Troutbitten – Details, episodes & analysis

Sometimes, the goal is to catch the biggest trout in the river. In those times, what's the best fly to choose?

In this conversation, we talk through big trout situations, and we focus on the flies. If you’re really targeting a big trout, when does a streamer seem like the best choice, and what qualities in that streamer help not just get a trout’s attention, but convince them to eat the fly?

Likewise, when might a dry fly have the best chance at fooling a big fish? And when is a wet fly or nymph the best choice?

Size, shape, weight, color, flash — whether it’s a dry fly, nymph, wet fly or streamer, what are the qualities of a pattern that we have confidence will interest bigger fish?

My friends, Austin Dando, Dr. Trevor Smith, Bill Dell and Matt Grobe join me for a great conversation.

Resources

READ: Troutbitten | Category | Big Trout
PODCAST: Troutbitten | Why Do Some Rivers Hold Big Trout? S13, Ep7
READ: Troutbitten | Where to Find Big Trout - Big, Bigger, Biggest 

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Craig Matthews is one of the most prominent figures in fly fishing, with a career spanning half a century and an influence that is immeasurable. Making his home in Montana, Craig's fly shop, Blue Ribbon Flies, became an icon as he educated and helped generations of anglers find their way with a fly rod. Craig's many fly creations, like the Sparkle Dun and X-Caddis are in my fly box, and they're probably in yours. Craig also founded One Percent for the Planet, a collection of outdoor retailers, now approaching one-billion dollars donated to preserving and enhancing trout rivers across the country.

Craig has authored nine books, the latest of which is titled Pheasant Tail Simplicity. It is a wonderful book that details the mysteriously attractive nature of pheasant tail flies for trout, while also sharing stories and philosophies around a simple approach to this sometimes complicated game of fly fishing.

I'm pleased to present my interview with Craig Matthews . . .

Resources

BOOK: Pheasant Tail Simplicity
WEBSITE: One Percent for the Planet
PODCAST: Troutbitten | Why We Fish
READ: Troutbitten | Simplicity and Fishing 

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We're back with Season 16, with episode two of the Blue Liner’s Bible. This one is all about finding the right water.

We mean this in two different ways. First, you need to find a small stream that has public access (or you have private permission). But the stream also needs cold water and a good population of trout (hopefully they’re wild trout).

That’s the first thing — find a good stream to fish. And honestly, that may not be as easy as it sounds.

If you do start to explore new territory and get into the small stream game, you’ll quickly understand what we mean, first hand, when we say that the exploration is part of the reward. The failure to find good water on one trip makes the next trip, where you find what becomes one of your favorite places in the world, even more special

So we’ll talk about that tonight — how to choose your next adventure. Identifying primary and secondary water, and kind of how to balance that risk vs reward.

Meaning, you could fish the small stream that everyone talks about in Montana or Pennsylvania, because you can be sure that trout are present in good numbers. But would you rather take the chance on the stream that no one mentions? It has all the variables you’re looking for in your research, and because it has no name, you can be sure no one else will be there

Understanding those variables and knowing good sources for research is part of our topic here tonight.

And then, the other part of finding good water is from an on-stream perspective. Once you’re there, what section should you choose? And even within that section, what water types should you target the most? Do you expect trout in the deep pools or the riffles, in the fast water, or the slow, shady, deep undercuts?

A lot goes into these choices as well. Much of it is seasonal. Some of it is about matching your tactics and your fly choices, and another part is just experience and instinct. Again, all of this stuff is why we love small stream fishing.

None of it is laid out for you. A good fly shop will not lead you to these places. And even a good friend, with the best intentions, may not have even half the intel that you really need for a good day of small stream fishing. Like we said last time, the small stream game is do-it-yourself in nature.

So, that’s what we have lined up. My friend, Austin Dando, joins me for a good look at finding the right small stream water.

Resources

READ: Troutbitten | Category | Small Stream Fishing
READ: Troutbitten |  Tag | Small Stream Fishing
PODCAST: Troutbitten | What to Love About Small Stream Fishing - S7,Ep6
VIDEO: Troutbitten | Home Waters

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This podcast is about small stream fishing — specifically, what we love about the places, the fish, the tactics and the experience of fishing smaller trout waters.

These are trout streams that are no wider than the dirt road that you drove in on. And for every blue ribbon trout river, for every destination water that is raved about in the guidebooks and makes every angler’s bucket list, there are numerous tributaries to these main rivers that are mostly overlooked. We see this everywhere we go — small streams get no respect. They’re mostly an afterthought.

