Troutbitten

Hello, friends.

Season two of the Troutbitten podcast is finished, and season three begins soon. So in this off week, I have something a little special for you.

Recently, I was a guest on the Wet Fly Swing podcast with Dave Stewart. So this is a feed drop of that episode in full. Dave runs a great show, and he’s been at it for a long time. I was happy to be a guest for the second time with Dave. And in this episode, we dig into a lot of streamer tactics, some nymphing techniques, and we have a good talk about what happens during the transition from winter into spring fishing.

I hope you enjoy it. And if you do, go check out more at wetflyswing.com. With over 300 episodes in the bank, Dave talks with some of the most knowledgeable and entertaining fly fishers in the game. I’ve learned a lot from Dave’s podcast over the years.

I hope you enjoy listening to my talk with Dave Stewart.

So until next week . . . fish hard, friends. 

** NOTE ** Season Three begins next week. We return to the Season One format of full-panel discussions covering all things fly fishing for trout. And we're looking forward to it. 

Season Two concludes with a round table discussion for answering the most common questions about tight line and euro nymphing skills. My full panel of friends, Austin, Bill, Trevor and Josh join me to get deep in the weeds of the tactics, to clear up misconceptions, and offer their own ideas.

As Episode nine published, I realized there were many questions left to be answered. Daily, I received messages about a variety of techniques discussed in these nine essential skills. And the same themes cropped up. Anglers struggled with the same concepts. And those misunderstandings made their way to my inbox. It made sense to do one more podcast and answer these most popular, important questions.

So here's your bonus round . . .

We Cover the Following

• Tuck casting in cover and using sidearm angles
• Tuck casting doesn't need to be vertical
• Reading sighter for contact vs reading sighter for the strike zone
• More tips on finding the strike zone
• Forcing contact and using the extremes
• Tippet length variability
• Developing accuracy with more speed
• Refining the cast
• Leader diameter vs leader power
• Tips for fishing around structure

Remember, each of these podcasts is supported by a companion article of the same topic. And you can find the full overview of the Nine Essential Skills for Tight line and Euro Nymphing here:

READ: Troubitten | Bonus Round Q&A with Full Panel -- Tight Line Skills Series, #10

RESOURCES

READ: Troutbitten | The Nine Essential Skills for Tight Line and Euro Nymphing
READ: Troutbitten | Category | The Mono Rig
READ: Troutbitten | Full the Mono Rig System -- All the  Variations, with Leader Formulas and Adjustments
READ: Troutbitten | Fly Fishing Strategies -- Tuck Cast
READ: Troutbitten | Put More Juice in the Cast
READ: Troutbitten | The Top Down Approach
READ: Troutbitten | Over or Under -- Your Best Bet on Weight

** NOTE ** Season Three begins in a coupe weeks. We return to the Season One format of full-panel discussion covering all things fly fishing for trout. And we're looking forward to it.

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Here we are at the finish line. In this ninth installment of this Troutbitten Skills Series, my friend, Austin Dando, and I walk through some of the best tips for putting it all together. Because this set of skills, performed in order and flowing from one to the next, results in a great drift that starts and finishes in a convincing, trout-catching presentation.

Here are those nine skills:

1. Angle and Approach
2. Turnover and Tuck Cast
3. Sticking the Landing
4. Recovering Slack
5. Finding Contact
6. Locating the Strike Zone
7. Guiding the Flies
8. The Strike
9. Putting it all Together

Each of them now has its own podcast and its own article that lays out the tactics in detail.

Tight line tactics are infinitely refinable. There is no end to how much better you can make the next drift. And if you get it perfect, then the next seam challenges you all over again. Contact and true control over the flies is a responsibility, and I’ve seen it overwhelm people at times. So, putting a number on the most basic skills and putting them in order makes things manageable. That is the purpose of this system -- this series -- of nine essential skills.

