Fishing Woollys From Upstream

[Nortrad]

Veeery interesting technique, thanks Gavin.

[mic]

Veeery interesting technique, thanks Gavin.

I agree...thanks

[Trout Commander]

Try the Morgan twitch....

http://www.troutrods...rgantwitch.html

A good read. I will have to check out some more of his articles.

[Wayne SW/MO]

swinging one has always worked for me, but trout use this maneuver themselves, so maybe it's natural to them.

[FishinCricket]

I've heard trout do not like things that swim against the current.

If that were true I'd rarely catch a trout..

That twitch Gavin mentioned sounds interesting though... I'll try that with my x-rap...

[Danoinark]

T Everything I've read says that fish won't take a fly swimming against the current. Sometimes the books are right.

I am not sure that is a solid rule. Many times I have walked upstream leaving the wooly in the water (trolling) and bang fish on.

[Al Agnew]

Gavin, great article...I just discovered I've been using something like the Morgan twitch all along when fishing from a drift boat. It's actually easiest when you are fishing from the back of the boat if it's moving pretty quickly. If you're in front, you have a tendency to cast at an angle ahead of the boat, and you can't keep the slack out of your line. But from the back, I turn around facing backwards and cast either perpendicular to the bank or slightly behind, and it's real easy to have a straight line and to get the fly moving instantly. Only thing I do slightly differently is keep the rod low and move it horizontally rather than lifting it vertically.

That instruction to cast very close to the bank is also right on. Especially if it's a dark day or the water has some color, there will be a lot of fish lying against the banks on a river like the Yellowstone, and you have to hit all the little pockets and rocks lying in just a few inches of water. Short, accurate casts with no false casting are necessary, and I seldom move the fly more than five feet off the bank before picking it up for the next cast.

One other thing I do is if the fish seem to be lying a little deeper and I want the fly to sink a bit on a steep bank, I cast so that the leader hinges at the point where it is connected to the fly line, so that the fly lands a little ahead (downstream) of the line. I do that by casting with a sidearm motion "around" the back of the boat, and stop my sweeping cast suddenly while the fly is still in the air. The fly curves on ahead of the line. That way the fly gets to sink for a bit before the line straightens and begins to pull it out.

I fished Depuy's Spring Creek on Wednesday, and spent most of the day wading downstream and fishing a streamer. It wasn't a perfect day for the spring creek, a little too bright, although the wind was up and riffling the water very well. Most of my streamer casts were at various downstream angles, and I did a lot of the short twitches. Caught about 15 fish, nothing real big but a few 17 inchers.

[Gavin]

Glad you enjoyed it....been using somthing similar for years before I found this article.........picked it up by watching people fish in the trout parks..The Meramec Springs waggle jig, the Bennett crackleback bounce, Tom Morgan's article spells it out better than I could...Smack it within 6" of the bank,really short jerks, with a stop...works great at times. Sometimes not...

[dave potts]

Fish will certainly hit something moving upstream. I've often watched fish at Bennett, where the water is clear enough to watch your fly and the fish both, and noticed that a trout will often watch a fly just sitting there. They don't take it till I twitch it upstream. They then move up and hit it as though they don't want it to get away.

When you think about it, something appears more lifelike when it is moving upstream. If it wasn't alive it couldn't swim aganist the current. Anything can drift downstream.

Dave

[flytyer57]

Fish will certainly hit something moving upstream. I've often watched fish at Bennett, where the water is clear enough to watch your fly and the fish both, and noticed that a trout will often watch a fly just sitting there. They don't take it till I twitch it upstream. They then move up and hit it as though they don't want it to get away.

When you think about it, something appears more lifelike when it is moving upstream. If it wasn't alive it couldn't swim aganist the current. Anything can drift downstream.

Dave

Except for insects that don't normally swim upstream. A mayfly nymph swimming upstream will not look natural to a trout and they won't eat it.