We fish small streams for the adventure, for the exploration and the experience. We fish smalls streams in search of wild trout in wild places. And we fish small streams because the challenges of fly fishing these waters teaches us everything we ever need to know about fishing bigger rivers.

We Cover the Following

• Finding solitude
• Reaching back into our own history
• Wild and native fish
• Leader tips for small waters
• Rod lengths for small waters
• The purity of experience
• Cooler temps, with more shade
• Willing trout in smaller waters
• Scenery
• . . . and more

Resources

READ: Troutbitten | Right Here
READ: Troutbitten | Where it All Started
READ: Troutbitten | Hardbody
READ: Troutbitten | VIDEO - The River Doesn't Owe You Anything

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This episode is about wading a river. Good wading. Better wading. Confident wading. Because, for a river angler, nothing is more important. Good wading is not just walking from place to place, it's an almost constant, fluid motion, and fly fishing requires great footwork along the way.

I meet a lot of anglers who approach a river all wrong. They wade into a spot, set up, and then cast to every piece of water they can reach (at all angles) before picking up and wading again to repeat the process. But this is rarely the best approach.

Consider the variables: There’s a distance at which you are most accurate. There’s a light angle that is most advantageous. There’s a certain water type where trout are feeding more agreeably. So the best river anglers move, almost constantly, setting themselves up to best approach the next great piece of water.

As wading anglers, we must wade efficiently. It’s that simple. And good wading skills change the game like nothing else. When you are comfortable and confident in the water — when you can easily move to the other side just because the light angles are better, the river opens up in a whole new way.

The Troutbitten guys join me to walk through some of our best wading tips.

We Cover the Following

• Should anglers move while casting?
• Why does good wading make such a difference?
• Wading, not walking
• Constant motion
• Reading the water
• Body positioning
• Polarized lenses for good wading
• The best boots for wading
• Boot studs and traction
• The right wading staff setup
• . . . and more.

Resources

READ: Troutbitten | It's Wading, Not Walking
READ: Troutbitten | We Wade
READ: Troutbitten | Tips for Better Wading and More Trout
READ: Troutbitten | VIDEO - The Only Way to Carry a Wading Staff

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Use the code, TROUTBITTEN10 for 10% off your order at
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What can we do when the rains come, when the snow melts, or when the floodgates open?

Rivers rise in many different ways. From quick and heavy summer thunderstorms, to the steady light rain that remains for days at a time. There’s the gradual release of melting snowpack and then heavy rains on that same snow that pushes high volumes of cold water into the rivers. Then too, there’s the generation of hydroelectric dams where the river might triple in flow, on a schedule.

In all of these ways, rivers rise. And the responses from trout can be different in each case. Yet, as anglers, there are some things about our approach to high water situations that always hold true.

Muddy water is miserable. But to us, dirty water is an invitation into some of our favorite tactics on a fly rod.

These conditions are an opportunity. Because a changing river system offers trout new opportunities. It breaks trout from their routines and can have them feeding fast. However, as anglers who are approaching high water conditions, we need to assess those changes and see the river anew.

High water can be a wonderful time to be out there. At flood stage? Or in the near-zero visibility of muddy water? Probably not. But there’s a wide range of conditions that exist between what most anglers see as perfect and then . . . blown out. And for many of us, we’d rather fish on the high side of things than the low side.

We Cover the Following

• What is muddy and what is dirty?
• Do trout feed more in high water?
• How does high water help the angler?
• How can we avoid high water?
• When is high water too high?
• How do we change tactics to approach high water?
• Is it better on the way up or the way down?
• . . . and more

Resources

READ: Troutbitten | Dirty Water -- Tight Targets
READ: Troutbitten | River and Rain
READ: Troutbitten | A List of Fisherman's Excuses
READ: Troutbitten | Fish It Anyway

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We have a fun conversation for this episode, about what’s more difficult — nymphs or dry flies. This is not a talk about which tactic is better. And this discussion isn’t even about which one we might like more.

What is more difficult? Nymphs or dries? This is a valuable exercise and an important discussion . . .

Just because nymphing might usually produce more trout, doesn’t mean it is easier. And how many trout we catch on each style is not the point. Try getting true, convincing dead drifts on a nymph. It is, quite simply, harder to achieve than a dry fly, because you can’t see success on the invisible flies underneath, and because the complexity of currents is far more intricate in three dimensions.

But many people just don’t take it that far with nymphing. They think their drifts are good enough, because they caught a few fish (maybe more than they did on dries.) But excellent nymphing requires excellent effort. And a lot more trout can be caught by acknowledging that kind of difficulty. The ceiling is high. And realizing that is the value of this discussion.

