Fishing scenario

[tcorfey]

I thought this poll might generate some interesting discussion...

Regarding how would you present your line, leader, tippet, fly in the following scenario.

You are standing facing upstream in the center of a run that is about 40' long with faster water to your left and slower water to the right. The faster water is against the left bank and about 4 feet wide, the slower water is six feet widening to 8 feet wide with rather still or with very little reverse current because the stream widens further after it goes past you.

How do you present your line, leader, tippet and fly?

 

[Ard]

This sounds like a dry fly situation to me, I'm answering as though I were fishing dry flies.

There's always an oddball within a group, I'm probably that person. I would sit somewhere where I could see the entire run and watch it for activity. If and when I identified some fish I'd then slowly move to a better vantage point to see them better. After I figured out what they were actually up to I'd begin plotting how I might best position myself to catch one or all of them.

It took years but I became a watcher of things before ever taking actions. Streamer fishing I still look a bit but it's more about charting currents and planning where to start than spotting fish.

 

[karstopo]

I'd probably want some more information if I could get it about the bottom structure and where the fish might be stationed. I have fished a run that sounds similar on the Navajo River just inside New Mexico as it flows in from Colorado. The fast water is deeper, maybe 3 feet, than the slow and there aren't any visible rocks or boulders, just a lot of pulverized shale. Fish seem to be in the fast deeper water, but I do better casting weighted patterns into the fast water while keeping the line on the slow water. It's just tricky feeling the take. I don't fish with strike indicators.

If there's trout rising there, I've never seen it. But on the scale of expertise and experience with cold water trout on rivers, I'm about as low as you can get. But you never said you were only looking for expert opinions.

 

[tcorfey]

I allowed for multiple answers depending on what fly you were using so we could get some discussion going on regarding presentation.

For example, you might choose to fish a large terrestrial along the bank in the fast water, or you might choose to use a streamer or may be a nymph rig or a wet fly, because of the choices you make regarding the fly your presentation and where you cast will be affected. Time of year would also be a factor in choosing how to fish this run. I thought I could get some discussion going along those lines as I find discussions on fly choice and presentation more interesting then what rod or reel to buy.

Regards,

Tim C.

 

[knotjoe]

I'm a warm water guy in Indiana and, thus far, the only one to pick the first option. I always hit the slow side first because it's where they spook from and I'm always on the lookout for a browsing carp.

Current is cover, what's already there is probably going to cooperate as I move into the seam and further into the fast water. Probably also the only dude who will skip great water and structure to shoot a long line into the "push" where stream beds rise before a set of runs or shallow riffle.

Wait to long and get to close, big smallmouth move upstream and chill out. Many nice fish, very shallow and active with this kind of approach. I watch a lot of water, sometimes while birding the streams with a long lens camera and no fishing tackle. High vantage points reveal these opportunities with no gravel crunching to compromise the scenario. Much of the time, these fish bail long before I could see them from actual fishing level so I assume they are there and proceed accordingly with a longer reach.

Can't say how many times I've dragged a long line behind me while moving on and had a fish slam it right along to the slackwater bank I just trampled over. One of those "Oh, I guess they like to feed in that water type occasionally" moments of revelation.

It's only dead water when we've gotten too close or been too noisy.