3 minute read
Advice from anglers
Advice from anglers Experts encourage studying habitats
JENNAYE DERGE
Like many other anglers, I’ve been fishing most of my life. But it wasn’t until recently that I purchased something other than a MinnieMouse spinning rod. To pass the time during COVID-19 last year, I bought my first fly rod and took it to nearby creeks to mimic favorite scenes in the outdoor-based books and movies I always loved. I wanted to bask in nature, cast my line in a majestic arch, and mostly, eat a bunch of snacks by the water. I hardly got a bite and never caught an actual fish.
I thought it was just me. Maybe I was giving out some pheromone that scared the fish away? But, as I recently learned, it was none of that. In actuality, it was my very romanticized idea about fishing that kept me hooking rocks and trees rather than fish, and it eventually led me to local retailer, Duranglers, to get the advice I needed.
The thing to do first and foremost, said Duranglers shop manager Andy McKinley, is to take a minute or two to observe and read the water. “Study it for two to three minutes from a vantage point, preferably up the bank if you can,” McKinley said. “It gives you an idea of where fish might be hanging out, or you might see some bug life where you can see fish actively feeding. So, pinpoint where they are before you spook them.”
Spooking fish doesn’t take much. Splashing in the water will surely scare off your next catch, along with sudden movements, noises and even strong smells. To avoid sending a fish back into its hiding spot, McKinley suggests approaching from downstream since fish generally face upstream to keep a low profile and be stealthy.
But, as hard as it might be to remember that advice, it is for the beginners and as everything else in life, the secret to catching fish is much more nuanced.
Ty Churchwell, with Trout Unlimited mimicked much of what McKinley advised, including paying attention to the water, the season, the temperature and the bugs that flying around just above the water called a “hatch.”
“Match the hatch,” Churchwell said.
“About 340 days of the year the aquatic insects are under the water, it’s only during two short periods of adulthood that they’re on the surface,” Churchwell said.
Those two short periods are when aquatic bugs are either flying away to mate, or coming back to the water to lay their eggs; hovering above the water and making themselves available as a meal. Depending on the area, season and other various conditions determines what kind of bugs hatch and what kind of bug is hatching should determine an anglers fly. Thus, matching your fly to the bug that is hatching on the water.
“It is really important to know the biology of that river; the more closely you are able to mimic what the trout are wanting to eat and what they see floating by them all the time, the more likely you are to be successful,” Churchwell said.
And for the most part, success is what most of us want, and you earn it through education and understanding.
“In theory, you’re going to be catching more fish which is going to improve everyone’s mood on the water,” McKinley said. “You’re enjoying nature because you’re disturbing it far less in the sense that you’re approaching everything lightly, not stomping in the water, not making your presence known.”
The most important thing, though, McKinley said, “Don’t take yourself too seriously. Have fun and enjoy the process of learning how to fly fish.” n