We Cover the Following

• Practice by imagining
• Don't be intimidated
• Trusting the transitions
• Finding the failures
• Focusing on just one
• Seeing success
• How fast the middle steps happen
• Watching the entrance and the exit of the flies
• Judging success

Resources

READ: Troutbitten | The Nine Essential Skills for Tight Line and Euro Nymphing
READ: Troutbitten | Category | The Mono Rig
READ: Troutbitten | Get a Good Drift, Then Move On
READ: Troutbitten | What To Trust
READ: Troutbitten | Trout Like to Do What Their Friends Are Doing
READ: Troutbitten |Asking the Best Questions to Catch More Trout

Visit:

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Troutbitten Instagram

Troutbitten YouTube

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The strike is the best part of fishing. It’s what we’re all out there waiting for, or rather, what we’re trying to make happen all day long. And the trout eats because we get so many things right. When the fish strikes, we strike back. Short, swift and effective, the hook finds flesh. Then we try to keep the trout buttoned up, and get it to the net.

In this podcast episode, there are two types of strikes that my friend, Austin Dando, and I focus on.

First, there’s the strike from a trout — the take, the hit, the “gimme that I wanna eat it,” from a fish. So we need to recognize and sense that strike.

Second, there's our strike — the hook set, the swift rod tip motion that drives the hook point home and attaches us to the trout. So it helps to have a plan and give some thought to how that’s done too.

Remember, fooling trout is the hard part. The rest of this — hooking and landing a fish, comes much easier.

We Cover the Following

• Are hook sets really free?
• Set on anything?
• Set on anything unusual or unexpected
• Difference of over or under weighting
• Is there a sixth sense?
• Direction of the hook set
• How far? How fast?
• Fly rod types and hook sets
• The Check Set
• Can you ever set too fast?
• Slack and hook sets

Remember, each of these podcasts is supported by a companion article of the same topic. And you can find the full overview of the Nine Essential Skills for Tight line and Euro Nymphing here:

READ: Troutbitten | The Nine Essential Skills for Tight Line and Euro Nymphing
READ: Troutbitten | #8 The Strike -- Nine Essential Skill for Tight Line and Euro Nymphing
READ: Troutbitten | Category | The Mono Rig
READ: Troutbitten | Fly Fishing Strategies -- Plan for the Hookset
READ: Troutbitten | Don't Guess -- Set the Hook and Set Hard
READ: Troutbitten | Hook Set at the End of Every Drift
READ: Troutbitten Tight Line Nymphing Skills -- The Check Set

Visit:

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Part Seven of this Troutbitten Skills Series focuses on guiding the flies. Once the nymphs are cast and settled into the target seam, it's time to take them to the trout. Guiding the flies is a blend of two skills that I call leading and tracking. At the core, this skill of guiding the flies is fishing the flies. And this is what anglers tend to focus on most — for good reason. It’s the longest in duration. It’s the most active, and has the most room for variation.

In truth, there are number of ways to dead drift nymphs through one seam. And the choices we make are about how much influence we want to have on the flies. A leading approach puts the angler in charge, and a tracking approach let's the river dictate the course of the flies. Guiding the flies is an effort to mix the two.

We Cover the Following

• The advantages of leading
• Control, contact and the dead drift
• Over weighting
• The advantages of tracking
• Less control with fewer options, but a truer drift?
• Under weighting
• Is pure tracking possible?
• Guiding as a mix of the two
• Slipping contact
• Find the perfect weight
• Why use both?
• Why guiding works.

Remember, each of these podcasts is supported by a companion article of the same topic. And you can find the full overview of the Nine Essential Skills for Tight line and Euro Nymphing here:

READ: Troutbitten | The Nine Essential Skills for Tight Line and Euro Nymphing
READ: Troutbitten | #7 Guiding the Flies -- Nine Essential Skill for Tight Line and Euro Nymphing
READ: Troutbitten | Category | The Mono Rig
READ: Troutbitten | Leading vs Tracking vs Guiding the Flies
READ: Troutbitten | Tracking the Flies
READ: Troutbitten | How to Lead the Flies

Visit:

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Troutbitten Instagram

Troutbitten YouTube

Troutbitten Facebook

Part six of this Troutbitten Skills Series is about locating the strike zone. This zone of water -- this cushion near the bottom of the river -- is the default target and the baseline location for our flies.

Most of what happens in a river occurs in the strike zone. It's where the trout spend most of their time. It's where the bugs and baitfish live. Understanding everything about the strike zone allows us to know exactly how and where we want to present the nymph.

My friend, Austin Dando, joins me to help break down and understand this crucial concept.

