70 | AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2019 | TCFFMay, however, had the same temper-
atures with good weather but the fishing
was really tough, so there must have been
some other factor that came into play that
wasn’t obvious to me. We still managed
two exceptional fish – one of 11^1 / 2 lb and
another of 11lb – but the numbers were
down. On this particular trip we saw
more fish moving in the upper layers than
I had ever seen before.
The corners of dam walls have been
good to me over the years so I always put
effort into these. Spillways are also worth
prospecting. In June and July try to find
the gravel bars and rocky areas around
the lake as this is a great time to sight-fish
when the male fish start chasing the
females. It is easy to gauge depth by
simply tying knots into your anchor rope
every metre. I’ve been able to identify
the deeper sections of the lakes during a
few trips, so if there is no action in the
shallower areas I know where to go to
find deeper water.
RIVERS AND STREAMS
A trout needs three things in a river:
food, protection from the main current to
conserve energy and somewhere safe to
hide when threatened. If any section of a
river offers all three we call this a prime
lie, and you can bet the biggest fish in the
beat is in that exact spot. Identifying
these lies is not difficult. Picture yourself
as a fish holding in the current. You need
to position yourself behind a boulder, in
a back eddy or log jam to dodge the
current. You would need a constant flow
of food into your lie and some deep water
or undercut or overhang of bankside
vegetation close by to provide cover from
danger.The attraction of a river is the element
of constant change. The next bend on the
river could offer a whole new approach so
the challenge is to adapt and change with
the river; that’s the appeal. It’s not about
catching large fish but about fooling a fish
in its natural environment. Make no mis-take, some of our rivers and streams hold
large fish but for me it’s more about the
hunt. River fishing is similar to hunting:
don’t get seen, approach quietly, get the
fly in the zone and keep it there for as
long and as natural as possible, and you
should be rewarded. Compared with
stillwaters there are more variables, but I
find stillwaters way more difficult to read.LINE HANDLING
So many fly fishermen are focussed
on casting as far as they can and then pay
little attention to the short game. Much
like golf, you can hit a ball on a par five
close to the green in two shots and then
blow it with the chip and putt. The short
game is what makes a winner. Accuracy,
line handling and reading the current
speed and depth is what it’s all about.
Now, I must confess I do not spend
enough time on rivers to profess I’m an
expert and my trip to Argentina in Janu-
ary this year for sea-run browns revealed
I was rusty. An expert stream/riverBelow: Owen Bruce’s 11^1 / 2 lb rainbow brute caught on his red-eye version of the CDC Dragon.