Trout - Two Techniques For Success — Lubin Pfeiffer

Hopper fishing is great on warmer days Trout - Two Techniques for Success

Two River Techniques for amazing results this Summer by Lubin Pfeiffer

It’s the start of a new summer season here in Tasmania and once again the state is alive with excellent trout fishing opportunities. There’s little doubt that we have the best trout fishing in the country with countless locations to catch quality trout from. I know many of you reading this will be diehard lake anglers, and that’s not hard to understand with such amazing fish coming out of the lakes this season so far. There are many though that love the feeling of running water and the challenge it presents. For me, there is something very special about fishing a river. Working with the currents, getting the right drift and seeing fish appear in places you just wouldn’t expect them to be. As anglers, I think it is important to be proficient over a wide variety of scenarios. It helps us grow our knowledge and we can often cross over techniques and tactics from one form to another to catch more fish as a whole. If you are yet to set foot in one of the many amazing rivers in Tasmania then there’s no better time than now to do it. Summer marks the beginning of many of the hatches and the fishing starts to fire up. Big numbers of fish can be caught, and while the average size may not match that of the lakes, there are still lots of really quality fish to be caught. All the more rewarding when you try something new and it all comes together! In this article, I’ll run you through two essential techniques and the gear you need to have a successful day in the river.

Dry Fly Fishing

What has amazed me, as it does every season, is the willingness of a Tasmanian trout to rise to the surface to take a fly. Nowhere else in the country are they keener to come to the top for a feed. In saying that though, you need to get the fly drifting drag free to get them convinced that it is something that they would like to eat. Rod selection is the first key to the scenario. Always try to fish as light as you are comfortable with as this is the best way to have your fly land softly and move through the water naturally. I like to use a few different rods for dry fly depending on the water I’m presented with. If it’s overgrown and there is no huge amount of room to cast. I’ll go with a 3wt or 4wt in a 9ft. These will present a fly beautifully if casting room is minimal. As the river opens up, a 2wt in a 10ft length is my go-to. The extra length gives you better control and I find the 2wt is almost unbeatable at landing a dry very delicately. While you can have a different reel and matching line for each of these rods, I just have the one Scientific Anglers VPT in 2wt and use that on each different rod. Under weighting a rod with a lighter line will also present a dry fly more naturally. My line has been spooled on a Lamson Speedster reel for the last few years and the lighter your reel the better your fishing will be. Heavy reels will get the job done but lack the touch of a lighter reel.

My leader setup is a progressive tapered leader about 15ft long. Another option is to use a shopbought tapered leader. Chop about two feet off the butt end before adding a micro ring to the thin end with a section of thin tippet. Tippet for either leader mentioned is a five-foot section of 0.10mm fluorocarbon. I know some anglers will ask why am I not using monofilament but the simple reason is I carry one spool of tippet to cover all techniques in my vest because I don’t like carrying too much gear! You’ll need a good selection of flies to catch every fish in the river. Some days you’ll get away with just using a couple because the fish are really on the chew. Other days will see multiple fly chances at each fish as you move through the water. I have a box full of CDC F-flies, Up wings, and plume tips in sizes 16-22, some caddis patterns in size 14-18, a few foam ants in size 16, and also some small hoppers in size 16.

Presenting a dry is all about how the cast lands and how the fly drifts. It needs to be soft and drag-free. Once you master those two components you’ll see loads of trout rising to eat your offering. There are a couple of general rules to follow to achieve this. Firstly, you’ll need to learn how to curve cast so that your leader lands with a curve and creates a drag-free drift. Secondly, you’ll need to be able to cast over each shoulder so your fly drifts drag-free. If you are moving up the left side of the river, your cast should always be over your left shoulder. As you move to the other side of the river, you need to work off your right shoulder. Always try to fish as short as possible as this is far easier to manage what your fly is doing. Most of the time I will only have a short section of fly line out the rod tip. The longer the cast the worse you drift is going to be. Practise wading quietly and smoothly rather than trying to cast from one side of the river to the other. A curve cast is an underpowered cast that makes your leader land with slack upstream of where your fly lands, giving it time to drift naturally downstream without interference from the leader or tippet on the water. The water you want to be fishing is the slower sections of the river. These could be a long glide or a small pocket created by a rock in a fast piece of river. These are general rules to follow to get that fly drifting in a way to fool the trout. Understanding them is key to the whole effective dry fly technique. Once you have mastered the foundation of this, you can adapt to different scenarios to get the job done. A good dry fly angler will catch plenty during a day fishing on a river, an amazing one will catch cricket scores through that very same piece of the river!