We Cover the Following

• The confusing boundaries of this conversation
• Why anglers are protective of what they like best
• How that holds an angler back
• Tight line complexities
• Dry fly complexities
• Where bias comes from
• A few streamer thoughts
• . . . and more

Resources

READ: Troutbitten | The Nymph Angler is Sustainable
READ: Troutbitten | The George Harvey Leader Design
READ: Troutbitten | That's Not a Dead Drift
PODCAST: Troutbitten | Find Your Rabbit Hole

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This is the second episode of our two part discussion on angler pressure. Last time, we talked about how fishing pressure affects the fish — how they respond to more fishermen placing more casts and drifts in the waters around them — how trout change, both short term and long term.

And now, we’re building on those thoughts and offering some solutions. Because if trout are adapting their habits in response to us, then we must modify our own approach to stay one step ahead of the fish.

I used that phrase in the last podcast a couple of times too. And it’s a good way to think about it. Our fishing is based on fooling a trout. What are they looking to eat? How can we attract them to a fly and then convince them to eat it, right? And while you might have the methods and flies necessary to fool your local trout right now, it might not work just a few years from now. Because trout and the rivers they live in are always changing. So our approach must keep changing too. It’s just another aspect of trout fishing that makes it all so wonderfully complicated.

It’s also why we like to fish for wild trout . . .

We Cover the Following

• Water selection
• Finding fresh fish
• Wild vs Stocked response to angler pressure
• How long until a trout resets from angler pressure
• Genetically passing on the effects of angler pressure
• Presentations, convinced or curious?
• Patterns, natural or attractive?
• . . . and more

Resources

READ: Troutbitten | Front Ended -- Can We Stop Doing This to Each Other?
READ: Troutbitten | Natural vs Attractive Presentations
READ: Troutbitten | Why Everyone Fishes the Same Water and What to Do About It
PODCAST: Troutbitten | Rude On the River -- Front Ended and the Golden Rule

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Thanks to TroutRoutes:

Use the code TROUTBITTEN for 20% off your membership at
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Thanks to Skwala

Use the code, TROUTBITTEN10 for 10% off your order at
https://skwalafishing.com/

Season 7 of the Troutbitten Podcast begins with a two-part discussion on angler pressure. This is a big one. It’s a topic that everyone in the fishing world loves to talk about. People complain about angler pressure, and they have theories about how it changes things.

In this episode, we discuss how angler pressure affects the fish. And for the next episode, the topic will be how angler pressure affects the fishing. One topic sets up a good conversation of the other.

Angler pressure probably isn’t going to trend the other way. For most of us, more casts are made to the waters we fish, by more anglers than ever before. Because there are more fishermen, just as there are more runners, golfers and bikers. Every sport these days has better access to information about techniques, about where and when to go, and there’s specialized gear that is easily available and fun to buy.

We Cover the Following

• Trout selectivity
• Feeding patterns
• Migration
• Growth rates
• Trout conditioning
• Grouping up or spreading out
• Mortality rates
• . . . and more

Resources

READ: Troutbitten | Front Ended -- Can We Stop Doing This to Each Other?
READ: Troutbitten | Natural vs Attractive Presentations
READ: Troutbitten | Why Everyone Fishes the Same Water and What to Do About It
PODCAST: Troutbitten | Rude On the River -- Front Ended and the Golden Rule

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Thanks to TroutRoutes:

Use the code TROUTBITTEN for 20% off your membership at
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Troutbitten is about the pursuit of fishing tactics. It’s about discovering new techniques and improving our skills. We don’t want to hope something will happen out there. We try to make it happen. And that element of fly fishing, where there’s always something new to try, is what is so attractive to those of us who dedicate much of our lives to the river.

But there’s another side to this love of pursuing trout. And I once wrote it down in an article this way:

"There are two sides to every fisherman: one that simply enjoys being on the water (hoping to catch a fish), and the other that desperately wants to know how to put more fish in the net. These two parts find an internal balance inside every long-term angler that I know."

Among the nearly one-thousand articles published on Troutbitten, I strive to reflect this balance. The Stories category of the website carries the heart and soul of this project. And if I were limited to writing stories or tactical pieces only, I would no doubt hold on to the stories. I love this kind of writing.

This episode is a reading of a story that I first published on February 23, 2022, titled, Fish It Anyway . . .


Resources

READ: Troutbitten | Fish It Anyway
READ: Troutbitten | Category | Stories


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Use the code TROUTBITTEN for 20% off your membership at
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