Change Can Be Good

[Terry Beeson]

There I was in the middle of the stream scratching my head wondering why I was not catching fish. I had fished this section the day before bringing numerous fish to hand and getting hits and takes on almost every cast. In fact, the same fly fished the same way in the same place had yielded quite the fishing experience the last number of times I had made my way to this same hole.

But there was something different about today.

I had started the day well enough. While getting my line ready for the first cast of the day, I stripped off ten or twelve feet of line, letting the streamer at the end of the tippet drift downstream and started stripping another 20 or so feet off the reel for the first cast. When I began the pick up for the initial cast, the rod froze midway up to reveal a fish at the end of the line. I set the hook and landed a nice first fish of the day. However, after that initial fish, the bites were few and in between.

After countless frustratingly unproductive casts, I dropped my fly directly across the stream and tucked my rod under my arm to pull my fly box out of my vest and see what offerings I might give the fish that I knew were holding in the area. Just as I got the box out and opened, BAM! The rod almost left its holding spot. I tucked the fly box back in my vest as quickly as possible and twisted, rocked, and eventually succeeded in setting the hook while fumbling to get the rod back in my hand. Another nice rainbow found its way to my net.

From that point on, the light bulb came on and I began to dead drift the same fly I had been stripping for the past few months. While this did not produce the number of strikes I was accustomed to in the past several outings, it did produce strikes and turned an otherwise fruitless day into at least an average outing.

As I was about to pull out of the parking lot to head home, a buddy walked up to the truck to see how the fishing had been. We traded comments about how slow it had been and how we had to work for the fish we had been hammering only 24 hours earlier. He then commented that what had finally worked for him was dead drifting the same fly I was pitching. What had worked for us before did nothing that day. But a simple change in how we both fished that same fly made all the difference in the world.

My conversation with him soon sparked the thought that many fishermen overlook a key suspect when faced with similar circumstances. My very unscientific study has yielded the theory that when fly fishermen are not producing the results they expect, the tendency is to make a change in their tactics by either changing flies or changing the set up. Many opt to stop fishing and browse their fly box for a different color, size, or pattern they think might be more productive. If that does not work, they may reduce tippet size, increase tippet length, add shot, put on a sink tip, take a sink tip off, or some other change in tactics.

I have spent days on the water changing flies every 12-15 casts looking for that combination of color and pattern that would entice willing trout to produce a take. I have changed leaders, tippets, and made numerous adjustments to turn the bite on. I have ended up many times with a frustrating end to a frustrating day.

While this type of change may, indeed, produce results, it takes the fly out of the water for a time and we all know that if your fly is not in the water, you are not fishing.

But there is one change a fisherman can make that does not take any fly time out of the water. A change in how you are fishing the current offering can be just the ticket to fishing nirvana. And all it takes is a modification in casting or drift to make this change.

Look at fly tying recipes and you will find the “how to fish” that fly at the end of many of them. These are usually the fly tier’s method based on how he has been most productive in fishing that fly. However, most wet patterns can be fished in a number of ways. And if one particular method does not seem to be working, maybe another method will.

For instance, any time I tie on a wooly bugger, I will tend to fish it in a “drift/swing” style. I will cast across the current and let the fly line drag the fly into the middle of the stream and then swing into a “stop – facing upstream” position. That is the way I was taught to fish that particular pattern by the fellow that introduced me to fly tying. This has caused many tugs at the end of my line just as the fly settles into that final spot.

But it does not always work. I was fishing this method on the Norfork tailwaters a few years ago and did not have one fish to hand in about two hours. I knew the fish were there. I could see them clearly stacked up at the end of my drift. It was exasperating to say the least to see them turn up a nose to my offering.

I decided to move upstream and try another hole just above the only other angler in that stretch of the water. I exchanged pleasantries with him and asked about his luck. He indicated he was not doing too well, but had taken some fish. I asked what he was using and he answered that he was fishing an olive wooly bugger – the very same fly at the end of my tippet that I indicated to him had not produced one take for me. Further inquiries revealed he had been fighting the same results when he stumbled onto a system that was working for him.

About that time, he raised his rod in response to a fish at the end of his tippet. He brought in an average size rainbow, removed the fly, and slipped the fish back into the water. As he cast again to the pod of fish I could now see about forty feet downstream of his spot, he let the fly drift from just a few feet to his right of the fish and then just held the rod as if waiting on a bream or crappie to pull his bobber under. Every 10 seconds or so, he would twitch the end of the rod just to produce a bit of action in the fly. We talked for a couple or three minutes while he left the wooly bugger in that spot when all the sudden, he had another fish on.

I thanked him for the advice and started back downstream to my former pod of fish that had totally ignored my fly. The first cast to them landed only inches from the pod and quickly moved to a spot among the lead fish. Patiently, I waited, counting slowly to ten, twitching the rod tip, and anticipating a take. When I was just about to give up and move back upstream, I felt a tug. I set the hook on a nice trout and brought him to my net.

An hour later, I had landed more than a dozen fish, including one 19 inch beauty, using the same method. The change had prevented my getting “skunked” and turned the day into a good one after all.

Humans being humans, we are creatures of habit and resistant to change. This is especially true when time honored strategies have proven effective. We tend to eat the same thing for breakfast, take the same route to work, watch the same television shows, and generally have a daily “routine.” If that routine is broken, we become annoyed and even a bit defiant. And many fly fishermen are routine fly changers, switching patterns and colors after only a few unproductive casts. Others are die hard fanatics about sticking to the fly and presentation through thick and thin.

But change can be good. When the game plan is not working, a good coach will alter the game plan in some way to try and turn things around. And if a change in the way you are presenting the fly will do the trick, why not try it? If you are stripping fast, try stripping slow. If stripping is not working, try dead drifting. If mending is unproductive, try not mending. If casting upstream is not producing takes, try casting downstream. I will even try putting a fly under an indicator if nothing else gives me the results I want.

Someone once said “The key to success is often the ability to adapt.” So if you are not being successful in your fishing, instead of changing flies, try changing the way you are fishing just a bit and see if the results are not surprisingly positive.

[Flysmallie]

Great article as usual Terry. I have seen a lot of people waste a lot of time and days fishing the same old way. It worked last time so it should work today sort of thing. You have to be able and willing to adapt. A person not willing to adapt is the most frustrating thing to me.

[Don]

Good read Terry,

I have read other articles stating the biggest error that a fly fisherman makes is that he changes the fly without exploring the changes of many other variable factors. Sometimes I get a little excited and impatient and am still guilty of doing the same.

Don