Unlocking this knowledge — understanding the strike zone -- then finding it and drifting your flies there, is perhaps the most pivotal moment in your nymphing skills progression. It changes everything.

We Cover the Following

• What is the strike zone?
• Why is the strike zone important?
• Why gliding the strike zone outperforms touching the bottom
• Touching bottom to find the strike zone
• Watching the sighter speed to find  the strike zone
• Gliding through the strike zone
• Deviating our drifts in and out of the strike zone
• The downshift
• Depth and speed of the strike zone
• More on reading the sighter

Remember, each of these podcasts is supported by a companion article of the same topic. And you can find the full overview of the Nine Essential Skills for Tight line and Euro Nymphing here:

READ: Troutbitten | The Nine Essential Skills for Tight Line and Euro Nymphing
READ: Troutbitten | #6 Locating the Strike Zone -- Nine Essential Skill for Tight Line and Euro Nymphing

Visit:

Troutbitten Website

Troutbitten Instagram

Troutbitten YouTube

Troutbitten Facebook

Part five of this Troutbitten Skills Series is about finding contact. Because after the tuck cast, after we stick the landing and begin to recover slack, we need to find contact on sighter.

Contact is visual. It's about reading the sighter to know that we are in touch with the flies from rod tip to the nymph or split shot. It's not about touching or ticking the riverbed. Instead, the contact we're looking for is seen on the sighter.

With contact, we know everything about the depth and speed of our flies. We know where they are, and we determine where they are going. That's the advantage of a tight line (contact) nymphing system.

Importantly, this does not mean we are directly in touch at all times with the fly, because we often get better drifts without such direct influence over the nymphs. But without contact at points through the drift (and sometimes the whole way) we are simply guessing about the location of the flies. To take advantage of the ultimate control that tight line and euro nymphing rigs offer, we must learn to read contact on the sighter -- to know we are in touch and know where the flies are.

Reading the sighter and finding contact is critical.

My friend, Austin Dando, joins me on episode five for an in-depth discussion of this technique.

We Cover the Following

• Contact is seen, not felt
• Reading the sighter
• Sighter material and construction
• The Backing Barrel
• The bow in the sighter
• Nervous sighter
• Seeing beyond the sighter
• Contact let's us trust the sighter
• Forcing contact

Remember, each of these podcasts is supported by a companion article of the same topic. And you can find the full overview of the Nine Essential Skills for Tight line and Euro Nymphing here:

Resources

READ: Troutbitten | The Nine Essential Skills for Tight Line and Euro Nymphing
READ; Troutbitten | #5 Finding Contact -- Nine Essential Skill for Tight Line and Euro Nymphing
READ: Troutbitten | Category | The Mono Rig
READ: Troutbitten | Contact is Visual
READ: Troutbitten | The Backing Barrel might be the best sighter ever
READ: Troutbitten | Design and Function of the Standard Troutbitten Mono Rig

Visit:

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Troutbitten YouTube

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Part four of this Troutbitten Skills Series focuses on recovering slack. To dead drift a nymph, we cast it upstream. And as the river flows downstream, it sends the fly back toward us, creating slack. Usually, we simply pick up that slack and maintain contact with the fly (sometimes directly, sometimes slightly).

Slack maintenance is a critical skill. It’s line management. And if the goal is to be in contact with the nymphs and know where they are -- if this is a tight line rig -- then allowing too much slack in the system destroys everything that we’re working toward.

Managed slack is part of an advanced skill set. And that’s very much what we do by starting with a tuck cast. Then, after sticking the landing, we’re in a great position to continue those advanced skills.

We recover the slack in three ways: by lifting the rod tip, by leading the rod tip, and with the line hand.

My friend, Austin Dando, joins me on Episode Four for an in-depth discussion of these techniques.

(Season three will return to my full panel of friends, with longer form discussion about all things fly fishing.)

