Here we are at the end of Season 6 -- the Troutbitten Winter Skills Series. This is episode 8 of the series, and I’m here with a full crew of friends to wrap things up, to hear some stories and dig into a few more tips for fly fishing in the winter months.

This is a great conversation with my best fishing friends. And this discussion is a nice endcap on a full season dedicated to fly fishing in the winter months.

We Cover the FollowingMore streamer tipsRiggingAccess issuesWinter preparationMore nymphing tipsDry fly expectationsThis winter vs other winters . . . and moreResources READ: Troutbitten | Category | Fly Fishing in the Winter
READ: Troutbitten | Winter Fly Fishing -- Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes
READ: Troutbitten | Fly Fishing in the Winter -- Ice In the Guides
READ: Troutbitten | Fly Fishing in the Winter -- Something Is Always Gonna Hurt


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Winter Fly Fishing Skill #8 -- Full Crew Conversation with Stories and Tactics

Life on the water. Troutbitten is a deep dive into fly fishing for wild trout in wild places. Author and guide, Domenick Swentosky, shares stories, tips, tactics and conversations with friends about fly fishing through the woods and water. Explore more. Fish hard. And discover fly fishing at Troutbitten.com — an extensive resource with 1200+ articles about trout, friends, family and the river.

Sports

Wilderness

We're here to talk about floating down a river, about why we like boats, how floating is so much different than wading, how some opportunities are uniquely available and how others are shut off too.

It’s the companionship and teamwork, along with the effort and commitment required to get down the river. It’s about a good lunch and friendly banter as much as the novel approach to tactics and the pure advantage of accessing more water.

From the put in to the take out, boating changes everything. It’s a wonderful way to learn a river and to connect with friends. 

Resources READ: Troutbitten | We Watched Daylight Race the River Downstream
READ: Troutbitten | Slow Float


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Boat Fishing -- How Everything Changes When Floating a River

Like anything else in fishing, you can take the emerger concept just about as far as you want. You get technical, or you can spin up a couple wet flies, float them in the film, and keep things simple.

I’ve often argued that you don’t have to match the hatch when fly fishing. I think it’s a fun approach, but having exactly the right shade of dubbing to match the most prevalent insect is rarely necessary. Most often, you can fish caddis imitations during a mayfly hatch and do pretty well, because there’s a lot more food in a river than what our eyes see at the surface.

But we don’t ignore the hatches either. Far from it. In fact, we look forward to these events, anticipating the response from the trout, observing their behaviors day to day, and often using flies and tactics that imitate the emergence. From the bottom to the top, when the bugs transform from water born to airborne, meeting them with an emerger often sells the presentation.

Our conversation in this episode covers those emergences.

Resources READ: Troutbitten | You Don't Have to Match the Hatch
PODCAST: Troutbitten | Night Fishing and the Mouse Emerger Concept
PODCAST: Troutbitten | Category | Dry Fly Fishing 

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What's the Deal With Emergers?

My friends join me for a tough discussion. What are the benefits of guiding? What are the good things? How does it help anglers? Does it actually help people and make our sport or this fishing scene better, or does it just put money in the guide’s pocket and put more pressure on the trout?

Also, what kinds of guided trips are there? Different types of guided trips are offered across the country. Some cater to the first timer, introducing new anglers to the fly rod. Other trips feature education first, with a strong focus on refining the tactics for more experienced anglers. Many guides sell the river itself. Others sell trips by promising big trout. Some guide for clubs with stocked and fed fish, sometimes catering to lodges with clients that are not anglers, but vacationing guests where fly fishing is just another highlighted activity.

When does guiding trout water do more harm that good? There are no right or wrong answer to all of this, but we’re here to work through a few things — to think about all of it and to have the conversation that others might avoid.

Resources

READ: Troutbitten | Respect the Spots! A fisherman's perspective on friendship and spot burning
READ: Troutbitten | Fish Hard
PODCAST: Troutbitten | Angler Pressure TWO -- What It Does to the Fishing 

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The Ethics of Guiding -- More Harm Than Good?

Two years ago we did a full episode on Hatches. That discussion was a broad, overarching look at how the bugs — the insects that trout eat — dictate many of the habits of trout. We argued that knowing the hatches, following the emergence and being ready for these events is not only a lot of fun, it drastically improves your success on the water. Trout don’t miss the hatches, and neither should we.

At the same time, none of us here think the pattern matters all that much — usually. While we all admit that a color change or certainly the fly size can make a big difference, we all agree that what a trout eats most frequently is a great presentation.

This episode is about those presentations. 

We consider the full life cycle of a caddis: the pre-hatch, the emergence, the egg laying phase and death. And at each of those stages, we ask what the bugs are doing, how the trout respond and how we can imitate the bugs to fool a trout.

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Fishing Through a Caddis Hatch

How many times have we heard the supposed stages of an angler? First you want to catch a fish, then you want to catch a bunch of fish, then you want to catch a big fish, then you want to catch the toughest fish, and then you just want to catch a fish again.

This is a clever way to look at a life on the water. But is it really true? This is our topic.

We also expand on some other stages that anglers go through, and we think about the beginning stage — why it’s so hard at first, how anglers get held back, and how, sadly, the majority of anglers probably never get a whole lot further than those early stages.

Resources

READ: Troutbitten | Life on the Water
READ: Troutbitten | Two Sides to Every Fishermen
READ: Troutbitten | The Dirty Fisherman
READ: Troutbitten | How to Stay in the Fly Fishing Game for a Lifetime


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Winter Fly Fishing Skill #8 -- Full Crew Conversation with Stories and Tactics

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