Tom Jarman works through a picturesque section of the South Esk River

Euro Nymphing

The rise of Euro Nymphing in Australia has come about from competition angling. Now I know competition angling is not everyone’s cup of tea, but if you love catching fish then it is a technique you should consider mastering. Euro nymphing coupled with effective dry fly fishing in Tasmania is without a doubt the best way to catch big numbers of fish out the rivers. When choosing a rod, again try to use the lightest you can. This will give you the best contact and feel while moving the nymphs through the water. I’ve used everything from 4wt 9ft rods to 3wt 10’6ft rods. If I had to pick one that is a good allrounder, it would be a 2wt 10ft. It is a nice length to fish with, very soft for landing fish of all sizes and has great contact for feeling even the slightest change in the drift. The line I use is a specific 0wt euro nymph line. Several brands make these and all of them are pretty much as good as the next. Spool the line on the lightest reel you can as this will feel so much better to fish with, I’ve been using a Lamson Liquid and it has been fantastic. The leader is a huge part of the setup and getting it right is key. Starting from the fly line, I like a rod length long section of 0.23mm brightly coloured monofilament. I’ve used bright orange, yellow and pink in the past. The important part is what you can see best and this is different for everyone. The leader is attached with a needle knot which passes through the tip of the fly line. This seamless connection passes through the guides

nymphing Rods

With fly fishing tactics constantly changing to meet the demands of the world’s most competitive environments, the rods used to master these specialized techniques must evolve too. Without compromise, every Douglas nymphing rod brings the angler the most advanced combinations of balance, control and sensitivity.

Light tips load effortlessly at short ranges to accurately place weighted fly rigs into the current and manage drifts with pinpoint accuracy. Douglas’ proprietary carbons and nano-resins transmit every bounce and tumble of the flies until the angler intuitively detects the strike.

effortlessly which is most important. To the end of my colour is a 30cm section of 0.22mm clear mono before the 50cm section of 0.20mm bi-colour indicator. On the end of my indicator is a two-millimetre micro ring to which I can attach my tippet.

My tippet can be 0.12mm or 0.10mm fluorocarbon depending on the size of the fish in the river. The tippet length is always depended on the water depth. As is whether or not I will use one or two nymphs at a time. For small, overgrown rivers, one nymph is all that you will need to catch plenty of fish. As a starting point try having the fly about 60cm from your micro ring. But again, this needs to chop and change depending on the water depth. For big open rivers, two nymphs are the go. Have your point fly and dropper about 50cm apart and chop and change the section between your dropper and micro ring depending on the water depth. The beauty of a micro ring is that your leader remains intact no matter how many times you change your tippet.

Contact is key with Euro nymphing and you will be amazed at how many more fish you catch when you get the tippet length and water depth equation right. Even small changes will sometimes make all the difference! Like I said with the dry fly fishing, this is the general foundation of euro nymphing and once you understand the overall technique you can then try different things. Sometimes on pressured bigger rivers, using a single nymph is a great option as it is has a more natural drift to fool a pressed trout. Fly selection is all about weight and size rather than having 50 different patterns in your fly box. Try and keep your selection down to about five of your favourite flies and have these in many different sizes, weights or the addition of a hot spot. For example, I use a pheasant tail nymph a lot (which is a must-have for Tasmanian rivers) but I tie them in sizes 14 through to 20, I have them on tungsten beads from sizes 2mm through to 4mm. Some are just plain and others have a hot orange collar or butt on them. This is just one pattern but I probably have 60-70 of them in different variations. As a starting point I would recommend having a pheasant tail pattern, a hares ear pattern, a caddis pattern, a claret nymph and a tag nymph pattern in the weights and variations mentioned.

Euro nymphing is always done working upstream and choosing the right water is key. You’ll want a section of river with a bit of pace in it. That’s why mastering both dry fly and the Euro nymph techniques will see you be able to fish every inch of the river effectively. Fast water is Euro nymph water and the slacker water is the spot to work a dry. Again only fish short as you will have the best contact with your fly. With a single light nymph, usually 2mm - 3mm bead size you can use a conventional style cast to present the fly where you want it. With heavier presentations, you’ll need to water cast your flies as it’s pretty much impossible to get them where you want them any other way effectively. Once the fly lands, you then need to strip with your line hand to get in contact with the fly but not pull the fly, let the water move the nymph. Follow the fly with your rod tip as it drifts down the river and strip the line to keep in touch. Stripping the line and keeping the rod parallel to the water will give you far better contact rather than lifting the rod to stay in touch. Once the fly is passed you, it’s time to recast and repeat the process. Cover every likely spot with a few casts as you move up the river. A good way to do this is to grid the water. Take a mental note of where your first cast landed, and then make each cast that length but slightly further across the river, working to the other side. Once you reach the other side, wade back across the river and up to where your first cast landed and repeat the process.

There’s nothing that compares to spending a successful day on a river in my opinion. Using these two techniques will hopefully see you come to that same conclusion fooling many of Tasmania’s fantastic trout along the way!

Covering a section of the Hellyer River with nymphs