Скачать или смотреть Euronymphing in Spotty Conditions (Ep 22)

I am euronymphing today on a small river system for Coastal Cutthroat and Rocky Mountain Whitefish, both of which are chasing the chum and coho salmon up the river for their eggs. Although the fish are aggressive, the fishing is very spotty as the fish are well spread out, requiring a lot of focus, patience and thorough coverage.

Contents:
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0:00 Start
1:35 Conditions on the day
2:03 Tactics and equipment used
4:35 NICE coastal cutthroat!
5:50 Keep the fly above and to the sides of salmon to prevent snagging
9:55 Standing vs kneeling
11:12 Next run… too quiet unfortunately
12:32 Next run… slightly better, deep, slow water
14:30 Next run… moderate flow
18:31 What did we observe today?

Conditions on the Day: (1:35)
Water temp 9C
Water clarity high
Air temp 12C
Overcast no wind

What equipment did we use: (2:03)

Arcay Otter 11-foot 2/3 nymph rod
Arcay Spanish nymph line
Vivarelli FV102 Semi-auto reel
Trouthunter 0.10mm tippet
20-foot leader (0.15mm) with Hanak sighter

What did I observe today?

Conditions were spotty overall – and what do I mean by that? I mean there was a lot of empty water, and before I would find fish, I would often have to do 30 minutes of searching before I had a flash of 5 minutes of activity. Then silence for the next while. Just limited moments of success.

I attribute this to the fish sitting together in tight but small pods (leading to lots of fishless water), cold conditions, and salmon scattered up and down the system. It seemed tough to predict in advance where the fish would be, as a lot of good water had nothing, while some fringe water had numerous fish, and that meant a lot of blindcasting and walking. But sometimes that is what you have to do until you find the water they are holding in. Moving and searching.

I have three words to describe the solution to this: focus, patience, and coverage.

Fishing is as much a mental activity as it is a physical one, not dissimilar to golf, baseball, and other sports. And I am sorry to tell you that.

In conditions where the fishing is spotty, or you are only catching fish every now and then, often the mental portion that determines your decision making process has the biggest impact on what you catch.

I lost as many fish today as I landed, which is a very poor ratio for me. Part of this came down to the presence of the salmon and trying to not snag them which changed my method of presentation, the cold conditions leading to some subtle takes, but also the long moments of inactivity followed by brief flashes of activity.

The angler sometimes loses his FOCUS under these conditions, which leads to not being prepared for the fish when you suddenly find them. It is a good reminder that FOCUS is important – you should treat every drift as if you are going to get a fish. On spotty days it is easy to get distracted, but if you do lose your focus, when you get that brief flurry of activity, you may miss the couple of subtle takes you get… and that may be all the river offers you all day.

This also leads to the importance of PATIENCE. It helps to keep in mind on slow days that you have to put in your time and keep searching. More than likely you will eventually find what water the fish are sitting in… you just have to have the patience to keep checking the different types of water to find where they are.

Lastly, what helps you in all this is proper COVERAGE. Sometimes you can just cherry pick, or fish the prime spots, and getaway with having a good day. On spotty days however, you may have to cover all the water to find the active fish. A seam might be where they all are, but you may find that 20 seams are vacant, whereas only one has all the fish. Or, in one hole they may be in a seam, in the next they may be in a deep pocket, in the next they are in the tailout, etc… So you have to cover every type of water, step by step to increase your odds. Grid off the water and try to hit each cubic foot.

That’s when Focus, Patience and Coverage become key factors….

Of course, all this doesn’t change that I only went 50/50 on landing fish today, and that clearly I will need to do better next outing…

Hopefully you’ll join me for that next trip, and in the mean time hank you for watching and I hope you enjoyed it!