Nothing beats experience when trying to find trout in rivers. But gaining those experiences, through bliss and failure, often marks a fly-fisherman’s early years. Water temperature, flows, and food sources all determine where trout lie, and often times problem solving, not time spent with your nose buried in a book, will help you find trout.
The first time I ever heard the phrase “think like a fish,” was during a brutally hot and grinding summer afternoon in August on a small Eastern Washington farm river where my friend Chris and I were poaching private property. While the trout populations lower down were known to be midly bad, not to be confused with sterile, we knew there were a few trout which held on year after year. Besides, ti was twenty minutes from home.
Suddenly I heard Chris holler. Looking upstream he was bent into a nice brown trout. The kind flecked like late fall summer wheat darkening into dusk.
Crouched over the fish as Chris let it go, I asked him how he’d seemingly done the impossible. “I hadn’t even spotted a fish all afternoon,” he said. He pointed over to the far bank where a few caddis had begun dancing in the shade beneath clumps of overhanging grass, a cool lie protected from both predators and the hot sun. “But then, there it was.”
It has been a decade or more since then, but I’ve never found a better way of looking at a river.
More than anything, I try to look for water that remains a bit cooler, is sheltered from heavy currents, and offers nearby protection from predators. A lie that is well oxygenated and provides good access to whatever food is available is optimal, however, trout can be caught in all types of water: back eddies, shallow riffles, deep runs, slow moving pools, pockets behind and in front of rocks, even in places where there are very few current breaks.
Just remember, on the water experience is the best teacher.
Cam is available for guided trips through Taylor Creek Fly Shop or by calling 970-927-4374.
