Author: Steve

Whether you are grayling fishing on rivers, trout fishing on lakes or pike fishing on either this winter, these 5 tips will help you.

When to put it there – Focus your efforts between 11AM and 3PM. 8/10 days, this gets it done. Temps are highest during this time frame and so is fish activity generally.

Where to put it – It’s vital to present your fly at the feeding level of the fish. Whether that’s bottom feeding grayling on the river or trout cruising and feeding on a lake. The closer you get your fly to the fish’s mouth, the more it eats it! Don’t just think your fly is in front of fish, make sure it is.

If you are nymph fishing for winter grayling, your fly should snag bottom every few casts, if not, you are not fishing deep enough (Same holds true for pike on streamers). When you trout or pike fish lakes, vary drop time between casting and starting your retrieve. If you always start retrieving your sunk flies immediately, you are massively limiting your opportunity to catch.

Layer up – keeping warm and dry is going to help you fish well. You stay mobile, enthused and have fun for longer.

Food and fluids – Works with keeping warm. Hydration and blood sugar make fishing easier and fun. The longer you are having fun, the better!

Finer & Lighter – using tackle systems which are as light and fine as practical for your fishing, makes a major improvement to your catch rate. Winter time water conditions can be very clear and takes can be more subtle in cold temperatures. Lighter gear really helps take detection!

Have fun!

SJY

If you caught trout 8 out of 10 fly fishing days, would you be happy? That is my initial question to you. If your answer is yes, read on, I have some very good news.

If your answer is I already catch that number of times, great, well done. Perhaps now it’s time to consider if you want to take it further or are you happy where you are?

Very simply, by focussing on a very few key points and executing them well, you can achieve that goal of consistent success surprisingly quickly and have fun!

Click here to find out how you can improve fast, for free with this online tool!

Where many of us go wrong is just getting too excited. If we’ve not fished for a while, it’s easy to anticipate the coming of a fishing day. Very often this leads us to rush and start too quickly. Note I have omitted the word “fishing” from the previous sentence, that’s because we are more likely to be “fish scaring”. To start stepping past this, here are my key points for rapid progress: –

1. Respect: – Trout reared on a farm and introduced to lakes are not stupid, they are just naive when initially stocked. They adapt to evade anglers fast as a wild fish does. Respect your quarry, it will give your fishing purpose. Without it consider asking yourself “why am I here?”. We are supposed to be having fun!
2. Find Them or Forget It: – Spend time on arrival observing the water. Walk the water if you don’t know it well, looking for “fishy” spots and signs of feeding fish. Choose vantage points that maximise your view to speed up the process. Ensure you take time with this step, your ability to locate feeding fish is the most important factor in catching trout. This process is harder in lakes than rivers as many of the signs are more subtle, leading to the mistake of seeing lake fly fishing as chuck it and chance luck. Know it is not! It just has some different skill sets to river fishing as well as many commonalities.
3. Casting: – The most frustrating thing in fly fishing is to know exactly where trout are feeding, how to catch them and be unable to put your fly where it needs to be. I remember going through this and having tried various solutions can advise you definitively, your fastest route is book a casting review with an instructor. You should come away with a plan to improve. Then crucially, practice! It will surprise you how fast your rate of progress is and how little time it takes. Making the effort to do this enables you to focus on fishing when waterside, casting is in the bag!
4. Presentation: – Points 2 & 3 feed into this. Observation enables you to make better decisions on equipment you need and assembly to fish appropriate techniques. Casting enables you to put a fly on the trouts diner plate, preferably without it knowing you put it there! This maximises your chance of receiving a take, it also needs to maximise bite detection, otherwise it’s pointless.Time spent with successful stillwater fly fishers willing and able to impart tactical advise waterside is priceless here. For example, lowering your rod tip could quadruple your hook ups!
5. The Head Game: – Competence breeds confidence, it’s as simple as that. Focus on the above key areas of your lake fly fishing and track your progress, it’s great fun. Take every opportunity to learn more. There are learning resources in multiple formats everywhere, so seek them out and see what works for you.

I provide coaching options for clients in both on the water and digital formats should you want help with this process. Simply drop me a line to discuss your requirements.

Best fishes & have fun!

Steve Yeomans

Midlands Fly Fishing

Fly fishing for trout during Summer provides the angler with fabulous sport provided you adapt to a new set of conditions. Here are 5 tips to boost your success: –

1. Water temperature and the resulting oxygen levels are vital, so venue selection is key. Spring fed rivers and lakes are a huge advantage as are high elevation waters where the temperature may not be as high. Here you are more likely to find actively feeding trout.

2. Fish when the trout feed. Summer time often means fishing during the cooler parts of the day to maximise your chance of success. Morning and evening are prime time!

3. Do something different. In the above photo Andrea went and dibbled a dry fly along a shaded overgrown bank during a hot, sunny day. It was cooler here, the fish felt more confident due to shade and less fishing pressure. The restricted back cast put most anglers off this spot, Andrea roll cast to overcome this. A fish was caught on her third cast! Whether you are fishing lake or river, putting your fly where fish feel safe is a good way to achieve success.

