often the areas where you’ll find trout hovering in schools.

River bars are also good places to fish for trout. Don’t overlook river bends as other good options since trout seem to enjoy these peaceful areas.

Trout like the cooler waters. When the water temperature starts to rise in the summer months, the trout will move to deeper and cooler waters. No only will the water be cooler deeper down, there will be more oxygen in the water. When trout are in water that is too warm and is lacking in oxygen they start to become stressed.

By late summer trout will move to fast moving riffles even if the water is barely deep enough to cover them. You’ll have to approach them carefully. Let your fly drift to the smallest area of the riffle. Make sure that you cover the entire riffle before you move on to the next spot.

One important thing to remember is that the senses of feeling and hearing in a fish are almost one and the same. Trout feel and hear the vibration of movement and sound in the water. Each sound will have a different type of pitch that sends vibrations through the water. Trout are able to become familiar with particular sounds and pitches so that they are able to detect even the slightest movement in the water. The feeling and hearing senses in a trout act almost as a built in radar.

Just as with feeling and hearing, the way a trout smells and tastes is connected together as one sense. Most fish have taste buds on the inside and outside of their mouths. This means that they are able to taste something before they have it in their mouth. This is why the bait that you use needs to be pleasing to the trout or it won’t get into its mouth. And if it does get into the fish’s mouth it will be quickly spit out if it is unpleasant.

There are new studies out that show that trout can easily learn to navigate a mazeand that they can remember the pattern for about nine months. This means that in streams that are heavily fished, trout quickly learn that movement on certain paths of pools is an indication that there is danger. The trout will scare more easily since they know the pattern of approaching fly fishers. What does this mean for you? Avoid approaching the same pools from the same direction. Instead find different angles of approaches every time that you fish in that area.

Pools will be darker than other areas of the river or stream. They have a much smoother current. The water will be slow moving and deep over a bottom that is composed of sand, small gravel, or silt. You’ll find medium to large trout in pools during the midday.

Fishing for fish in natural lakes can be all the way from good to excellent. The success that you have will often depend on what part of the country the lake is located. For instance, the southern states have natural lakes that are quite shallow.

Many smaller sized natural lakes have a circular shape. You’ll want to focus your fishing strategy close to the shore where there are weeds and rocks. Larger lakes, in particular those lakes in the north, will often have great places for trout to school. This can include islands, weed flows, natural reefs, and deep holes. One thing to keep in mind when it comes to northern natural lakes is that they are often infertile. This means that although the water is very clear it doesn’t contain large amounts of algae or plankton, and thus lack a great deal of oxygen.