With winter rapidly loosening its grip on the trout waters of the nation, from Maine to California and from Washington to Georgia, an army of trout fishing sportsmen will sally forth at the opening day for this favorite cold water game fish. The trout, by nature preferring colder water and faster streams, seek out the most beautiful surroundings anglers are likely to find in any fishing.
Whether it be the golden trout amid the highest mountains in the continental United States, the eastern brook trout of New England’s meadow streams, the imported brown trout in Pennsylvania, Cutthroats in the rookies or rainbows in the Oregon hills, all trout have a basic similarity and fishing for them falls into a somewhat similar pattern wherever they are found. Here, for the benefit of those new to trout fishing, are some suggestions on the common fishing methods.
Fly fishing means the casting of a very small, light imitation insect by means of a long and delicate rod and a heavy line. Having no appreciable weight the tiny flies must be propelled by the weight of the line just as the old time mule driver used to snap out his long rawhide whip. Any weight near the fly makes casting difficult and flies are usually fished on or near the surface since there’s nothing to take them quickly to the lower levels of the stream.
Wet flies are imitations of sub-surface insect forms and should be fished beneath the surface with a lifelike, twitching motion. When trout are feeding on these underwater insects they rarely break the surface to give away their positions and the angler must learn to know where to fish for them.
Three simple necessities affect the trout’s location. Where he will lie depends upon the basic factors of comfort, safety and the presence of food. Since most of the food in the streams, especially in the early season when the brooks are high, is carried along by the current the fish will be close to or in the main flow.
The continuous effort of swimming against the current is tiring for the trout and he will more often lie at the edge of the faster currents rather than in their centers, darting in swiftly whenever some particularly luscious morsel comes into view. Safety dictates that the trout seek the deeper waters when possible to be less vulnerable to the birds like the kingfishers, herons and ospreys or to bank-traveling mink. Hungry fish will move to shallow water temporarily but the best bet is to fish the pools at the edges of the concentrated flow or wherever the flow in the deep pools becomes leisurely instead of swift.
Unless trout are actively feeding on the surface, the deeper a fly can be fished in the pools the more chance there will be to take fish. This calls for slow retrieves with short twitches of the line to impart a lifelike action, and, sometimes, to use a very light weight on the leader near the fly.
The artificial imitation of the natural food of the trout is a great field of endeavor in itself and although there are thousands of fly patterns on the market, the fisherman usually uses only one at a time. Trout, being selective and smart, are hard to fool. Knowing which fly to use is a fascinating part of the game and proficiency will come only with years. However, there are some tried and true patterns which will, if fished consistently and with reasonable care, take fish in any section of the country. Among such wet fly patterns are: Royal Coachman, Black Gnat, Blue Quill, Brown Hackle and Hare’s Ear.
Nymphs are a special form of wet flies which more accurately represent the underwater form of many stream insects. They are particularly effective when the trout are wary and will not hit a fly simply because it is about the right size and color and shows signs of motion instead of drifting along with the current like the lifeless bits of bark or leaves. Nymphs should be fished slower, more carefully and with finer leaders than ordinary wet flies. They should appear to move about in the eddies just as the real stream insects do or should be allowed to sink to the bottom before starting a darting, uneven swim up toward the surface.
It takes a lot of practice and a longer time for each such cast than for conventional just-under-the-surface fishing but nymphs when fished deep and slowly are extremely productive and the extra time in the retrieves pays off. The commonest fault with wet fly anglers is their impatience. They tend to cast continuously, failing to leave their flies in the water long enough on the retrieves and to lack the patience and judgment needed to get their flies down far enough toward the bottom where the fish usually stay.
Streamer flies are a special type of wet fly designed to imitate the minnows or small fish which form a fair share of the diet of most trout and are the predominant food of the larger trout. In fishing the streamer emphasis should be placed on its action, a darting motion made up of longer sweeps than those usually given to the smaller wet flies.
Dry or floating flies are imitations of the flying forms of the stream insects or of those common land insects like the bee, grasshopper or spider which may fall or be carried into the stream by the action of the wind. When trout are feeding on dry flies they make small splashes or dimples on the surface of the water. At such times when trout are giving away their positions by breaking the surface it is easy to locate them and the casts can be made directly to feeding fish. When no fish are feeding on the surface, dry flies may still bring excellent results. The trout may still be willing and eager to come to the surface to take a floating fly but unless there are natural insects present to bring him up the angler must fish him “blind” just like the wet fly fisherman, covering the likeliest spots. Good dry fly patterns to rely on are: Black Spider, Light Cahill, Quill Gordon, Grey Wulff, Hendrickson and Black Gnat.
Spinning has become very popular in this country for the taking of trout. Spinning probably is an easier method of casting for the novice to master. It is the weight of the lure when propelled by the light spinning rod that has the power to pull the line out behind it. The spinning lure, which must have a minimum weight of about a tenth of an ounce, cannot be made small enough to imitate most insect forms on which the trout feed. The spinning angler, then, seeks to draw strikes because of the trout’s hunger for heavier fare such as minnows, crawfish and helgramites. The most effective spinning lures are those made at least partly of metal which flash and wobble along as they are retrieved.
