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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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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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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Season Seven will begin on April 10th. But in between seasons, I want to catch you up on a few things that are going on with Troutbitten.

Just a few years ago, Troutbitten was the website only. I wrote and published articles three times a week. Now it’s a multi-media company with many branches — there’s the podcast, the videos, the online shop, hosted events and, of course, the guide business.

Here's what's going on in the Troutbitten world . . .

Resources

VIDEO: Troutbitten | Mono Rigs and Euro Leaders -- Micro Thin or Standard?
SHOP: Troutbitten | The Troutbitten Shop
PODCASTS: Troutbitten | Podcast Home

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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 Following

• More streamer tips
• Rigging
• Access issues
• Winter preparation
• More nymphing tips
• Dry fly expectations
• This winter vs other winters
•  . . . and more

Resources

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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My good friend, Austin Dando, joins me to address many of the troubles with winter fishing. In this Winter Skills Series, we’ve been through the tactics, with dry flies, streamers and nymphs. We've talked about how to stay warm out there, and we’ve saved this topic for last.

There are a host of reasons that anglers stay home in the winter. Some are legitimate -- there's no good solution for the problem, and you learn to deal with it the best you can. We talk about some of those. But other perceived problems really aren’t much of any issue at all, if you have a plan and a solution. We address a few of those too.

We Cover the Following

• Ice in the guides
• Access
• Visibility
• Regulating heat
• Falling in
• Freezing reels
• Finding trout
• Staying versatile
•  . . . and more

Resources

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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With this Troutbitten skills series on winter fishing. We’ve covered locations and expectations, where to find trout, and their wintertime habits. We did two full podcasts on staying warm from head to toe. We talked about fishing nymphs in these waters, streamers in these waters, and now we’re ready to talk about dry flies.

Specifically, this conversation is dedicated to what is different or unique about fishing dry flies in the winter, versus other times of the year.

My friend, Austin Dando, joins me for a great conversation about the floaters. This is a fun one.

We Cover the Following

• Where to find rising trout
• Regional and geographical variations
• Expected hatches
• Spring waters, tailwaters, freestoners
• Water types for small flies
• Hatches and patterns to match
• Why local knowledge is supreme
• The dead drift is everything
• Presentation specifics
• Leader adjustments
• Fishing two dries
• Fishing dry dropper in the winter
•  . . . and more

Resources

READ: Troutbitten | Category | Fly Fishing in the Winter
READ: Troutbitten | The George Harvey Leader Design
READ: Troutbitten | Category | Dry Fly Fishing
PODCAST: Troutbitten | Hatches and Strategies, S3 Ep3
READ: Troutbitten | That's Not a Dead Drift

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A streamer is not only a great change-up in the winter, it can be the best fly in your box - if you fish it well. There are some changes to make for a wintertime streamer approach, versus the warmer seasons. And those nuances in presentation make all the difference.

In this episode my friend, Austin Dando, and I share our best tips for fishing streamers in the winter.

We Cover the Following

• Why, when, where and how
• Gear for winter streamers
• The flies and the lines
• Benefits of fishing streamers in the winter
• Presentation specifics
• The Super-Pause
• Low and slow?
• Water types to focus on
• How far will a trout move?
• Stripping, jigging, drifting
• . . . and more

Resources

READ: Troutbitten | Category | Fly Fishing in the Winter
PODCAST: Troutbitten | S1 Ep 14 --  Winter Fly Fishing
READ: Troutbitten | Category | Streamers
READ: Troutbitten | Streamer Presentations -- Quick or Smooth?
READ: Troutbitten | Streamer Presentations -- Strips, Jigs and Jerks

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In this episode, we dive deep into winter nymphing strategies. Specifically, we highlight what is different and what is unique about nymphing in the winter versus other seasons.

With fewer hatches and with trout that are less willing to move for a fly, presenting a nymph to winter fish is often our best strategy. But having success requires a refined approach, and winter nymphing can seem like the toughest of the year. However, with a great presentation and a good understanding of where fish feed in colder water, trout can be caught. In fact, with these skills, winter nymphing may sometimes provide the fastest fishing of the year.

We Cover the Following

• Why nymphing is our favorite winter tactic
• Trout behaviors in cold water
• More predictable water types, methods and fly selection
• Low and slow?
• Trout grouping and trout spreading out
• Favorite rigs, tight line and indy
• Favorite flies
• Fly pairings and placement
• Long drifts vs short drifts
• Bobber holes

Resources

READ: Troutbitten | Category | Fly Fishing in the Winter
PODCAST: Troutbitten | S1 Ep 14 --  Winter Fly Fishing
READ: Troutbitten | Fly Fishing in the Winter -- The Go-To Nymphing Rig
READ: Troutbitten | Fly Fishing in the Winter -- The Secondary Nymphing Rig

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Here's a full podcast dedicated to staying warm, from head to toe. Because sometimes, staying warm and functional in the winter is far more important than the tactics. The cold becomes our biggest challenge.

This episode is about keeping the cold out, the heat in and fishing hard — all day long, in even the roughest weather. More specifically, it's about regulating your body heat while on the river.

In This Episode, We Cover the Following

• How to regulate heat with layers and zippers
• Staying mobile with flexible layers that hold in heat and let it go
• Best materials for each zone, each layer
• Hats, buffs, balaclavas, hoods
• Dark colors and UV rays
• Base layers, insulating layers, outer layers
• Winters waders, winter boots
• Socks
• Heat packs
• Battery solutions
• . . . more

Resources

READ: Troutbitten | Category | Fly Fishing in the Winter
PODCAST: Troutbitten | S1 Ep 14 --  Winter Fly Fishing
READ: Troutbitten | Fly Fishing in the Winter -- Head, Shoulder, Knees and Toes
READ: Troutbitten | Winter -- Something Is Always Going to Hurt

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and

Orvis