Penns Creek Angler
Bruce Fisher
Article Jan 2008
In this months article I’d like to suggest a few tips to help you become a better angler. Fist let me say I will not use the word “always” or “this will work”. When I started fishing we didn’t have the Internet and Chat Rooms to talk about fly-fishing. But I was fortunate enough to start my life long fishing adventure right here on Penns Creek. I was blessed with people that would offer a fly or help with a problem. But most of what I learned early on was by fishing myself or with a partner and it was a long learning curve.
I didn’t really like reading the way I do today but my grandfather would always save his old Sports Afield magazines so I could read them. He may have done it just to keep me quiet for a little while. The articles were mostly about hunting but on occasion they had great fishing stories written by Joe Brooks, Lee Wulff or reprints of older articles by Ray Bergman. These men were and still are giants both as writers and fishermen. I recently bought a copy of Ray Bergman’s classic “TROUT” printed in 1938 and most of the information is still valuable today. Not to mention it’s a valuable resource for traditional flies that are no longer made or very hard to find. Some of these flies include “Queen of the Waters”, “Professor”, “Yellow Sally” and the “Partridge and Gray”.
Since that time we have come a long way with milestones in literature such as “Caddisflies” by Gary LaFontaine, “Selective Trout” by Carl Richards, Doug Swisher, and Dave Whitlock, “Tying Emergers a Complete Guide” by Ted Leeson and Jim Schollmeyer. Also Charlie Meck is a giant and one of my favorite writers in this day and age. First and foremost if you start reading the new books today and they will save you thousands of hours of frustration. I just read a book called “Fish Food” by Ralph Cutter, it’s a short read and is packed with tips and techniques.
If you are not a reader there are hundreds of DVD’s on the market and you are bound to learn something new. Some suggestions would be Charlie Meck and Eric Stroup’s DVD “Practical Flies that Catch Trout, Ralph & Lisa Cutter’s “Bugs of the Underworld”, Don Bastion’s “Tying Classic Wet Flies” and Dave Brandt’s “ Traditional Catskill Dry Flies”. These works will give you a new perspective on how you fish for trout with a fly rod or how to tie a new fly.
Now I’ll tell you some of my secrets that help me to catch more and larger trout. The first thing I do when I get to a trout stream is sit quietly and look for what bugs are on the water and then try to capture as many different variety as I can. Are they crippled flies, spinners, duns or nymphs?
Next I will try to determine what the trout are selectively eating the most of if any. You could have 5 different flies hatching on Penns at any given time. Penns Creek can humble the most talented and gifted anglers on the planet. It’s only by studying the water that you will uncover her secrets. When you spot a trout rising keep looking until you see what the fish is eating. It could be any or none of the hatching flies you see floating down the creek. The fish might be taking nymphs just below the surface and all you will see is a flash. If you see a slight dimple rise but no bug on the surface the fish could be taking emerging flies stuck in the surface film of the water or they could be taking spinners that are falling 300 yards up stream and you cant see them.
If you are lucky you will see the fly clearly and the trout eat it, now you are half way home because you will fish a dry fly first. If it’s a flash you see try putting on a nymph or wet fly of the most abundant fly you see on the water. If you see a dimple rise or the dorsal fin of the trout but no bug, put on a parachute or compara-dun style fly of the most abundant fly you see, these flies are designed to imitate emergers. If you can determine how the fish is feeding then you are in luck because there are only a few things you can do to catch that trout.
The tactics I’m about to discuss work for all styles of flies be it nymph, wet or dry. First let me say I like to fish downstream with all flies, the reasons I do this are many. Foremost I like to fish downstream because the fish will see the fly first not the leader or fly line and if the fish doesn’t want the fly I simply let it float past the trout a good distance and retrieve my line so it doesn’t disturb the trout. After gaining most of my line back I do not false cast over that fish because the spray from the water on the line will spook the trout. I’ll wait a few moments and cast again this time I’ll pull the dry fly under the water or add a small split shot so the fly sinks about a 2 feet ahead of the fish in essence the dry fly becomes and emerger or wet nymph.
If this method fails I’ll slowly change my casting position without making waves that alert the trout of my presence and try the same thing again with same fly. This tactic has worked so many times I can’t begin to count them all. Now if this isn’t the ticket I only have a few options, change the tippet to a smaller size, change to a different fly or move to yet another casting position. You could also make you leader and tippet length longer to eliminate any drag.
You should stick with one trout at a time even if there are 6 other trout in the area. If you work on the closest fish first you can always move to the next fish down stream and start the process all over. If you work on more than one fish at a time you may get too much slack line out and loose the fish when it finally hits. That’s about it, other than that the trout is smart and wise.
Of course you can cast a totally different fly to the same trout providing he is doesn’t get spooked and you can start the whole process over again. This time you may want to study what the trout is doing with more scrutiny. This is the process that works for me, if you can apply it to your style of fishing that’s great. But if it doesn’t work for you develop your own process by studying the water. In my next article and I’ll tell you some other tactics that work hand in and with what I’ve just written. If you see me on the stream please come and say hello.
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hope everyone has a great New Year.
“Catch you later”
Bruce Fisher
© 2008