Although it is controversial, I’ll say that the best way to fish such a spinning lure is to work it as slowly as possible just above the bottom. This takes it down where nine tenths of the trout spend nine tenths of their time, gives them time to see it and close in…and a little time to deliberate before taking a whack at it. This slow and low method of fishing is hard on the pocketbook of any angler in snag filled waters and of the careless ones in almost any situation. However, the difference between getting down to the fish and losing a few lures while catching them as against not losing lures and taking home far fewer fish usually makes the loss of lures worth the gamble.
It is this ability of the spinning lure to get down low and for the caster to be able to place it to almost any part of the stream regardless of the amount of room behind him that has given spinning its large following of trout fishermen. Fly fishermen must use fine leaders to separate their small flies from the bulky and easily-seen fly lines and they find that long leaders are more effective but much more difficult to cast. The spinning fisherman uses a line which is, in essence, an almost invisible leader, a fact that helps him greatly in fooling the fish.
Light baitcasting outfits are effective for trout, too. By using a light line and small wobbling spoons in the daytime and larger lures at night the bait casters can also take their share of trout. It has come as a shock to many fly fishermen to learn that even eight to ten inch trout will make a pass at a good sized wobbling spoon and that almost any twelve inch trout will, on occasions, make a pass at a full sized casting plug. Again, the admonition is to use wobbling spoons or small, sinking plugs and work them slow and deep.
Fishing the artificials is the most publicized way of taking trout but all anglers realize that trout must eat to live and that a good bait fisherman who can give them what they’re looking for doesn’t have to worry about how “natural”’his lure is. He knows it’s the real McCoy. He doesn’t have to have any fancy tackle or a matched outfit (but he’ll find that good tackle pays off in the long run). It doesn’t matter how he does it so long as he can get his bait out to the trout without scaring them away…or has patience enough to wait for them to come easing back if he has frightened them away by his cast.
Worms are the commonest trout bait east of the Rockies and salmon eggs favored in the far west. The more heavily fished waters are, the more care the fisherman must use with these baits and the finer his tackle should be. Delicacy of tackle is the usual key to success. A gob of worms on a big leaderless hook splashed in with a heavy sinker attached will fail where a single worm, drifted down into a pool without noticeable tension on the line, hooked lightly on a small hook fastened to a very fine leader will be something the trout can’t resist. The best of the bait fishermen use tackle comparable in delicacy to that of most fly fishermen.
Minnows are a normal food for trout everywhere and good, lively minnows, carefully fished, not only draw trout but draw the big ones. The trout takes most baits with a rush and a gulp. The strike should come as soon as this solid strike is felt. Sometimes when the bait is fairly large and the fish small or where the fish are unusually wary and have become nibblers a little time should be given before setting the hook.
Although worms, salmon eggs and minnows are the most generally used of the natural baits for trout they are by no means the only ones or the best ones. Because those are the popular baits the trout, having seen a lot of them and having been stung a few times by the barbed steel, learn to be especially suspicious of them. There are many other forms of trout food available wherever there are trout. I’m referring to the nymphs of the stream. They are constantly being eaten by the trout but the trout cannot get under the stones or deep into the moss and rotting logs where most of them live. The angler who wants trout badly enough to work a little can start turning over rocks and scooping up stonefly nymphs or helgramites, both excellent trout baits. Working in the riffles and setting a piece of ordinary wire window screening in the current below him he can soon collect quite a mess of bugs. Some of them should be large enough to use on a #12 hook or #14 hook and with leaders of 3x or finer he can fool all but the smartest of trout.
Almost every trout fisherman has noticed the caddis creepers with their small covering cases of bits of wood or grains of sand as they crawl around on the stream bed. Trout eat them, case and all, but if the fisherman will take the time to draw the creepers out of their shells and impale a pair of them on a small hook he will have created another especially tempting trout bait.
In the spring the crane fly larvae or waterworms are plentiful in the moss or submerged and rotting logs of many streams. Those large, dark swimming worms are so deadly that few trout can resist them. Time after time I’ve seen these live and natural baits take limit catches of trout when all other fishermen nearby were practically fishless.Nothing helps a fisherman to catch fish as much as knowing what sort of food is available and where the fish will find it. It isn’t possible to explore the deep pools but it is easy to poke around near the shore and in the riffles. A little judicious poking on a day when fish are hard to take with flies or ordinary baits doesn’t take much time but may make the rest of the day far more productive.
Spinning is an excellent method of fishing natural baits. If the bait is very small a little weight may be added to aid in casting without making the fish suspicious. The fast retrieve and the ease of casting give a maximum of water coverage. The fine spinning line lets the lure follow the flow of the slight stream currents in a natural way and is so fine that most fish will be fooled. The preferred way to fish is to cast upstream and let the current carry the bait down with it in a natural manner, taking up slack as the distance between bait and iisherman decreases. Working upstream gives the angler an advantage in that the fish, being headed upstream, are less likely to see him at their rear than they are if he fishes down to them from above. While baits dragged across the current or upstream against it will take fish some of the time the drifting bait, or one that settles and lies still in the eddies is the most successful.
Small brooks are best fished with bait. In the narrow, winding waters overhung with branches it is stealth, not casting skill that fills the creel. The fish are likely to be frightened by the slightest shadow fallng on the water, or the sight of any part of an angler against the light of the sky. A heavy footfall on a nearby bank will send them streaking for a hideout under an overhanging bank or amid a sunken tangle of twisted branches. Whether the waters be large or small the trout fisherman who has never fished bait or studied the streams thoroughly for the insects and minnows that feed the trout he’s seeking has passed up a lot of fishing.
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