Trout season is about to get underway real soon, and a lot of folks will be on streams and lakes with an assortment of equipment, lures, and baits.
A light, open-faced spinning outfit with some type of live bait or artificial lure will probably be one of the most popular presentations.
In my early years of trout fishing, I would be found on the stream with my spinning gear and nothing but salmon eggs. Two eggs on a number twelve hook and just enough split-shot to create a gentle drift near the bottom.
Does it work? If fished properly, it’s deadly; I caught literally hundreds of trout in those early years.
I later added artificial lures, including in-line spinners, to my arsenal, and that also produced some very fruitful outings.
In those early years, even though I was having great success, I still wanted to add the art of fly-fishing to my arsenal. I wanted to learn to fly fish because I saw that it was also a very lucrative approach to taking trout.
Over the years, I’ve learned that one of the most important dynamics to successful fishing is versatility; in other words, the more techniques, equipment, lures, and presentations you learn, the more fish you will catch, and needless to say, I added fly-fishing.
These days, my trout fishing is done almost exclusively with a fly rod in hand. Fly-fishing is a very resourceful approach to trout fishing since you can present your fly on top, at mid-depth, or roll it along the bottom; thus, you are able to be where the trout are holding or feeding.
Unfortunately, some folks avoid fly-fishing because they think the equipment is too expensive and it’s too difficult to learn, but neither of those items is necessarily true.
For one, if I could learn to cast with a fly rod, I’m sure just about anybody could.
One of the best things you can do if you get into fly-fishing is to get with somebody familiar with fly casting, learn some basics, and then go out in the yard and do some practice casting. Rod position, timing, and putting enough force into the cast at the right time all play a role, but it’s not as sophisticated as you might think.
Another factor that might hamper people from getting into fly-fishing is the “cost factor.” Yeah, I know you can go out and spend $800 or more on some high-end fly rod and another two or three hundred on a reel, but I have news for you — that spending is absolutely unnecessary.
You can get an outfit that will do just fine for two or three hundred dollars. I still have and still use a Fenwick flyrod and a simple fly reel that catches plenty of trout. Trust me, it’s not how expensive your outfit is but rather how you handle it. That same concept is true of spinning and other equipment.
The point is to consider adding fly-fishing to your arsenal; not that other tools and techniques don’t work — they do, but the more different presentations you have, the more success you can have.
Trust me, when we get into those mid-summer days when the water is low and clear, and the trout are feeding on nothing but a hatch of tiny dry flies floating on the surface, that flyrod will come in real handy.
I’ve seen it happen; the trout are totally turned on by what’s hatching, and I’ve seen them pass up live minnows and worms because they want that fly floating overhead. I will say, too, that seeing that trout come up and grab your fly in a splashing attack and then you setting the hook is one of the most exciting ways I know to catch a trout.
Add fly-fishing to your arsenal — you won’t be sorry.
