St. Vrain Angler Tips!

Fly fishing is fun. It's challenging. It takes us to beautiful places. It renews our spirit and refreshes our mind. We need to go.

Sometimes the challenging aspect of fly fishing creates frustration. These tips are here to help you learn fly fishing skills that you can practice. As they become clearer and more a part of what you do on the water and how you think about what you are about to do you'll hook more trout. That's a good thing.

Please read the following info and put it into practice during the emergence of mayflies, which are shown, or caddis and/or midge emergences you meet on streams. Stoneflies are another challenge and we'll talk about them another time.

This is information I shared with News & Muse readers in late September, 2005. It is pertinent for all seasons; just change the water conditions, but use similar techniques.

Water: The water is lower, clearer and cooler than it's been for some time. Lower water means fish will be concentrated in tighter quarters. They'll be in or near the deepest pools on the stream and they will know their lane of escape to cover. If you spook them and see them flee, you'll know where they hide, too.

Clearer water means that both of us - the angler and the trout - will be easier to see for the other, which means we, as anglers, will have to demonstrate stealth. Once in a while, when you are out there, try sitting on a rock for a bit to lower the overall silhouette you show the fish. Watch the water and you'll be surprised at how quickly the fish recover and begin moving out of deeper water and cover into feeding lanes. Try it.

Cooler water means the fish's metabolism will slow and they will feed less to keep their bellies full. During the summer they've been filling their stomachs two times a day; now they'll move towards filling it one time a day. At the same time the bugs are getting smaller and less diverse. As soon as we have several freezes, which have already occurred in the high country, the terrestrial insects which have been supplementing the fish's diet will all be done and no longer available. In addition the larger mayflies, caddis and stoneflies will be done with their emerging/mating/egg-laying cycles and smaller mayflies and midges will be the main source of chow.

Bugs: Small mayflies and midges will likely make up the lion's share of trout's diet. As the season progresses, the bugs will get smaller and remain abundant. For trout this means lots of bugs to munch and not having to move far to intercept a bite to eat; for anglers it means very accurate casts to feeding fish. Small mayflies, such as the one at the right, will emerge every day of the week. On dark, dreary days they'll be very active, emerging early and staying on the water for quite some time. The fish will feed with vigor and abandon.

Flies: Our patterns will be smaller and may drift at various levels of the water column. Early in the morning nymphs will become active and trout will begin feeding on them. As the bugs move toward the surface we'll see fish flashing in the middle of the water column as they feed on these insects. When the bugs get to the surface and emerge from their nymphal shuck the fish will begin rolling on the surface. The bugs are stuck while they climb out of their shuck and somehow the fish know the bugs are most vulnerable at this time. When the bugs emerge successfully - which probably means about 5% or so of those available - the adult dun will ride on the film as its wings dry, then fly off to molt, mate and die. At this point we'll see fish eating on the surface.

Here's a chart that should help with the basics. For more info please try my Small Mayfly Solutions Booklet. Read more on the web by visiting Mayflies. Enjoy.

Where, Flies & Rigging:

Does this help? Would you like more?

Please consider registering for an instructional Guided Trip. We're ready to get you on the water and to teach you the fundamentals of fishing on streams.