Lovely stories Spencer and way to establish your bona fides! (you already had em in my book). Yesterday, I took some mental health time to go Trout Spey. I sprained my shoulder a bit ago so two handed sounded like a good plan. I fished a run that can be really good. Nada. Moved down river a bit and was just enjoying the river, the waterfowl and the casting started to click. Caught a fun little hatchery steelhead "shaker" (12 inches of jumpy fun). Was totally satisfied with that when I decided to try a spot I'd never fished before about 100 yards downriver. I looked at it and said out loud "this looks fishy!" And BOOM! Something obviously heavy hit my little Birds Nest. One millisecond later there was a VERY BIG deep red rainbow or perhaps Steelhead airborn and the line went slack. I was a tiny bit disappointed but mostly I felt thrilled that for that brief shining moment, a true monarch of the river interacted with me. When I got home I took the fly off to dry it and noticed the hook. It was pretty much straight! Sometimes the fish you remember most are literally the cliché...
haha, that's awesome, Dave! It's so frustrating when they bend the hook straight. I had one hook break on me completely once, and that was infuriating. Thanks for sharing!
My most significant catch was a little cutthroat in my hometown stream, I didn’t even know they were still residing in the watershed. They sat way upstream where it’s really hard for the stocked rainbows and brown trout from the lake to get upstream. I found a good pocket off the road and found out there are greenback cutthroat in the creek where I had driven past for years, and it got me more into fly fishing, so much to where I now tie too many flies to the point I sell them to my friends, and have 4 fly rods. It is all worth it but I don’t think there’s a more memorable fish than my states native fish species right out my doorstep. This is a repost from their short video that I used to get here lol.
This is my very first time starting to getting into fly fishing. I’ve watched lots of you guys’s videos and they halo SO MUCH. I will be trying to target mainly trout or other small species of fish. I live in Pennsylvania near the PA and Maryland state line. I would mostly be fishing in a small lake or a creek/stream which can have some pretty big trout. All I’m asking is how should I go about first learning how to fish with a fly rod. Also I would mainly be fishing from the shore and sometimes in the water. But I would mostly be on land. I plan on watching more of you guys’s videos on how to do this but I thought I would ask directly. What is the best advice or pieces of advice that you could give to me as a new fly fishermen?
The journey to my most memorable fish has been pretty rough so far. I've fished streamers 70 days and haven't hooked a single brown. Every time I float a river full commit with streamers I'll usually get 20-40 follows but none will commit. I'm changing my fly color, size, and profile every 10-15 minutes, I'm varying my retrieve styles (jerk strip, jig strip, two hand stripping), and I'm changing my strip lengths. I've tried casting at 45 degree angles up and downstream as well but that won't get them to commit either. I've tried fishing smaller and more drab colored streamers, but I haven't moved any fish on a fly under 4 inches. The river I'm fishing receives almost no pressure wither. I've floated it at least once a week over the past 2 years and I haven't seen another angler fishing in a year. Do you know what might be causing them to refuse my streamer? I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around the fact that they'll follow my fly 30 feet, sometimes into a figure 8, and not commit. I know browns are smart but isn't this a little excessive?
@ I usually catch 3 18” rainbows or so every float but the browns won’t commit. There’s an equal distribution in the river too which means it isn’t a population problem. 1500 rainbows and 1500 browns per mile.
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Lovely stories Spencer and way to establish your bona fides! (you already had em in my book). Yesterday, I took some mental health time to go Trout Spey. I sprained my shoulder a bit ago so two handed sounded like a good plan. I fished a run that can be really good. Nada. Moved down river a bit and was just enjoying the river, the waterfowl and the casting started to click. Caught a fun little hatchery steelhead "shaker" (12 inches of jumpy fun). Was totally satisfied with that when I decided to try a spot I'd never fished before about 100 yards downriver. I looked at it and said out loud "this looks fishy!" And BOOM! Something obviously heavy hit my little Birds Nest. One millisecond later there was a VERY BIG deep red rainbow or perhaps Steelhead airborn and the line went slack. I was a tiny bit disappointed but mostly I felt thrilled that for that brief shining moment, a true monarch of the river interacted with me. When I got home I took the fly off to dry it and noticed the hook. It was pretty much straight! Sometimes the fish you remember most are literally the cliché...
haha, that's awesome, Dave! It's so frustrating when they bend the hook straight. I had one hook break on me completely once, and that was infuriating. Thanks for sharing!
My most significant catch was a little cutthroat in my hometown stream, I didn’t even know they were still residing in the watershed. They sat way upstream where it’s really hard for the stocked rainbows and brown trout from the lake to get upstream. I found a good pocket off the road and found out there are greenback cutthroat in the creek where I had driven past for years, and it got me more into fly fishing, so much to where I now tie too many flies to the point I sell them to my friends, and have 4 fly rods. It is all worth it but I don’t think there’s a more memorable fish than my states native fish species right out my doorstep. This is a repost from their short video that I used to get here lol.
26:43 love the reference
This is my very first time starting to getting into fly fishing. I’ve watched lots of you guys’s videos and they halo SO MUCH. I will be trying to target mainly trout or other small species of fish. I live in Pennsylvania near the PA and Maryland state line. I would mostly be fishing in a small lake or a creek/stream which can have some pretty big trout. All I’m asking is how should I go about first learning how to fish with a fly rod. Also I would mainly be fishing from the shore and sometimes in the water. But I would mostly be on land. I plan on watching more of you guys’s videos on how to do this but I thought I would ask directly. What is the best advice or pieces of advice that you could give to me as a new fly fishermen?
The journey to my most memorable fish has been pretty rough so far. I've fished streamers 70 days and haven't hooked a single brown. Every time I float a river full commit with streamers I'll usually get 20-40 follows but none will commit. I'm changing my fly color, size, and profile every 10-15 minutes, I'm varying my retrieve styles (jerk strip, jig strip, two hand stripping), and I'm changing my strip lengths. I've tried casting at 45 degree angles up and downstream as well but that won't get them to commit either. I've tried fishing smaller and more drab colored streamers, but I haven't moved any fish on a fly under 4 inches. The river I'm fishing receives almost no pressure wither. I've floated it at least once a week over the past 2 years and I haven't seen another angler fishing in a year. Do you know what might be causing them to refuse my streamer? I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around the fact that they'll follow my fly 30 feet, sometimes into a figure 8, and not commit. I know browns are smart but isn't this a little excessive?
Without being on the water with you, it's really hard to say. Have you caught other fish in that river, or just not hooked into any brown trout?
@ I usually catch 3 18” rainbows or so every float but the browns won’t commit. There’s an equal distribution in the river too which means it isn’t a population problem. 1500 rainbows and 1500 browns per mile.