We Cover the Following

• Maintaining contact
• Slipping contact
• Letting the river decide
• Managed slack
• The Lift and Lead
• Line hand recovery
• The Pulley Retrieve
• Trimming the sighter
• Dealing with wind

Remember, each of these podcasts is supported by a companion article of the same topic. And you can find the full overview of the Nine Essential Skills for Tight line and Euro Nymphing here:

READ: Troutbitten | The Nine Essential Skills for Tight Line and Euro Nymphing
READ; Troutbitten | #4 Recovering Slack -- Nine Essential Skill for Tight Line and Euro Nymphing

 
Resources

READ: Troutbitten | The Nine Essential Skills for Tight Line and Euro Nymphing
READ: Troutbitten | Category | The Mono Rig
READ: Troutbitten | The Pulley Retrieve (with VIDEO)
READ: Troutbitten | The Lift and Lead
READ: Troutbitten | Leading vs Tracking vs Guiding

Visit:

Troutbitten Website

Troutbitten Instagram

Troutbitten YouTube

Troutbitten Facebook

Part three of this Troutbitten Skills Series focuses on sticking the landing. Because after putting ourselves in great position to present the fly, we shouldn't waste the perfect tuck cast and delivery. As the fly hits the water, all the elements of our system are in position and ready to drift. That's sticking the landing.

Like a gymnast who tumbles, somersaults and then lands on two feet with no body movement, the best completion of a cast happens with no extra movement. Instead of landing and then recovering or correcting, we stick the landing, ready to drift.

My friend, Austin Dando, joins me on Episode Three for an in-depth discussion of this technique.

(Season three will return to my full panel of friends, with longer form discussion about all things fly fishing.)

We Cover the Following

• What sticking the landing looks like
• Position of rod tip, leader, sighter and tippet
• Why it matters
• Maximizing the drift time
• Preserving good slack with tippet position
• Sighter angle
• Leading angle
• The negative results of reaching
• Where to stop the forward cast
• Correcting mistakes

Remember, each of these podcasts is supported by a companion article of the same topic. And you can find the full overview of the Nine Essential Skills for Tight line and Euro Nymphing here:

READ: Troutbitten | The Nine Essential Skills for Tight Line and Euro Nymphing
READ; Troutbitten | #3 Stick the Landing -- Nine Essential Skill for Tight Line and Euro Nymphing

Resources

READ: Troutbitten | The Nine Essential Skills for Tight Line and Euro Nymphing
READ: Troutbitten | Category | The Mono Rig
READ: Troutbitten | Stick the Landing While Tight Lining
READ: Troutbitten | When the First Cast Matters Most
READ: Troutbitten | It's Casting, Not Lobbing
READ: Troutbitten | Put More Juice in the Cast

Visit:

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Part two of this Troutbitten Skills Series focuses on the tuck cast. A good tuck is a turnover cast -- where the loops unfolds completely in the air. In fact, a tuck cast is a fly-first entry, and it's perfect for setting up the tight line advantage, where we keep everything up and out of the water that we possibly can.

We tuck cast not just to get deeper, but to setup the fly, tippet, sighter and leader in the best possible position to drift the flies down one seam. Accuracy starts with a good tuck, and not just accuracy over where the fly goes, but where all the parts of the leader go too.

My friend, Austin Dando, joins my on Episode Two for an in-depth discussion of this technique.

(Season three will return to my full panel of friends, with longer form discussion about all things fly fishing.)

Remember, this is part two of a nine-part skill set. Think of a Troutbitten Skills series as a course in one topic or one aspect of fly fishing, with different sections that eventually build a full set of knowledge.

Each of these podcasts is supported by a companion article of the same topic. And you can find the full overview of the Nine Essential Skills for Tight line and Euro Nymphing here:

READ: Troutbitten | The Nine Essential Skills for Tight Line and Euro Nymphing
READ; Troutbitten | #2 Turnover and Tuck Casting -- Nine Essential Skill for Tight Line and Euro Nymphing

We Cover the Following

• The fly first entry
• The tight line advantage
• True turnover
• Casting vs lobbing
• Put more juice in the cast
• Leader design
• Rod power
• Loading the rod and feeling the tug
• Leader power / Leader push
• Angles and depths of a good tuck cast

Resources

READ: Troutbitten | The Nine Essential Skills for Tight Line and Euro Nymphing
READ: Troutbitten | Category | The Mono Rig
READ: Troutbitten | Turnover and Tuck Casting
READ: Troutbitten | The Tuck Cast
READ: Troutbitten | It's Casting, Not Lobbing
READ: Troutbitten | Put More Juice in the Cast
READ: Troutbitten | Turnover

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Troutbitten Instagram

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