4. Where you are allowed/able to consider using more than one fly to up your chances of a take. Summer is a time of plenty for trout!

5. For the same reason as point 4, wherever you can see a fish, get your fly as close to it’s feeding zone as possible. Doing this hugely increases your chance of a take. Checkout this short video below in addition to the link above. Note it’s just as relevant to rivers!

Wishing you fun on the water!

SJY

One of the great fly fishing skills is knowing where to put the fly. The greatest frustration in fly fishing is knowing where to put the fly and not being able to put it there!!

The above image shows me delivering a nice cast to target, having identified that magical nervous water. It has not always been that way.

We all have to start somewhere. For me that was a small stream holding wild browns. If that sounds idyllic, it’s not when your casting is inconsistent, your wrist thrashes around, your timing is off, the line is out of control. In wild places, this means your fly spends more time in undergrowth than water. When it lands on water, it’s often with the grace of a house brick! Frustration was the word.

Having overcome my casting issues on stream (or so I thought) I caught an increasing number of beautiful browns. When I started to visit a couple of lakes, I found catching trout patrolling margin areas great fun. I was also successful regularly. However if a fishery is busy, trout generally move further away from banks. You guessed it, my self taught, small stream casting technique was not up to the job. At around 40 feet I’d tail the loop perfectly every time. Argh, the frustration!

This is where we come to a fork in the road! On one side we fail, give up and drop out. The other way leads to life long learning, enjoyment and ultimate success. When I want to do something, the latter route is always going to be my chosen path!

I’ve said before, I like finding things out for myself. That can be a very slow route for some things, though highly rewarding if time is on your side. It dawned on me that I needed help, I followed much of my strategy outlined here in order to, in this instance, transform my fly casting.

This single action combined with subsequent practice made all the difference to my enjoyment of fly fishing, my success and creating a platform that ultimately led me to now.

If you can identify with some of the above journey, I hope you’ve found encouragement to move forward with your fly fishing. Modern learning methods mean you can shortcut the learning curve more than ever. If you would like know more, join me here.

The video below is an example of a fantastic adaptation to deliver your fly to where it needs to be.

Have fun!

SJY

If you’ve ever walked through a retail store or e-commerce website and felt overwhelmed, you are not alone. It’s one of many sales strategies used to get us to buy more. Based on the theory that when faced with huge choice people buy more just in case and because they are confused and don’t want to get it wrong.

The same physiological function also acts against us when waterside, gazing at huge fly selections, accumulated in the fly box(es) we carry. The above image depicts a lot of choice, multiple different fly patterns. More often than not, a good quality suggestive fly will be good enough. If you accept that, then a small selection of fly patterns, with some size, colour and where relevant weight variation will help you. Spend more time fishing confidently, less time dithering over what fly to fish. This video shows a basic sample of flies I’m talking about!

A further development of this selection, including, useful size and colour variants can be found here.

Try building this approach into your general fly fishing, especially if you only fish a few times each year. Most of the time, it will pay you back handsomely!

Thanks for reading.

SJY

See the big trout in the header photo, exiting stage left? Yes, it spooked, though not on this occasion because of me. I’d sneaked into position to watch it nymphing. I was just going to film it, when it suddenly bolted. Thirty meters away 2 anglers were stomping towards me, oblivious to any of this and a trout they were not going to catch anytime soon.

Ten plus years ago I regularly ran lessons and events at a very clear stillwater that held a good number of resident brown trout. Some of these fish were substantial in size and very desirable to catch. During the main part of the day I hardly ever saw them. However I regularly saw them early morning. I could see them cruising the margins, hunting crayfish. So I could stalk select fish and lay an ambush. The problem was initially, I could not get near them. I had plenty of cover, moved slowly and carefully, yet they knew I was there, melting into the depths as I looked on. Eventually I realised the problem was my footwear. Being summer and moving around a lot on these lakes, I often wore walking boots. However recent weather had been very dry and the ground was hard, very hard. Despite moving slowly, the effect of boots and hard ground provided enough vibration for these wary browns to know trouble was around. My solution was to wear flat, soft soled outdoor training shoes. Approaching the fish repeatedly as before, I remained mostly undetected, at least giving chance to fish for them. Sometimes they obliged. Is this why they are called sneakers I wonder?

On two other waters I’ve fished on and off for 20 years, I’ve seen the effects of vibration regularly. One, is another series of small clear lakes, the other a big reservoir of several hundred acres. What they both have in common is a vehicle track running within fifty meters of shore for much of the perimeter. On many occasions in summer I’ve been waterside first thing, with not many (if any) other anglers around. Fish have been cruising, taking from the top, great sport. Then as a few cars start to arrive and people drive around the waters, these fish disappear. Time for home and breakfast!

While guiding rivers I often spot fish, point them out to a client, suggest a path to the fishing position and we move in. Sometimes the ground is rough and I feel the vibration of heavy footfall behind me. Nine times out of ten, the fish has gone!

