What Am I Missing?

[Grant Miller]

Just looking for some insight from those that do well at RR. I usually catch 10 or 15 fish per day, but wonder what it takes to improve. I'm just looking for some tips I guess.... I can cast pretty well and I use 7x all the time with plenty of weight to get down. What am I missing that keeps me from catching 25 or more in an 8 hour day?

[timsfly]

practice, practice, practice, and it will happen one of these days.

Do you move around a lot, or fish the same area most of the day ?

I find moving around a lot helps.

I fished this morning and had 5 trout in about an hour of fishing, caught them all on

a #16 olive/grizzly crackleback, I fished it dry and fished it in the film, both

ways caught them.

What flies do you fish most of the time, what sizes ?

PM me for more info, I'll help you catch 25 trout in an

8 hr day.

[Grant Miller]

I rarely fish dries and use #8 Olive Wooly Buggers, #16 Bead Head Pheasant Tail and Hares Ears most of the time. I've used some large rabbit strip flies from time to time in an attempt to catch a big one and I've dabbled with myriad nymph patterns but the bead heads seem to work the best for me so far.

As far as moving around a lot, what would that mean? For example, how long would it take you to work the water from Dry Run upstream to the first bridge that you'd come to?

Thanks for the help Tim, I'll see you next time I'm down just like all the times I've been down before.

[timsfly]

I spend about 10-15 minutes per hole, unless I'm getting a lot of action.

If I'm only hitting the riffles, about 10 minutes per hole unless I'm fishing

for a particular fish.

Your missing the boat not fishing dries very often, sometimes you can do

very well on drys, but nymphs will usually get your #'s for the day, but on

good afternoon of fishing dries, I can usually draw 10 or so up for a bite,

sometimes twice that many.

I got you PM, and have sent you a PM back.

[Paola Cat]

Grant, All I can say is ..... move a lot. I'm pretty much a dry fly guy this time of year and there's good dry action right now. Target specific fish .... active fish .... rising fish. I don't make any more than about 15 casts in a specific spot. If there's no takers .... move on. If they're hitting you can stay in one spot for quite awhile. Right now the water is low and clear. Look for concentrations of fish. I think I do more watching and looking than I do casting. A drag free drift is key. On Saturday the action very consistent for me on a classic olive crackleback fished wet (just under the surface in the film) early and dry later on in Zone 2. It changes depending on the time of year. Take Tim's advice .... he's the expert. Heck .... I even caught a couple on a green ant (Tim's pattern). I usually don't fish upstream from Dry Hollow .... I'm more of a C&R and Zone 2 guy .... but it would take me no more than an hour to go from Dry Hollow upstream to the first bridge. PC

[AZ_Trout]

WATCH --- those that are having more luck. What are they doing?

Talk with them, many will share info.

Any time you can spend with a guy like Tim will be priceless.

I don't move as much as I should -- I know I should move more -- but I get wrapped up in a section - or fish and stay too long. I think when you move the first 3 casts or so to a new area or fish, produce more strikes than the 25th cast to the same place.

Some of my more favorite drys for RRSP - #16 Renegade, 18-20 Tiny BWO, 16 Griffins Gnat, Ants, Beetles, Crackelbacks.

Also do you use an indicator? Just getting proficient with an indicator will bump your numbers. Don't be afraid to go small with the nymphs 18-20s, or use eggs.

I know we use to spend many a summer camping / fishing trips at the park -- but I'd hate to guess how long it took before I really had a solid clue as to what I was doing, needed to do, and adjusted when necessary.

If you can fish the winter season -- that will help your curve a bunch.

Practice and experience -- should lead to knowledge and skill.

Good Luck

Tight lines

[Fly_Guy]

I've caught easy 25 fish a day with two flies - a #20 black ant (or griffeth's gnat), and a #14 crackleback. I usually tie a green body with some glitter in it, with either a brown or black hackle. Twitch the crackleback right under the surface. Land and drift the ant. Tiny tiny (size 22-24) anyflies will also draw lots of takes (but lots of misses). The ant, btw, works on those sunny taneycomo days when nothing is biting as well.

[Fly_Guy]

Or instead of a Griffeth's gnat, you could try a Griffin's gnat it's late...or early...

[DoveTail]

Any time you can spend with a guy like Tim will be priceless.

I don't move as much as I should -- I know I should move more -- but I get wrapped up in a section - or fish and stay too long. I think when you move the first 3 casts or so to a new area or fish, produce more strikes than the 25th cast to the same place.

It seems the first cast will produce or like AZ mentioned, the 1st three usually produce or you have the wrong fly. If you have want they want, it's hard to keep them off the hook. If you don't, they will refuse it. Having a good drift is also important. Many say it's better to have a perfect drift on an average fly than a bad drift with a good one - they may reject it at the last second.

[OKFlyFisher44]

Just like these guys have said. Move around a lot from hole to hole. Don't spend a lot of time beating a piece of water to death if you're not getting any strikes. Just not worth it as there's just too many fish in that lil' river. I've fished Roaring River since I was 7 years old (25 now). It took several years (and finally switching to fly fishing) to start catching double digits. I remember when I really thought it was something when we'd catch our limit (back then it was 5). It took lots of practice and getting to know what holes seem produce more bites during particular parts of the day. I personally think that the fishing at R.R. had gotten a little tougher over the past few years with the added fishing pressure the place gets EVERY DAY. I know some of you guys might call me a liar but 4-6 years ago it was nothing for us to catch 30-40 fish a day in Zone 2. That was only fishing a few hours in the morning and a few hours in the evening. My personal best at R.R. is 63 trout in 1 day. That was also during the week when you'd have Zone 2 all to YOURSELF! Not like that anymore. The last couple years though...I've really had to fish my butt off to break 20-25 fish it seems, especially during the winter catch n' release season when the river is full of hold-over trout.

Read previous fishing reports and take mental notes of the popular flies. The patterns that have always worked for me at R.R. are san juan worms (all colors), egg patterns (big and small), Y2Ks, beadhead buggers, cracklebacks, ants, beetles, griffiths gnats, parachute adams, and various colors of micro-jigs. Right now is prime for fishing ants and beetles. I hardly fish anything else this time of the year...you can absolutely have a ball with dries at R.R.