early season river tactics

[flyboy]

 I usually wait until mid summer before fishing my local trout stream, fishing upstream dries gives me lots off small fish.  What tactics should I use early season......the same or should I fish wet fly or nymphs or any other suggestions?

[Andrew Moray]

Hello Brian,

Assuming nothing moving, most of the anglers I know would start with the duo or trio to get some info to work on.
Auld guy I know starts with weighted nymph and a wet fly, catches a few, now and them  :makefun


HTH
Tony

[Highlander]

Auld guy I know starts with weighted nymph and a wet fly, catches a few, now and them  

Some days the auld guy get's the bird ya fannie
Here is a Gryffe fish of over twa pun. Now that is a tail, never saw a pellet in it's life & still rising to flies I'll bet to this day. This one along with its wee brother about a pun were caught on a two fly set up of Gold Head GRHE & an Endrick Spider one day in perfect wet fly conditions, mild day with a high ,not too coloured & steady flow. This sort of set up is is ideal as Andrew Moray points out for "searching" not just as to what fly colouration will work but jist as important is at what depth the fish might prefer the fly.

[Clan Ford]

I like to fish a team of weighted spiders...  dead drift of course!

Norm

[Andrew Moray]

Some days the auld guy get's the bird ya fannie

:lol:

'Tis a braw fush, and I'm suitably chastened  :lol:


All the best Alan,
Tony

[haresear]

My approach is pretty much the same as Col's.

any hatches are usually short lived and will likely be in early afternoon, so until lunchtime, I would normally fish nymphs. I aim to be sitting at a likely spot for a rise to hatching flies while eating my lunch.

This was part of  a reply of mine to from another thread......

if there are flies coming off but no fish rising at all, then that is a difficult situation (as you know). Sometimes however, you can find areas where the fish are willing to rise in limited numbers.


I'll give you an example. If the wind is blowing straight down your river and the flies are being blown downstream quickly, then I find fish are unwilling to rise consistently. What I usually do is to look for a corner where the wind is blowing the flies in a seam along the bank. You'll often find fish rising there.

For those days when absolutely nothing is taking surface flies, then some rivers, or more accurately, some parts of some rivers respond to nymphing. I'll usually use a piece of yarn as an indicator and will keep asjusting the position of this according to where I am fishing. No science involved, it's trial and error.

I'll usually give the slow flats a miss when nymphing and concentrate on the steady runs and streams. I like to see a defined current seam, because I know where the fish will be and I'll be less likely to spook fish like I would just fishing a flat blind.

Because I'm usually fishing upstream, I rarely fish wets down and across, but it can be a useful searching tactic and maybe I'll give it a go more often this season. The same applies to streamers.


Alex

[Billy]

I am going to try the upstream nymph this season from the start.

A short line with either two nymphs or one and an indicator/dry. A bit of hard work as it is constantly working the fly but we shall see.

It seems to work for the competition guys.

Billy

[east wind]

I usually start off with a couple of weighted nymphs fishing a long line and leader down and across on the deeper, slower or medium paced areas.

I try to to work it so that the flies are starting to lift in trooty looking areas, this can sometimes kick a trout into action now and again. Grayling though, don't seem to be interested in rising morsels.

After a few weeks i will change to a single weighted nymph, again down and across, but I'm in the water less and watching more. I still stay away from the faster stuff and watch for the brief hatches of the Big Two, and if trout appear i can change to a dry quickly (or as quick as my stubby fingers will allow) and I'm in like Flint.

Mac