Fly Fishing Tips and Techniques from Norm's Blog
Regardless of whether you're a beginning fly fisher or a seasoned veteran looking to improve your skills, we have some special tips and techniques that will make your days on a trout stream more successful:
The Fly Fishing Season - When is runoff over? In the American west there is no hard and fast date for when runoff from snow melt is over. It varies from year to year based on the winter’s snow water equivalent, and from location to location due to regional climatic differences. Of course the best way to know the optimum time for summer fly fishing is to have some years of experience and to have either a written or mental logbook of when runoff is over and the rivers have reached their fishing peak. Learn more...
Start Planning Now for Your Summer Trips: It isn’t even December yet but we need to start thinking about our fishing trip(s) for 2013 if we want to have the best trip possible. Here are a few simple tips that I think will help you have a great 2013 fishing season. Learn more...
Pressure, Rain, Stream Levels and Fly Fishing: When most fly fishers think about any weather related aspect of their time on the water, generally atmospheric pressure is the first thing that comes to mind. Much has been written about pressure and fishing, including a little ditty like “Wind from the west – Fishing best – Wind from the east – Fishing least.” Like so many axioms, there is a degree of truth to it. Learn more...
Nymph Fishing Tips and Techniques: Strike Indicators. Nymph fishing techniques, in general and more specifically strike indicators, will generate as much heated discussion among fly fishers as any topic: to use an indicator or not to use one, which type of indicator to use, and where to place the indicator on the leader. Every nympher will have a different opinion on these nymph fishing nuances. Like most things in life, the best choices are situational. Learn more...
Dry Fly Fishing Tips and Techniques: Assume the Position! Finding fishy locations is relatively simple. This is especially true on small streams. Find that place that meet a trout’s need for protection from the current, protection from predators and is near a steady food supply and you are at the right location. Or, if you’re on the stream when the fish are rising the fish are doing all the work for you. When all else fails you can do as we suggest and “Fish the edges, the ledges and the foam going past the rock.” Learn more...
Floods and Fly Fishing. High flows are generally not a significant problem for fish in the stream. Cold water fish like trout have evolved in a system of periods of very high flow associated with snow melt runoff. Sure some are lost by getting stranded in backwater pools that become isolated as the high water receeds. But most escape the current associated with high runoff flows the same way they escape them in their everyday existence. Learn more...
How to have USGS tell you to go fishing! As a guide and a passionate fly fisher, I know that hitting the river at the optimum flow levels is critical to success. Over years of fishing my favorite rivers and streams I’ve developed a feel for what river levels generally fish the best and what river levels make the river unsafe or too difficult for wading. Wouldn’t it be nice if the USGS called me when the Little Piney was at the right water levels. Guess what. They will! Learn more...