What can we learn from all this? More fish than we would like to think (many more) are very aware of us without us knowing they are there. Some options to reduce fish spooking are: –

• Fish when/where others are not.
• Walk round waters whenever possible rather than drive.
• Use footwear appropriate to conditions.
• Take advantage of cover.
• Blend into your environment.
• Take your time. The amount seen is inversely proportional to your pace.
• Only wade if you need to (remember noise travels even better in water).
• Do everything you can to reduce noise when boat fishing.

Thanks for reading!

SJY

Connecting fly line to leaders is a really important element in effectively setting up fly fishing equipment. There are several methods for making this connection. Perhaps the most popular are braided loops. While these loops can be made, they are readily available, complete with tubing to help fix them to the tip of your fly line. It’s a quick, easy job to attach them and very convenient.

While working with my clients, I see some key faults in the use of braided loops on a regular basis. These faults impact fly presentation and bite detection, so they make a big difference for a small change. The above photo shows the four main faults discussed below along with suitable fixes.

1. Insufficient fly line has been inserted into the hollow section of the braid, increasing risk of joint failure. I aim to have around two inches (five centimetres) of fly line inside the hollow braided section, ensuring the fly line tip is butted up against the solid looped section of braid (see point four below for more details on this).
2. Although braided loops are supplied with grip tube suggesting its use is sufficient to fix loop to fly line, it is wise to apply a tiny spot of super glue as insurance against slippage. In the example photo super glue has been excessively used along the length of braid into which fly line has been threaded. This makes for a very stiff joint, liable to cracking and subsequent failure. It also adds excessive weight to the front of a fly line, increasing disturbance when a cast is made and sinking the tip on floating lines. This results in more fish spooking from casting disturbance. For floating line use additional issues caused by line tip submerging are bad presentation of dry flies, poor visual bite detection if watching the fly line and reduced hook up to bite ratio due to increased slack line. A simple cure is to apply just one spot of super glue to the very end of a braided loop’s hollow section before pulling the grip tubing over the join. This action evenly spreads the glue around the braid/line junction, adequately supporting the grip tubing while retaining a flexible, secure and much lighter join which significantly reduces or eliminates problems raised.
3. Way too much grip tubing has been used to secure the braided loop to the fly line. This adds excessive weight to a fly line’s tip, creating the same weight issues discussed in point two above. The easy fix here is to use a maximum of two centimetres of tubing. The reduced weight again reduces/eliminates problems.
4. This loop has too much hollow braid prior to the solid looped section, a common fault in commercially made loops. We have a length of hollow braid between the tip of a fly line and the solid loop section shown in the photo. This hinges when casting, resulting in poor turnover of your leader, plus increased disturbance from casting. If the fly line had been inserted along the full length of hollow braid, the hinging issue is removed. However the excessive weight issue remains, resulting in similar problems to those raised in points two and three above. You need no more that two inches (five centimetres) of hollow braid on your loops. If there is more, simply remove it with sharp scissors before connecting a fly line. Problems are solved.

If you find braided loops useful in your fly fishing, I hope the faults and fixes discussed above help you to refine your setup and improve your success/enjoyment of the sport.

Thanks for reading.

SJY

A quote often associated with summer fly fishing for trout is “the dog days”. I’ve heard this since first becoming interested in fishing as a child. Whilst classic summer conditions do bring challenges after the abundance of spring, success awaits the angler open to change!

Take for example the scene in the above image. The angler pictured was fishing a small bay on a clear lake. A light breeze came and went throughout the morning. He was positioned to cast across this breeze so his fly, a small buzzer appropriate to the naturals around, fished perfectly to cover the bay. He cast and fished well all morning, yet received no reward for his effort, despite his tactics and execution being sound.

Talking with this angler at midday, he mentioned how frustrated he felt about his morning’s fishing and asked what I had used to catch the large trout he had seen me land. What happened next was a huge surprise to him. Instead of showing him a fly as he expected, I played him this short video clip!

I had been fishing/filming with my good friend Don Stazicker that morning. Having noticed the angler opposite fishing as above, we compared the sport we enjoyed throughout the day with his. From our vantage point, trout were clearly visible in the bay the other angler fished with excellent technique. We saw fish react positively to his fly and he did in fact receive several takes. He just did not know it!

Despite fishing a highly productive technique correctly, one key element failed. Bite detection! If you don’t know a fish ate your fly, it might as well not have.

The key difference between success and failure that day had been taking bite detection as close to the fly as possible. I had been casting a fly to sighted fish, watching their reaction to my presentation, setting the hook when I saw the fish actually eat the fly. The other angler had been watching his fly line as it swung in a slight curve across the water, waiting for it to slide away. On this occasion it did not.

Having watched the short video and talked a few minutes more, the angler thanked me, went on his way with renewed confidence and adapted his tactics for the afternoon. You won’t be surprised to hear he caught several fine trout later that day. I think I was even more delighted than he so evidently was!

I hope this helps you too? Thanks for reading.

Steve